This essay compares Richard Wright's "Black Boy" and Baldwin's excerpt from "My Dungeon Shook." They both share common themes and events that relate to each other.

In literature, a popular difficulty that occurs among individuals is racism. Shockingly, little has changed between races in this country since Richard Wright's Black Boy and James Baldwin's "My Dungeon Shook" have been published. In his letter Baldwin writes, "You were born where you are born and faced the future you faced because you were black and for no other reason. The limits of your ambition were, thus, expected to be set forever. You were …

…advises his nephew on how to deal with racism in the world into which he was born. Despite the horror of America, he believed that his race should "with love, shall force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and being to change it." (Baldwin) Along with Wright, he attempted to "make American what America must become" by accomplishing great bringing down the racist barrier and accomplishing great things.