In order to fully understand James Baldwin’s argument in the “My Dungeon Shook: A Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation”, you have to understand his past as well as the amount of prejudice he has encountered throughout his life. Baldwin has been exposed to violence from a young age; at ten he was beaten up by the police as well as abused by his stepfather. His childhood alone consisted of struggling to survive and attempting to ignore the racial slurs thrown at him in school. In order to cope with his demons, Baldwin turned to religion. He even became a junior Minister but at age 17 he began to view Christianity differently. He accused it of “reinforcing the system of American slavery” by “delaying salvation until a promised afterlife.” He believed that it gave people false hope in the future when they should be taking steps to better their lives in the present. As he entered his teenage years he realized he was gay and could no longer see himself in the United States. He moved to Paris where he believed he would no longer be seen as “merely a Negro writer”. Baldwin then wrote many progressive essays, some the size of books, dealing with racial as well as social issues.

Baldwin’s letter is an attempt at conveying his pain to not just his nephew James, but to everyone. I only call it an “attempt” because not everyone will be able to fully grasp Baldwin’s point. Although he believes that not all hope in mankind is lost, he is well aware of the pain that has been inflicted on Blacks. He makes his point through a letter to his nephew because he is aware of the sentiment people possess for their close ones. While reading the letter, it is hard not to be reminded of the people you love. He talks about the tears that he sees his brother “shed invisibly today.” Baldwin justifies the cruel world he has encountered by claiming that it is the world that has been forced to believe false premises about Blacks; for whites to see the world differently would be a loss of identity. His experience has shaped who he is and has been passed down through his writing over decades.