A Letter to my Nephew- Discussion Questions

1. This letter is often cited as being extraordinarily moving. What makes this letter so affecting?
Where and how does Baldwin evoke the most pathos? Cite passages and explain why. Who is
Baldwin's audience and how do you believe it would affect them?

2. Baldwin begins the letter by stating that "I have begun this letter five times and torn it up five
times." What is the effect of this first sentence and where does this difficulty come from?

3. American childhood has often been idealized as a period of sheltered innocence. How does
Baldwin define black childhood in contrast and what is the effect of this choice? How is the black
family portrayed?

4. Baldwin reverses typical expectations when he informs his nephew that "there is no reason for
you to try to become like white men and there is no basis whatever for their impertinent assumption
that they must accept you. The really terrible thing, old buddy, is that you must accept them, and I
mean that very seriously." What does he mean by this? What is the traditional ideal of tolerance and
acceptance advocated for the emancipation of minorities, and how does he reverse this? What is
Baldwin's acceptance?

5. Baldwin claims that "it is the innocence that constitutes the crime" and that "the black man has
functioned in the white man's world as a fixed star, as an immovable pillar." What function does he
see the 'innocence' of whites and their position relative to blacks as playing in white psychology, and
how can it be changed?

6. Baldwin sees his nephew's struggle as key in the larger context of American history and American
ethos. What is Baldwin's America, and what does he see in its future?

7. The full title of the letter is "My Dungeon Shook Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundredth
Anniversary of Emancipation." How does the letter reference and address the legacy of slavery from
the perspective of 1963 at the height of the Civil Rights Movement? (King's March on Washington
took place in 1963 as well, for instance.) What position do you see the letter taking in the context of
the Civil Rights Movement and desegregation? How do the ideas expressed here resonate today in
the wake of events like Ferguson?