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Lesson 6

We will examine the structure and rhetoric in The Fire Next Time.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I analyze the aesthetic impact of specific words and rhetorical devices in The Fire Next Time?

  • Can I gather and organize relevant and sufficient evidence to demonstrate an understanding of the setting and central ideas in The Fire Next Time and how its setting and ideas are developed?

Texts

Core

  • Digital Access
    • “My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation,” excerpt from The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin, Dial Press, an imprint of Random House, 1962

Materials

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Read – Write

We will analyze the use of structure and rhetoric in The Fire Next Time.

Individually, reread and annotate the excerpt from The Fire Next Time.

Choose three questions fromthe Section 2 Question Set related to The Fire Next Time for Lesson 6 Activity 1 and respond to them in your Learning Log.

Activity 2: Discuss

We will discuss our responses to The Fire Next Time with a partner.

Find a partner who answered one of the same questions that you did. Share your responses, then discuss the similarities and differences between your responses.

Repeat this process with two more partners.

Activity 3: Discuss

We will examine how the central idea of Baldwin’s letter develops through the text.

Step 1

Baldwin ends his letter by stating that "The very time I thought I was lost, My dungeon shook and my chains fell off." Sketch in your Learning Log or describe to a partner what images come to mind when you read this sentence.

Step 2

With a partner, discuss the following questions:

  1. Why do you think Baldwin begins by saying "The very time I thought I was lost"?

  2. What is the meaning of the phrase "my dungeon shook and my chains fell off"? What does the sentence as a whole mean?

  3. What is the relationship of the sentence to the entire text?

  4. Is this sentence interesting to read? Why or why not?

Step 3

As a class, discuss the following question:

  1. Considering this sentence in the context of the rest of the text, what do you think are the central ideas of this letter?