Baldwin struggled with identity throughout his life, but the nine years he spent in Paris complicated his views on identity further. In Nobody Knows My Name, Baldwin wrestles with the different aspects that form both individual and collective identities, and in particular with what it means to be Black and American.

Baldwin describes his initial move to France as an attempt to escape the oppression he faced as a gay Black man in the United States. In “The Male Prison,” the author describes his own struggle with his identity as a gay man, particularly during a time when anti-gay bias was the social norm. Baldwin struggled to support his family and serve as a preacher while feeling increasingly disillusioned by the church’s attitude toward gay men and overall rigidness. Baldwin felt as though he never quite fit in with his community or his family. Baldwin felt that his race and his sexuality followed him everywhere he went in the United States. Paris offered an escape, but Baldwin argues that there is an expiration date to the clouded vision of the tourist. Soon, every traveler will begin to see the cracks in the sidewalk and realize that no country is without its failings.