The feeling of intimacy in Ruskin’s open letter gives it a conversational quality- in writing his letter, Ruskin often notes what he sees or what is happening around him and makes connections to what he wants to say about society, which gives the impression of him telling an anecdote rather than giving an argument. However, as Lucy stated, the letter strangely feels more preachy than the lecture. The part about the guards in the park, where Ruskin attempts to preempt some of the questions he supposes he would receive from the reader, felt the most moralizing for me. Perhaps this is because in the lecture, Ruskin attempts to validate himself as an objective analyzer whereas in the letter, he includes his own indignation or derision towards other people. In the lecture, Ruskin gives examples of his positive descriptions of the weather to ensure his audience that he does not speak of the storm-clouds negatively because he is a negative person. However, in the letter, Ruskin’s own arguments, and sometimes his biases as an outsider, are quite visible and he does not attempt to mitigate this. On a non-critical note, the letter slightly felt like listening to my grandfather talk about politics.

Baldwin’s letter illustrates how hurtful systematic oppression could be for an individual in the voice of an uncle giving advice for his nephew, which makes his message feel more poignant. As Baldwin’s explanation of oppression is clear and concise, it could be easily digested by the “innocent” readers of The Progressive. As Baldwin states in the letter that “innocence constitutes the crime,” Baldwin letter serves to break down the naivete of Americans who are ignorant about, or choose to be ignorant about the oppression of African Americans.  As Baldwin in speaking to someone in his next generation, who is also his namesake, his message to his nephew James reads like a message for the future generation. While Baldwin’s open letter is about persevering and not yielding to the prejudices of the society, his lecture to teachers emphasizes their responsibility to change reality. The lecture points out that myths about American history and African Americans must be dismantled, and that education should not teach students to be obedient. It was interesting how what Baldwin says he would teach children is visible in his letter to his nephew, but the audience is not the children, but the teachers who should be making change.