The Fire Next Time

This essay is far longer and contains a more complex revelation of Baldwin’s thoughts and feelings on racial discrimination. Like a sermon, this essay contains three rhetorical parts: a statement of the problem at hand, using Baldwin’s stories from growing up in Harlem to provide examples that stand in for verses of scripture; an elaboration on the problem or a discussion of a possible solution, in the form of radical Islam; and a resolution, or a prescription for the congregations’ behavior, regarding the problem presented at the opening of the sermon.

Baldwin describes his early life, in which there were only two options for a young Black man in Harlem: the church or street life. The street life offered prostitution, drinking and drug addiction, gambling, and plenty of desperation and despair. The church, for a time, seemed to offer a much brighter opportunity. He experienced a religious conversion, at a church to which his father did not belong and where his father also did not preach.

As a 14-year-old preacher, Baldwin learned how to perform for an audience. He was rewarded at home, where his difficult relationship with his overbearing father became easier, and he was rewarded amongst his community as a holy, youthful, and moral example.