What Is The Theme Of My Dungeon Shook By James Baldwin

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James Baldwin’s “My Dungeon Shook” is a significant letter written to his nephew also named James, to warn him of the discrimination he will encounter living in America. Although he has written this letter to his nephew, it’s for a greater audience, it is for whites that do not see the expense of their selfishness and deem themselves innocent although causing pain to millions of lives. Although it is not completely their fault because they have grown up to believe their superiority towards blacks, they must realize their horrid ways and confront their “innocence”. Baldwin, an African American writer, composes this letter on the one-hundredth anniversary of the emancipation, making it obvious he is looking to leave more than just a warning to his nephew. This letter seeks to warn a young African American child of the struggles he will deal solely because he is black and no other reason, and must not allow the hate of the “innocent” to phase him. Baldwin starts his letter by illustrating the struggles that his nephew’s father went through and how terrible his life was. He wants readers to comprehend what this country has done to his brother and because …show more content…

He then compares the entire situation and conditions to ones that Charles Dickens described more than 100 years ago in the London. The text continues with Baldwin warning his nephew about the struggle he’s going to endure for just being born black and nothing else. Warning him that this country will set him up for failure and will control where he can go, what he can do, and how he can do it through the powers of oppression. He supports that with advice stating, “We have not stopped trembling yet, but if we had not loved each other none of us would have survived.” Meaning that the only way he will survive is with loving and supporting ones that are facing the same

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