The Fire Next Time

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

ESSAY 1: “MY DUNGEON SHOOK”

Reading Check

1. What significant event’s anniversary marks the writing of “My Dungeon Shook”?

2. What is Baldwin’s relationship to James, the recipient of his epistolary essay?

3. What is “the danger, in the minds of most white Americans”?

4. How does Baldwin define the term integration in “My Dungeon Shook”?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is Baldwin’s opinion of his father (James’s grandfather), and what has formed this opinion?

2. When Baldwin says that James must “accept them,” about whom is he speaking, and why does he give his nephew this direction?

3. To what does Baldwin compare the function of the Black man in white society, and what is the impact of that role being deconstructed?

Paired Resource

“How Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Letter to His Son About Being Black in America Became a Bestseller”

• This article from The Guardian explores how both James Baldwin and Coates’s own father inspired his bestselling book Between the World and Me.
• This resource connects to the theme of The Transformative Power of Freedom.