Crystal Hines
Soc 11
Dr. Wright
May 7, 2012
The Fire Next Time I am so happy that Dr.Wright assigned this book to read because it did (as she promised) changed my outlook on the society around me. Although it wasn’t the easiest read through all of Baldwin’s unconventional writing styles, I still managed to learn a great deal about myself and the world around me. I am sure there are many reasons for Baldwin to write an enlightening book such as this, but I believe that James Baldwin’s main purpose for writing The Fire Next Time was to make all people aware to true position and role of the black American in America. I believe his motives also included making his own racial community aware of how white America feels about them, and motivating blacks to spring into action to evoke change. James Baldwin also makes aware that blacks’ place and situation in America is by no means a mistake, and in fact crafted strategic mechanism to hold African Americans back productively as well as evolutionarily in the American world. Through Baldwin’s accounts with different races throughout his life Baldwin also gives a first hand account of the experiences blacks typically go through living in America. Reading Baldwin’s book The Fire Next Time was definitely a pleasure to read. Throughout the book as Baldwin discussed his life and time as a black man to have gone into the church as a minister, and later become a writer and activists, it was needless to say that I learned a number of things. Some of which I feel is even hard to relay without directly quoting Mr. Baldwin directly for two pages then saying, “you get it”? Some of the most interesting thing that I learned included the Islamic frame of thinking. For many years as girl growing up with only one Muslim man in my life, I didn’t know very much about the religion or their beliefs, I thought that they all believed that