An issue that the author brings up in the book is the work that a black man can do. He discusses how their options are limited to the lower class for the mere fact that they are black. You learn that his father was a preacher, and that James Baldwin himself is a preacher. In one of the essays he explains how a young black man has to find a "gimmick" to get into for work. Something that he can do well that will help him make it in a white world. He mentions many lower class jobs like Prize fighting since these are the only ones open to blacks. James states the reason why he moved toward religion is that it gave him a sense of home, and a place to express himself. But on the contrary religion gave him no peace. After reading about a black man's options for work you learn how this is just another huge mountain that they have to climb in their lives because of the fact that they are black. The Fire Next Time is a book that teaches one about the hidden world that no one wants to learn about- the poor slums of the city. Baldwin teaches the reader about it by creating a picture of what he had to go through just because he was black. Some authors may have held back in some of the teaching by not being as crude in their description but Baldwin did not. At points I wish that he wasn't so graphic in his descriptions but looking back on the book as a whole it was a much better book then if he had left things out. After getting through this book you really understand what the black man had ...
