Baldwin explains what he means by being in a war with society when he says, ” What societies really, ideally, want is a citizenry which will simply obey the rules of society.” This is a paradox because although society educates you to have a conscience about right and wrong, they don’t want you to speak up against or for the right or wrong. Society prefers you to obey the rules they have set up; if you don’t obey you’ve entered a state of war. If you win, society can change, if you lose and give up, “society will perish.”

Many groups have been marginalized throughout history, and that has led to two things: the silent people who can only rage inside waiting to live, and the people that decide to enter the war with society and win. Both have their justified reasons, but unfortunately they did not choose to be put in such a situation. Why must the children of the children continue to live marginalized? Some groups of immigrants have had to flee their own countries only to survive, others were forcefully enslaved throughout history. Being given no opportunity to make a life for yourself should be considered enslavement, too. In page 3, Baldwin states, “What is upsetting the country is a sense of its own identity. If, for example, one managed to change the curriculum in all the schools so that Negroes learned more about themselves and their real contributions to this culture, you would be liberating not only Negroes, you’d be liberating white people who know nothing about their own history.” This use of pathos moves the reader to want change. James Baldwin refers to the world as a larger place in comparison to the short-sighted vision many people have about life. It is true that often children are not taught the vital lessons they will need in life, and then they realize as adults just how much of the world they don’t know, as they were never given a chance before to explore it. The world is large not only geographically, but in so many other aspects such as rich in culture, language, customs, food, occupations, etc. Baldwin would love children to be exposed to the large world, and not withheld in a building providing textbook information but no experience. Baldwin compares this phenomenon to American history: only a portion of history can be taught to someone in their life, and only a portion of it can be understood, never to its full extent. Likewise, the world will never be fully explored by one person in its many aspects, neither will a person comprehend all he needs to know about life. That is why it is important to teach people in their early years what they can learn about the world, they should not be restrained from that. Baldwin states that is a “necessity” to learn about this large world. How else will the children grow up and change the injustices in this world? Changes in teaching from the early beginnings can have an impact on the real world knowledge children can use once they grow up to face the “large world.” Baldwin uses ethos to reinforce this point in page 4, “There must have been a day in this country’s life when the bombing of the children in Sunday School would have created a public uproar and endangered the life of a Governor Wallace. It happened here and there was no public uproar.” A governor in danger, and the public did nothing, no one cared?! These are the rhetorical situations Baldwin used to persuade his reader to action.

The teachers that have had the most impact on me were my shop teachers in high school. They always had wise words and advice for us, they were down to earth, and treated us like their own children. They didn’t take irresponsibility from us, they prepared us for the real world. It’s quite funny to me, they were more professional than most situations I’ve had outside high school. They taught us, at a school where we were all minorities (where one of my shop teachers graduated from, too), in one of the worst neighborhoods, so that we could learn a skill and make a life for ourselves. They took it upon themselves to get to school before 7am, and we would practice our trade 1 hour before school even began. I am forever indebted to them.