“the Fire Next Time�? by James Baldwin Essay Example

The text under analysis is taken from the book “The Fire Next Time” by James Baldwin. It is a dedicatory letter to his nephew and namesake James, entitled in short "On the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation." Baldwin advises his nephew on how to deal with the racist world in which he was born. In spite the horrors of America, Baldwin believed the Negro must take the high road and show whites, in their ignorance and innocence, how to live the good life, how to love.
The text is in the public style, particularly it is an essay (because the author tries to convince the reader to accept his point of view). The author convinces his point of view not through logical argumentation but through emotional appeal as well. That’s why he chooses the form of an open letter (an open letter is addressed to a specific person but published for a wider readership). By doing this he makes his essay highly emotional. Это заставляет читателя поверить автору. For the same purpose he adds personal details. For example, “Well, you were born, here you came, something like fourteen years ago: and though your father and mother and grandmother, looking about the streets through which they were carrying you, staring at the walls into which they brought you, had every reason to be heavyhearted, yet they were not. For here you were, Big James, named for me—you were a big baby, I was not—here you were: to be loved.”
To make the letter more realistic, the autor uses
-Expressions of direct address: ‘Dear James, James’
-colloquial phrases: ‘Please try to remember, try to imagine, don’t be afraid, you know…’
But at the same time the author should convince the reader, that’s why the author uses
Parallelism: "Let him curse and I see a cellar" "Let him curse and I remember him..."

‘Where you could go and what you can see’ ‘Where you could live and whom you could marry’
Irony proves the authors point of