Four strong opening events are introduced to readers in the first paragraph: Baldwin’s 19th birthday, the death of his father, the birth of his sister, and the fact that race riots are taking place; all happening simultaneously. On the way to his father’s funeral, he describes these riots using very vivid imagery: “a wilderness of smashed plate glass” , even though he and his family are not participating in the riots, they are seeing it from the car window and living the experience.

His father was a preacher who moved from large community churc

Finally, Baldwin concludes that “blackness and whiteness did not matter” , for a lesson was learnt through his father’s death. He learned to keep his heart free of hatred using two ideas: that of despair, and that of equal power. He accepted his reality and acknowledged injustice has to be fought for. What his father did to his life had a great effect upon him, and it was not what he wanted to do to his own. Even though people have motives to generate hate in their hearts, it’s not worth it. It gradually kills you.

Baldwin formed his own opinion on hatred towards the white people: “In order really to hate white people, one has to blot so much out of the mind – and the heart – that this hatred itself becomes an exhausting and self-destructive pose…” , which is a similar statement to the one made earlier, where he metaphorically compared this hatred to a fever that one has no control of, because it can come back any time.

Initially, Baldwin cannot understand his father’s bitterness and hatred towards white people and life, but as the essay progresses, you can see he no longer judges his father because he starts to understand him.

The third part of the essay intensively describes the funeral. When Baldwin arrives, he has a sudden recognition of how important his father was to him after observing the number of people who attended and after listening to the preac

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