The task of the writer
Baldwin argues that the writer must be committed to uncovering the truth about himself and other people. For him, writing is "a devotion to the human being, his freedom and fulfillment." We see Baldwin's attitudes toward writing mostly clearly in "Everybody's Protest Novel" and "Many Thousands Gone" when he is criticizing other writers for creating stereotypes with their characters and taking the easy way out. Baldwin is against this approach. He writes "part of the business of the writer—as I see it—is to examine attitudes, to go beneath the surface, to tap the source." We see this approach across all of the essays here. He sets out to examine the meaning of race in America and to do this he turns to history, unconscious attitudes, and even his own family life and psychology.
Embracing complexity
Another important them for Baldwin is embracing the contradictions, complexities, and paradoxes in life. The problem with modern society, he argues, is that it is always trying to reduce people to something simple, to make them little more than cogs in the machine. It reduces people and things to the simplest common denominator. The goal of literature, by contrast, is to reveal the complexities hidden under the surface. The only way to improve the world is to accept the contradictions and bring them into the light.
History, society, and the individual
For Baldwin, the individual cannot be understood without grasping their historical and social context. We see this in the essay "Notes of a Native Son," where he brings together his own family history, the history of the New York neighborhood Harlem, the conditions in America during World War II, and his own mental state. All of these aspects help create the individual, Baldwin argues. He is against what he describes as the American illusion that history and context do not matter and people should simply be seen as individuals. Similarly, in the essays written from Europe, Baldwin critiques American students and tourists who are completely unaware of how America's dominant position after WWII affects how locals see them.
Family relationships
The relationship Baldwin had with his father was a complicated one. Baldwin admits that his father had trouble connecting with his children. Baldwin remembers how his father tried to be more accessible to his children but that his children were too scared to get close to him and then the father would get even angrier, becoming violent at times. Instead of criticizing his father for his behavior, Baldwin eventually tries to understand him and the reason why he acted this way. Baldwin admits that his father’s behavior was most likely the result of his experiences as a black man in America. Baldwin sees a link between the rage that made his father emotionally unstable and the rage that exists within him. Yet Baldwin is also determined to act and live differently than his father did and not let the rage get the better of him.
Western civilization
Baldwin frequently describes the relationship of African Americans to Western civilization. Though he knows Shakespeare, Bach, Rembrandt, and other important figures in Western literature, music, and painting, as a black man the way he approaches these works is different. Because his ancestors were enslaved, removed from their culture, and brought to the American continent, he is both inside and outside of Western civilization. He describes himself as a "bastard of the West." Even the way he looks at a French cathedral or the Empire State Building is different than the way a white European or American looks at them: "These were not really my creations, they did not contain my history."
Birthright and inheritance
Baldwin separates the idea of birthright from that of inheritance. Inheritance is specific and particular. In Baldwin's case, this is his inheritance as a black man in America. Birthright, in contrast, is shared and universal; it connects him to all people. As we see throughout the essays, Baldwin starts from his specific inheritance (his family history, experiences with racism, way of looking at the world) to reach his shared humanity. Inheritance and birthright are separate but connected; one has to start from the specific to reach the universal.
Black and white
One cannot understand America without understanding race. Yet this does not only mean looking at the experiences of African Americans, though this is crucial. Baldwin argues that the racial system in America (the history of slavery, segregation, and so on) has also shaped what it means to be white in the country. Racism stems from the false attempt to act as if one can return to an innocent world before slavery and ignore the consequences of history. Yet Baldwin shows in these essays that the fate of both black and white Americans depends on acknowledging how interconnected their histories are. The future of the country depends on this.
