TERM PAPER

MONSOON SESSION
CENTRE FOR POLITICAL STUDIES,
JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY

BOOK REVIEW: “THE FIRE NEXT TIME”

AUTHOR: JAMES BALDWIN
FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1963 IN THE USA BY DIAL PRESS AND LATER IN
1964 BY PENGUIN BOOKS IN BRITAIN

KAMAL RATHORE
PO527- THEORIES OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
DR. PAPIA SENGUPTA
24TH DECEMBER 2022
 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Baldwin was a novelist, playwright, poet, and essayist who emerged as the
spokesman of the civil rights movement. He is considered a great author because of
his ability to eloquently describe7 what it was like to be Black in American society.
Born on August 1924 in Harlem New York, USA. He was a Pentecostal preacher who
followed Christianity ardently which also reflects in his works. His writing features
themes on race, sexuality, class, and self-identity, often framed through a religious
lens as his religion was very close to him and played a big role in his life. His other
famous works include ‘Go tell it on the mountains’ (1953), ‘Giovanni’s room’ (1956),
and ‘Another Country’ (1962). He also wrote various plays such as ‘The Amen Corner’
(1955) and ‘Blues of Mister Charlie’ (1964) to name a few. His writings had an
enormous impact on American society and reflected the times and remains of a vital
period of history. Baldwin is also considered as the most important moral crusade of
the late twentieth century. He died from stomach cancer on November 30 th, 1987, in
France.
The Fire Next Time is a non-fiction book that was written in a time of civil rights
marches and extreme violence against blacks who sought to assert their civil and
human rights in a society that struggled and continues to struggle today, with a legacy
of slavery, racism, and white supremacy. The book came out at a crucial juncture of
history when America was celebrating the 100th anniversary of the signing of
Emancipation which abolished slavery and freed enslaved African American people.
The Brown Vs Board of Education Supreme Court decision in 1954 moved the Blacks
and some conscious whites toward social change. Despite these legislations, there was
persistent discrimination and subjugation of the Black community. Therefore, they
started to fight for changes in the American laws and institutions that maintained racial
segregation in public spaces through sit-in protests and marches. This book acted as
fuel and fodder for the civil rights movement in America. Let’s take a closer look at
this thought-provoking and brutally honest observation of America and its painful
history of racism.

The Fire Next Time provides a collection of essays on his experience of segregation
and social stratification in Harlem, New York. The book advocates racial harmony
which can be achieved through love and mutual respect in the place of violence and
counter-repression. The title of the book has been taken from an old African American
spiritual song ‘Mary Don’t You Weep’ and references a title within the song God gave
Noah a rainbow sign, no more water the fire next time. The title suggests that instead
of humanity’s mishaps being punished by God with a flood, the next time god will use
fire to teach a lesson to humanity for their continual indulgence in evils that creates an
imbalance in society. The book contains two essays ‘My Dungeon Shook’ and the
other ‘Down at the cross’ both written in letter form. The former is for his nephew
which symbolizes his family, and the latter is for all the people of America.

The first letter is an expression of the author’s love and compassion toward his
nephew who is very similar to him. He explains that he is writing this letter to warn
and guide his nephew about the white American world which has contributed to the
emotional and spiritual destruction of both Black and White men which can also
destroy him. Baldwin urges his nephew not to think that there is any reason for him to
strive to be accepted by white people. Rather, he should find a way to accept them and
do so with love and respect. Baldwin writes this open letter to challenge the ignorant
white people who believe that black people are inferior and, in this letter, accuse these
people believe in history that they do not even understand. He tells him that if white
people ever commit to the task of eradicating inequality, they will be risking the loss
of their identity as they know it. He also says that if integration is ever to be successful
it will mean that these black people must force these white people to see themselves as
they are. Finally, he contends that in order to make black people free, the white also
must free themselves.

The second essay is a letter containing Baldwin’s religious experiences and feelings.
This letter discusses Christianity’s negative impact on the black community and his
journey from being a teen pastor to complete withdrawal from the church because it
felt like a repression of his entire human experience. Baldwin then describes his
supper with Elijah Mohammad (founder of Nation of Islam, a radical sect of the
Muslim faith founded in the 1960s and which came to socio-political prominence in
the mid-late part of that decade) during which Elijah educated Baldwin on the Nation
of Islam in the hopes of persuading him to join. In this section, Baldwin explains how
Black people created a black God to avoid the oppression of the white God that
Christianity has imposed on black people. He advocated love, he convinces us there is
always a way back if we are in a condition of losing identity like he did when he
turned down an appeal to join the nation of Islam when he met Elijah and his
followers because he believes in what he wants to believe not what has been told by
others. Again, at the end of his letter, he appeals that all people need to come together
as lovers, and it is only through this way that the country can establish itself as united
and can change itself (the similar kind of appeal he made in the first letter).
I found this book genuinely amazing, and it is clear how extraordinary Baldwin is in
describing his beautiful thoughts about justice that black people should get not just
because they are black but because they are human too. And I am astounded by his
portrayal and ability to make the reader feel what he was going through as a black man
in America. This work is so intriguing because of the author's ability to express
desperation, passion, melancholy, and optimism in his writing. One of the most
important things that I took from this book is that white people see themselves in
opposition to black people which should not be the case. And racism is not a black
people’s issue, but it is a white people’s issue as Baldwin wrote in the book “white
people are who believe that black people are inferior”.

This work is also important because it does not advocate external interference to
reform society but from within the society, by the individuals themselves through the
process of awareness and self-evaluation. Further, I would like to appreciate the author
for providing love and compassion as the central place in his book. He thought of love
as the liberating force or the agent of change at a delicate time when the use of means
other than love such as retaliation and counter-repression can make the situation worse.
It highlights the maturity and farsightedness of the author. In the last, I think this book
has both microcosmic and macrocosmic implications. On the one hand, it showed the
author’s personal relationships with his family members, and on the other hand, it
made the readers aware of the larger issues of the world such as the shallowness of
religions, experience of being a black in a white nation, showing ways to achieve
racial harmony, and so on.

However, I found Baldwin’s writing style very complex with so many complicated
metaphors which do make it quite dense. For example, he uses metaphors like
“innocent country” which actually means ‘America’, “the city of destruction” which
refers to an era when his nephew was born, and “innocents” which means ‘the
common readers’ who are reading this book. Thus, the reader needs to delve deeper
into the story or do some additional research to comprehend it fully. Another thing that
I found problematic is the tone of anger that ebbs and flows throughout the book. This
powerful tone of anger made me suspicious of the author’s preaching of love and
respect toward fellow citizens, especially the whites. So, it makes me wonder whether
the author genuinely believes in what he is saying. Nevertheless, I would say, it was
worth reading. The author was able to get into the matter and express his views and
experience fully through the book.

To sum up, I would like to say that the book justified both its subject matter and its
title. The book beautifully highlighted the white supremacy and systematic racism
present in American society. Although written in the tone of anger, it represents the
hope for a better society free from any form of subjugation guided by the philosophy
of love and mutual respect. I would recommend this book to everyone who wants to
understand what it is like to be in the shoes of black people and makes us believe that
racism should not exist in this world.

References-
Baldwin, James, 1924-1987 author. The Fire Next Time. New York: Dial Press, 1963.