James Baldwin's Go Tell it on the Mountain

¶ … bored, personal insights, pleasure, or disapproval, and some thoughts about possible directions for research in the field of African-American literature. Baldwin's first novel is a classic coming of age novel set in New York during the Harlem Renaissance. Reading "Go Tell it on the Mountain" gives the reader insight on what it is like to be Black in America, and what it is like to rebel and search for yourself in Black society.

Baldwin's story is moving and memorable, and it follows the story of the young protagonist, John, with pathos and understanding. Clearly, Baldwin had experienced what he wrote about, and he understood the longings and worries that plagued a fourteen-year-old growing up in Harlem in 1935. John wants desperately to please his father, as most young people do, but the barrier between them is far too big for John to understand or identify.

It is quite easy to empathize with John and his growing up, because it has happened to everyone, and his struggles indicate that regardless of race, we all have the same insecurities and longings as we turn from children into adults. John thinks to himself, "And he wanted to be one of them, playing in the streets, unfrightened, moving with such grace and power, but he knew this could not be" (Baldwin 30).

Struggling to conform to his father's strict discipline and religious morality, John is denied some of the simple pleasures of youth, and it will further alienate him from his father in the future. Baldwin's text is a nearly blow-by-blow description of what not to do as a parent and the ramifications it can have on the children - who either rebel or become sullen and withdrawn. Spiritually this is a commanding novel, filled with the joy of religious fervor and abandonment.

The believers of the Temple of the Fire Baptized typify the Black religious experience of the time. These people live extremely difficult lives, and the spiritual release they find in their church is the only release they have from day-to-day struggles. It is truly a spiritual escape from the reality of their lives, and without it, chances are they would not survive emotionally or physically.

John represents the new generation of Blacks, who see more for themselves than Harlem, and turn away from the church because of the unnecessary regulations its fervent members place on their families. The spiritual content of the book was the most difficult for me to get through, because the rules John's father imposed were so strict in the name of the "Lord," and even John had to question their value in their lives. It just seems silly that the boy could not play with his peers or enjoy a movie.

These things did not make him any less spiritual, and in fact, his father's insistence on conforming to the laws of the Lord turned his sons down a different path, which was quite understandable. John's questioning of his father's and his own belief's is quite understandable too, especially since John has always felt like an outsider of sorts in his own home. That is the underlying problem with Gabriel's spirituality. The reader knows Gabriel is a sham, and his life has been filled with sin and lies.

John does not know Gabriel is not his real father, and perhaps if he knew, his struggles for self-awareness would not be quite so difficult. Gabriel's spirituality serves only his own sense of guilt and sin, and forcing it down his family's throat is difficult to watch and to read about.

The second section of the novel, written in stream of consciousness, and covering the adults in their spiritual release, is also difficult to plod through at times, and bogged the book down for me until I returned to John's story, and the main action of the book.

The flashbacks showed great insight into the adults' lives, and helped establish how Blacks lived in America at the turn of the 20th century, so they added rich detail to the book, and a depth of understanding of what it was like to be Black, poor, and really have no hope for the future. Baldwin's writing is lyrical and poignant, and he is at his best when he creates dialogue between the characters.

Roy's challenge of his mother and father in the kitchen the morning of John's birthday is as raw and raunchy as it is full of the questioning nature of a new generation of youth. It is quite clear why Baldwin chose the Harlem Renaissance as a background for his story, for the Harlem Renaissance was a time of spiritual and artistic growth for the residents of Harlem.

They were beginning to spread their wings and share their talents with a wider audience, and show they could compete and excel in the white man's world. This is the perfect setting for a young man just beginning to test his own wings and beliefs. It is also a significant portion of African-American history, and changed the way many people perceived Blacks in America, so it is also fitting that Baldwin chose to set his characters in the middle of this significant time in African-American history.

They are choosing to follow new paths, and the Renaissance is the perfect time for them to begin their own journeys. Further research in this area would certainly cover Baldwin's literary.