t part of the book because it shows the reader that the author even though he has been suppressed by whites understands that one day we have to live in unity. What does being black mean? According to Baldwin, being black is 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. Part of his book portrays this idea perfectly. "You were born where you were born and faced the future that you faced because you were black and for no other reason." This shows that Baldwin believes that being black means that you are stuck in one type of life with no way out. This way of life is a brutal one as well. Baldwin brings up many examples of this in the different essays that you read. One line he writes hits you in the chest and makes you step back from the book and think for a second. "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". For a man to write this about his race makes you really understand what he is feeling and the power that he feels it with. Baldwin describes his own life growing up in Harlem. "The wages of sin were visible everywhere, in every wine stained and urine-splashed hallway, in every clanging ambulance bell, in every scar on the faces of the pimps and their whores, in every helpless little newborn baby being brought into danger…" This is something that you can not be exposed to in any other type of writing besides Baldwin's for the mere fact that his writing is in the form of storytelling and he has the ability to paint a clear picture with this story telling. And you are truly able to see the life that one is exposed to in the slums of Harlem....
