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Baldwin Theme Of Innocence And Innocent Poem Analysis

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Baldwin is using the words “ innocence” and “ innocent” to signify ignorance, in some cases, especially when referring to people. I think the irony isn't exactly direct he does mean innocent in a sense, in saying that these people just don't really know anything. They're ignorant to the black experience and to what racial inequality still pervades. They're "innocent" of knowing anything, they're naive and ignorant. He does imply their culpability and guilt when he ties them to the country, which "set him down in a ghetto", condemning the group of "innocents" and their country. I think that this sentence is the most telling about his use of the term, because it's juxtaposition, the nephew is the innocent one who shouldn't have had to live in

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