Typically unnamed characters are representative of universal characters. They symbolize anyone who might find himself in such a difficult situation.
fuels the external conflict
Explanation:
Baldwin talks of a "disease" which afflicts black Americans and can wreck race relations and creating a "rage in the blood" so he is using the "disease" as a metaphor for probably the rage that black Americans have for experiencing the inequalities of life in the US especially in the 1960's when the civil rights movement was so strong and segregation was so strongly practiced in the South still.
