Analysis Of The Fire Next Time By James Baldwin

“The Fire Next Time” by James Baldwin, is a calling to the readers, and let them know it is time to stop the United States racial insanity. In the first part of the essay from “The Fire Next Time” by James Baldwin, he is telling his nephew we need to love the white people in order to really save the black’s freedom, because black and white people are essentially are connected in some ways. Baldwin explains to his nephew that white people does not truly know who they are themselves or other race (black), because they are protecting themselves from the reality, the knowledge and the love that settled identities fixed in racial authority. He teaches his nephew who is also named James, to use the love that had helped him to survive so far of the society, and share them with the white people, to save those people,

and prevent discrimination to continue in the society. The love is given by the family, and with the love that he gets, he will be able to continue living in the racist United State, where white people sees them as worthless human beings.
Baldwin sort of blames the reason why there’s discrimination in the United States was because of the white’s believe in Christianity.

He consider the white people’s Christianity are directing them the wrong way of love, and preventing them the kind of love where everyone is equal and accepted. Also Baldwin talked about the white’s strong faith with Christianity as a prevention of seeing the reality, and kept them blinded from facing what is “real” love. Yet, Baldwin expect the blacks to live their live base of loving one another, according to Baldwin real love is not something that was based from the black American Christianity. In the second part of the essay, he put more effort into talking about how the Nation of Islam movement led by Elijah Muhammad, is disparaging for the black Americans, and the country. Even though a lot of the points black Muslims made were true, but their principles that was stated only confirms the racial discrimination is worse than it is. To Baldwin, any kind of faith in anything will only be the destruction of real love. To him, true freedom cannot happen when people are living accordingly with the concept of color, and

status.
Baldwin also tells the reader that most white Americans are afraid of losing their status, and they try hard day by day to maintain their superior position, which is why they continue to view African Americans are less than a human beings. While sustaining their positions, they continue to destroy lives of the innocent, and using their greediness of being the “greater” ones to protect themselves from know what they had been doing is wrong, and immoral. Baldwin warns his nephew that to help these white people who are so lost into being the greater one, the younger James must help them to learn who they really are through love, using love to convey them that being the “greater” one is not actually that good, and use love to tear down the wall they had with racial discrimination. With that, the whites will eventually learn to face the reality, which both blacks and whites are the same, and from that both ethnicity can free them from racial perception. “Life is the small beacon in that terrifying darkness from which we come and to which we shall return” from this, Baldwin understands that every human must live their live fully, and bravely, from that they can discover the potentials of life and its challenges. Even though, the challenges the individual will face are difficult, but the experiences the individual gains are far more better than the hardship they had to endurance through the obstacles.