Essay about The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

To build a fire is a short story written by Jack London. It is a story about an individual’s choice. The main character’s self-centeredness overcomes him, as he tries to survive the wintery weather in his travel in the Yukon Trail. He made a choice of ignoring the weather warnings, which evidenced danger in his journey. There were warnings like the absence of fellow travelers due to the cold season, but his egoism made him still embark on the journey alone, despite the warnings. The protagonist’s pride and arrogance leads to a regrettable outcome, as it leads to his downfall. The protagonist made the wrong choices because of his egotism, and arrogance and they led to his downfall. He defied nature due to his lack of logical judgment, and

In the beginning chapters of the book, we get a glimpse of the typical home and community of an African American during segregation. Many Africans Americans were too adjusted to the way of living, that they felt

One of the most powerful messages encountered in the book is the importance of valuing yourself as a black being in a predominantly white and racially divided society. Coates explains how despite the fact that this nation has been built on the bones and bloodshed of blacks, the black body has lost almost all

essential to the reading of the narrator’s struggle with his own identity and how the black

According to Frederick Douglass, “it was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass. It was a most terrible spectacle. I wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I beheld it (p.4).” Frederick Douglass and Toni Morrison literatures examine the stigma of slavery, and the perceptions of its dangers. They illustrate what life was like and the mental as well social impact it had on enslaved African-Americans and their life after gaining freedom. Richard Wright convinces his audience in Black Boy that he was tired of the limitations and outcries in the South “I was not leaving the South to forget the South, but so that some day I might understand it, might come to know what its rigors had done to me, its children (284).” Alice Walker obtains her readers attention by transforming young women into their own characters with a voice using spiritual guidance. In Native Son, Bigger has achieved is lost after being apprehended and brought into captivity, as he transitions back into silence and passivity and begins to recover only in his final confrontation, whereas Douglass in the same prevailing convention, only heals after the regaining of his freedom. Through these literatures, and many others, African-Americans find multiple ways to alleviate and recover from the intensity of undesired bondage and bigotry.

In James Baldwin’s book The Fire Next Time, is composed of two essays, My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation" and "Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind.” These two essays both have a very similar approach taken to them as they are both letters and both have very similar core meanings. These meanings or ideas Baldwin writes about vary from slightly but focus around the idea of race relations in the United States and overcoming them. These messages Baldwin convey’s had great meaning and influence when he first published his book and they still do today, in a society that is more divided than ever before.

black man fights against, constantly trying to identify himself. At the same time, black men have found approaches to detach from this narrow minded image that society has created for them including; sports, education and family. The black male struggles to gain his own identity because there is already a firm image created for them that the white man visualizes the black male and the expectations of the black male. However, it isn’t just the society that plays a role in the development of the black males identity, there is also the consideration of how black males are brought up or raised in their current lifestyle situations. For example, athletes,

In the book, The Fire Next Time James Baldwin the author and narrator of the book writes about his childhood growing up in Harlem and what he witnessed and learned as he grew up. When Baldwin was fourteen he saw Harlem in a completely different way. He saw that the terrible influence of the streets were slowly trying to creep up to him and take him over. The people around him helped with these influences like his father who told him that he was heading down that road as well just like his friends. The only people who blocked off these influences were the good church going people and the girls who saw the influence of the streets and they wanted to be god 's decoy by saving the souls of the boys through marriage. The influence of the streets is one of the ways it could have shaped Baldwin 's identity. It could have shaped it for the worst if he had been completely succumb to it.

because through his first person narrative, the reader is drawn to his sensitive nature, his

the role of a black boy. He became a black boy for the sole purpose of survival,

There are a multitude of aspects that lend themselves to the setting of any story and if left underdeveloped the setting will feel like a mere passing stranger. In the short story “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, if the author hadn’t devoted so much of the text and placed as much emphasis on the aspects of setting such as place, weather, and atmosphere there would be no story to be told. From the first to the last sentence of the story London forces the reader to submerge themselves in the frigid Yukon and walk alongside the freezing protagonist and his canine companion. For instance, in the opening line of the story London sets the overall setting and tone for the reader by illustrating, “Day had broken cold and gray, exceedingly cold and gray” (London 127).

The story, for the most part, centers upon an African-American family, their dreams for the future and an insurance check coming in for death of the eldest man. Stirring into the mix later is the hugely oppressive,

“To Build a Fire” is a short story written by Jack London. It is viewed as a masterpiece of naturalist fiction. “To Build a Fire” features a miner who is traveling to the Yukon Territory with a dog as his companion. The miner is the protagonist and the dog companion is called the foil. The dog plays off of the traits of the protagonist. “The central motif of “To Build a Fire” concerns the struggle of man versus nature.” (Short Story Criticism) The most argued point in the short story is the reason of the protagonist death. “Some critics believe that it was his lack of intuition and imagination that lead to his death, while others say that he dies because of panic.” (Short Story Criticism) The protagonist in “To Build a Fire” struggles in

At the turn of the 20th century a new wave of writing and writing styles was created.

The statement made by Coates is very confusing and paradoxical, because an African American and a black man should be the same? And how can a