The Fire Next Time: An Evaluation Sequoia Root Cipes College

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

The history of the United States from the eyes of the "American Negro," to use the now-dated literary term, is both bleak and cruel. A country of racial intolerance and hostility is, according to the literary notions of James Baldwin, unhealthy for both the oppressor and the oppressed. In his nonfiction argument The Fire Next Time, among other works, Baldwin, enraged at the ongoing racial stalemate in the mid-twentieth century United States, explores the psychological impact of institutionalized racism and segregation in relation to American identity.

The African-American “problem” was as much of an identity crisis for America as it was a wholly American issue, forcing the nation to reflect not only on its history as a slave-driven economy, but also on its founding principles of equality and freedom. In The Fire Next Time, Baldwin argues that the prevalent American standard, which dictated the country for hundreds of years, needed a desperate reformation of character, morals, and justice if order and national stability were to be preserved throughout racial integration: “I am far from convinced that being released from...