Love and Fear in The Fire Next Time Essay

Love and Fear in The Fire Next Time

The popular adage Love conquers all is a phrase that most have heard and/or have stated for the majority of their lives. In his autobiographical text The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin not only shines a light on the relationship between blacks and whites, but, essentially refuted this particular statement in regards to how society actually functions.

The Fire Next Time had been published during a time of great chaos in the United States of America. A civil rights revolution was sweeping the country. Many of the institutions of American life were being challenged, including religion. In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to sit in the Negro section of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Dr. Martin Luther King transformed a racial protest into a massive resistance movement in the late 1950s. In the early 1960s, the sit-in tactic was launched in Greensboro, North Carolina, when black college students insisted on service at a local lunch counter. Freedom Riders were sent to the South in 1961 by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to test and break down segregation laws. In a few short years, there would even be a sexual revolution, as well as a trend toward both peace and love. For the time being, however, hatred and misunderstanding were rampant.

James Baldwin realized the importance of these events and movements, and he answered them with The Fire Next Time. At the particular point in time in which this text had been published, Baldwin, like numerous other great thinkers of his time, was very much aware that a great change was needed to overcome the social turmoil that was rampant in the country at the time. Specifically, Baldwin believed that a shift from fear/hatred to love was a great necessity. Baldwin brilliantly postulates the idea in his text that love, rather than fear, will liberate society. To truly liberate society, one must discover his/her individual and personal identity by learning to love.

The primary change that James Baldwin describes in the text is religion and how it teaches hate for others, and love for those who believe. The importance Baldwin believes is the change from those beliefs taught by religion to a new acceptance of both black and white races.

In The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin describes fear to be nothing more than simple ignorance, and love is described as being knowledge. He joined the congressional church due to his fear.

While growing up in Harlem, Baldwin was fearful to become involved with his friends who engaged in such debauchers acts, such as drinking and smoking.To avoid such situations, Baldwin was driven into the church because he supposed that God and safety were synonymous(Baldwin 16). Timidity blinded him to believe that following God's words shielded him from the evils of society.

Baldwins idea of change had originated from these intense religious beliefs. This particular change was a personal change for Baldwin himself. Baldwin was confused and mesmerized by the teachings of religion. He so enjoyed and believed in the blind faith, that he even resorted to taking up preaching for a brief period of time. He wrote intense sermons and became enthralled in his church and beliefs. While preaching, Baldwin had begun to both question and examine the life in which he lived.

Due, in no small part, to the love that he felt for his church, Baldwin studied the Bible, only to realize that it was strictly about the teachings of White people.He thought that going to the church would protect him, and shield him against what he feared. Instead of freeing the community from discrimination between Blacks and Whites,the Bible supported the existence of racial barriers by teaching specifically how one should behave. Realizing the hypocrisy involved with Christianity, Baldwin rapidly broke away from the congressional church, to search for his own way of liberating the society.

Despite this bad experience in the church, Baldwin never forgot the positive elements that exist with religion. Baldwin was very much aware of the fact that, for centuries, Christians had kept the African-American community down. However much he may revile the historical role of Christianity in the enslavement of black people, The Fire Next Time attests that Baldwin has never forgotten the compensatory values of his adolescent religious experience (Kinnamon).

Baldwin emphasizes that liberation is love, and that love is more important than color(Baldwin 71). Baldwin states that fear creates the need for power. The Nation of Islam was fearful of the Whitesdomination over the Black community.Fear had always dominated the minds of black people.

This fear resulted in Elijah Muhammed to strive for the power to liberate the community. As a reaction to this, the Black Muslims created the black god offering the doctrine of the nation of Islam (Pakrasi 61).The Nation of Islam wanted absolute control of the White society. Baldwin was offered the opportunity to become quite an influential figure in the Nation of Islam movement. However, he declined Elijah Muhammed's offer. He was totally opposed to the belief that the movement held.

Baldwin states that, love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and we know we cannot live within(Baldwin 95). Whites cannot love because they fear to be judged by those who are not white. Because Blacks are stereotyped to be uncivilized, whites have the private fears to be projected onto the Negro(Baldwin 96).Fear only promotes further racism, and the labyrinth of attitudes. He states that the problem with racial oppression will never be resolved, unless the white man relinquishes his power.

Baldwin states that mirrors can only lie, due to the fact that they only reflect the surface of people instead of revealing the deep truth. The white people fear to see the reality, that Blacks might bring new life to the Western achievements and transform them (Baldwin 94).Whites are terrified of giving up the power they have.Until this fear of sharing the superiority disappears, love shall never arise.

Baldwin declares that Blacks must reveal their true identity to achieve true liberation. However, this task is merely impossible because Blacks are in an endless struggle to achieve and reveal and confirm a human identity(Baldwin 98). He states that policies and laws in the past have caused fear by humiliation and torture(Baldwin 98). Blacks only feed into the myth that White men are more superior by being dependent on Whites.Baldwin states that Blacks, too, must achieve authority(Baldwin 99)to play and reveal more about America(Baldwin 101), to be fairly recognized in society.

Baldwin was very much aware of the fact that the acquisition of power would have to play a pivotal role if blacks were to achieve full civil rights. Baldwin writes, The only thing white people have that black people need, or should want, is power--and no one holds power forever (Baldwin 96). He recognizes that whites would be reluctant to relinquish the power they had over blacks. The power of the white world is threatened whenever a black man refuses to accept the white world's definitions. So every attempt is made to cut that black man down--not only was made yesterday but is made today (Baldwin 69).

Baldwin postulates throughout the text the idea that for blacks to be successful in the world, they must learn to accept whites, regardless of the fact that, more likely than not, whites will absolutely refuse to accept or acknowledge blacks. Despite the fact that Baldwin does in fact have these thoughts, he is not necessarily altogether anti white. He understands that one day in this world whites and blacks will have to come together and live as one in order to be successful as a whole. He even states in the text that In short we, the black and white deeply need each other here if we are really to become a nation-if we are really, that is, to achieve our identity, our maturity, as men and women (Baldwin)

In The Fire Next Time, Baldwin even goes so far as to offer his point of view of what it means to be black. According to Baldwin, being black is completely unchangeable. It is a burden for a young person to carry. Being black means that one is intended for a particular life, a life with several disappointing outcomes. Various portions of this text portray this idea rather perfectly: You were born where you were born, and faced the future that you faced simply because you were black, and for no other legitimate reason (Baldwin).

This essentially demonstrates that Baldwin believes that being black means that you are stuck in one type of life with no way out. He even goes so far as to state that You were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity, and in as many ways as possible, that you were a worthless human being (Baldwin). For a man to write this about his race, it makes the reader really comprehend what he is feeling, and the conviction that he feels it with.

Yet another issue that Baldwin entertains in the text is exactly what kind of work that a black man could do, at that particular point in time. Baldwin explains how their options are limited to the lower class, simply for the mere fact of the color of their skin. In the text, Baldwin goes on to explain how a young black man has to find a gimmick to get into for work. Something that he can do exemplary in. Something that will help him make it in a predominately white world. He mentions numerous lower class jobs, such as prize fighting, due to the fact that these are amongst the very few jobs that are open to those of the black persuasion.