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Briana Mckenzie
Dr. Russell K. Carter
ENG112-F01
3 May 2017
Guilt Getting To the Top of the Mountain
James Baldwin’s first novel, Go Tell It on The Mountain, shows how people struggle
with guilt. Baldwin uses his experiences personified through four different people with different
experiences and shows how their guilt and failure to deal with their past has caused hardship in
their life and faith. The burden of guilt carried throughout the novel is represented in how the
characters regard their family life, their vows to God, and their vows to one’s self. Johns fear of
becoming like his father and his inability to fit into his family ultimately leads to Johns
“salvation”, where he kneels on the altar before God. While Baldwin never takes a clear stance
on his attitude toward religion, he does admonish his characters for their failure to admit their
sins and go against their vows to themselves the guilt they carry is main cause as to the
wrongdoings in their lives.
Go Tell It on the Mountain gives an insight into Baldwin’s background. Just like his
protagonist John Grimes, Baldwin was from a similar background and struggled with his faith
until he had a spiritual awakening at the age of fourteen. Born in 1924 Harlem, Baldwin did not
know his real father just like John (After becoming a preacher, Baldwin later turned his focus to
writing. Go Tell It on the Mountain was Baldwin’s first novel shed light on the Christian church,
racism, homosexuality, and family life. Baldwin managed to weave an incredibly complex and
thought provoking experience into less than 250 pages. Baldwin continuously uses flashbacks to
inform the reader of his characters past, whilst also uniting the characters. Baldwin continued to
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use his novels to show the different views and ideas he saw and experienced as an African_
American.
Donald Barr’s review of Go Tell It on the Mountain shows that despite being a
controversial book, Baldwin uses his characters stories to make the book flow through the past
and present problems. Barr describes the book as focusing on the characters strictly led Christian
life. Mystified with the ferocity of worship Baldwin places in his characters, Barr writes,
“Judicious men in their chairs may explain the sociology of guilt, and so explain Negro religion
away. Mr. Baldwin will not have it away. In this beautiful, furious first novel, there are no such
reductions” (Barr).
Baldwin splits the novel into three distinct parts, “The Seventh Day, The Prayers of the
Saints, and The Threshing- Floor.” The section names each referencing to a different bible story
are told from a third person point of view. Baldwin uses several bible verses and allusions to
different bible stories and characters to give insight into the nature of his characters. The main
allusions from the bible being made are; John as John the Baptist, Gabriel as a messenger of
God, Elizabeth as Johns mother, and Elisha as a prophet.
John’s representation as the prophet John the Baptist who was famed for baptizing Jesus
showed the docile nature he really held. Baldwin holds John up to this high level of respect,
despite being born from sin and out of wedlock. John managed to come to terms with his faith
and become saved with the guidance of his friend Elisha. Despite being a secondary character,
Elisha plays a major part in John’s salvation. Elisha’s bible namesake was a prophet from the
Old Testament that performed miracles. Similar to Baldwin’s Elisha whose prayers were seen as
Johns saving grace, leading him to salvation and uniting them as brothers in the Lord. Elisha
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acted has Johns main source of positive reinforcement to help him with his faith by praying over
him and encouraging to face the Lord (Baldwin 205).
The Seventh Day acts as the first part beginning on John Grimes 14th birthday and
ending with his family in their church at tarry service later that evening. Baldwin gives an insight
into where and how he and John had grown up. We see the struggles John faces as a confused
black teen growing up in 1930s Harlem, under the watchful eye of his reverend father. John is
constantly failing to meet his father Gabriel’s expectations, causing Gabriel to beat the fear of the
Lord into him. In this part, Baldwin uses Gabriel as the anchor to John’s faith, to truly submit
before God John must submit to his father. Yet Johns yearn to experience the world and his
intellectual ability cause him to resent his father for this.
