Recommended: 2 / 5
Writing
Quality: 3 / 5
Storyline:
2.5 / 5
Reading Difficulty:
2 / 5
Length: 256 pages
Warning: Spoilers!
Summary:
A young
African-American boy in an evangelical setting deals with the challenges of
faith and a desire to impress a domineering father. This is explored in three
sections. The first sets the scene of the youth, John, in an ultra-religious
household where the father sets the rules. The second section, broken into
three parts, explores the back story of John’s aunt, father, and mother each in
the premise of a prayer during an intensely energetic service. The final
section deals with John’s prophetic epiphany on the “threshing floor” of the
church.
Social Themes:
Religion
and Faith: The novel details an almost fanatical religious atmosphere. John
sees the grand testimonies and physical proofs of faith in others and wonders
why he hasn’t experienced that. Later, John experiences his own climatic
salvation on the threshing floor and is left wondering if this moment of
intense spiritual awakening will be enough to save him from the forces of sin
or enough to redeem him in his father’s eyes.
“’No matter what happens to me, where I go, what folks say about me, no matter what anybody says, you remember—please remember—I was saved. I was there’” (256).
Cycle of
Sin/Inequality of Sexes: John’s father undergoes a conversion to become “God’s
anointed” from a life of drunkenness and sex. As a pastor, this character falls
from grace when he sins against his first wife and has a son out of wedlock.
John’s domineering father never fully accepts responsibility for his
wrongdoings; rather, he chooses to utilize the forgiveness of God. Through this
character, Baldwin illustrates repeatedly the inequality of the sexes as John’s
father chooses to judge women who have made mistakes similar to his, but
doesn’t see the hypocrisy.
African
American Culture/Life: This is not a major theme, but being African American
during early 20th century is a defining feature of all of the characters. The
novel bares the difficulties and oppressions that black Americans still dealt
with, while not dwelling on these themes as a primary source for story content.
Autobiographical Fiction: Baldwin shared a
similar childhood to John. He grew up in an oppressively religious household,
one that would never understand his homosexuality. The skill in Baldwin’s
storytelling is his ability to show what is wrong with religious beliefs that
are not ethical through characters that fully maintain these beliefs.
My Review:
As a work
of fiction displaying a black youth in an evangelical 1920s setting, Go Tell It
on the Mountain is quite good, but sometimes the religious beliefs,
testimonies, etc., can be uninteresting to a religious outsider. As someone who has never had a physical
epiphany, I often found myself sympathizing with John in the beginning when he
is questioning his spirituality among all of these people who seem so touched
by God. Then John does have a religious experience in the last section of the
novel that seems almost like a psychotic breakdown. This disappointed me. I
wanted John to stand strong against his father without having to join everyone
else in a noisy perhaps insincere spiritual conversion. As the novel closes, it
is apparent that John is questioning whether even intense spirituality will be
enough to get his father’s warped approval.
I did enjoy Baldwin’s gentle
prose that was descriptive in just the right way, and not cluttered with
unnecessary word choices. This novel, as a modern classic that captures black
spirituality/life, is not one to miss even if the subject matter can be slow at
times.
~Caleb
P.S. If you’ve read Go Tell It on the Mountain, please share
your own thoughts in the comments section. I’d love to hear your opinions.
P.P.S. Send me an email or leave a comment if you have a
book you would like me to read or review. Coming soon, the monolithic Gravity’s
Rainbow.
Citation:
Baldwin, James. Go Tell It on the Mountain. New York: Knopf,
1953. Print.
Image credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_Tell_It_on_the_Mountain_(novel)
