Weekly Context Analysis on Baldwin\'s Letter to His Nephew and Kevin Young’s Blacker than Thou PDF

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Summary

James Baldwin’s style of writing is known for the passion and rhythmic poetic style it uses. The letter to his nephew appearing at the beginning of his book, The Fire Next Time is an exhibit of his unmatched skillful use of rhetorical devices. In the letter Baldwin seeks to bring his nephew to the r...

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Shen 1 Peijie Shen Major 20th Century Writers 19th September 2017 CT: Baldwin’s Letter to His Nephew and Kevin Young’s Blacker than Thou James Baldwin’s style of writing is known for the passion and rhythmic poetic style it uses. The letter to his nephew appearing at the beginning of his book, The Fire Next Time is an exhibit of his unmatched skillful use of rhetorical devices. In the letter Baldwin seeks to bring his nephew to the realization of what awaits him in the country of his birth and how his countrymen, white people, see him, or don’t for that matter, as a black man in America. The letter is filled with rhetoric and paradox as Baldwin strives to paint an image of America in the mind of a young Africa American man. Take for example his ending of the letter, “you know and I know that the country is celebrating one hundred years of freedom one hundred years too early. We cannot be free until they are free.” Like Baldwin’s letter, Kevin Young’s essay in the Fire this Time, titled Blacker than Thou, uses the same poetic sensibility to criticize the status quo. While Baldwin uses his nephew to make his point, Young uses a white woman who pretended to be black to express his view. Both writers use third parties to drive their point home. There is also a lot of repetition in the language used in both essays. Baldwin writes, “You must accept them and accept them with love” (9), and Young writes “I coughed black and sneezed black, and ate black too”. Repetition as a tool of writing is used to emphasize a point. Baldwin is emphasizing, albeit in an ironical fashion, the value of acceptance. Young is emphasizing his blackness which is consistent with his essay title Blacker than Thou....