Oliver and Stephanie Sills, 394–451. New York:
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1971.
———. “Yes, I Am a Black Playwright, But.. .” New
York Times, 25 January 1970, Sec. D, p. 1, 11.
Oliver, Clinton F., and Stephanie Sills, eds. Contem-
porary Black Drama from A Raisin in the Sun to
No Place to Be Somebody. New York: Charles
Scribner’s Sons, 1971.
Wilfred D. Samuels
Go Tell It on the Mountain
James Baldwin (1953)
Although critics have provided numerous inter-
pretations of Go Tell It on the Mountain, JAMES
BALDWIN’s first and most celebrated novel, it is
essentially the coming of age narrative of John
Grimes, the protagonist. The stepson of Gabriel
Grimes, a Pentecostal preacher (like Baldwin’s fa-
ther), whom he believes to be his real father, John
struggles to escape the life he feels he is destined
to live as both an African-American male and the
son of one of “God’s Anointed.” Divided into three
sections, the main action of the narrative takes
place during a Saturday night prayer meeting at
the Temple of the Fire Baptized, where one by one
the lives of the adults—Gabriel, his wife Elizabeth,
and his sister Florence—are revealed through
flashbacks as each approaches the altar to pray.
Through these exposed memories, readers learn
about the personal struggle each has undergone
and its role in shaping their personalities and cur-
rent behavior.
The second part, “Prayers of the Saints,” un-
masks the backgrounds of the adults who influ-
ence John’s life. During “Florence’s Prayer,” the
narrator reveals that Florence had abandoned
the South and her insensible mother for Harlem,
where she met and married Frank, a BLUES singer
who “drank too much.” Ultimately rejecting Frank,
Florence seeks refuge in the church. Attempting
to impede Gabriel’s abuse of his family, Florence
exposes his past as a “prancing tomcat.” “Gabriel’s
Prayer” reveals that Gabriel’s desire to force both
his religious beliefs and his sense of damnation
on John are directly related to his own tumultu-
ous and shameful past, in which he married the
defiled and barren Deborah, the victim of a bru-
tal rape, out of pity, and committed adultery with
“the harlot” Esther, producing an illegitimate son,
Royal, out of lust. Seeking redemption, Gabriel
marries Elizabeth and commits to raising John,
her son. However, wracked with guilt for his past
sins and anxious to receive a sign of God’s forgive-
ness, to be embodied in the conversion of his bio-
logical son, Roy, the true heir, Gabriel transfers his
self-hatred to John, who, instead of Roy, stands at
the threshold of conversion. Finally, as “Elizabeth’s
Prayer” begins, Elizabeth reveals that, raised by a
religious aunt whom she despised, she had fled to
New York with her lover, Richard, who later com-
mitted suicide in response to his overwhelming
struggles against oppression and racism. Elizabeth
is forced to raise John, their love child, alone after
Richard’s death. As a means of redemption, Eliza-
beth marries Gabriel, whose commitment to God
she admires and whose professed love and promise
to raise John as his own son offers her the security
and assistance she needs.
The third section, “The Threshing Floor,” re-
lates the battle for John’s soul and spiritual rebirth.
Through surrealistic images and dizzying dream-
like sequences, Baldwin takes John through the
Pentecostal rites of passage necessary to accept
God. In the midst of this ritual, John hears two
voices—one that condemns him and the other
that urges him toward redemption. John, who
at 14 had begun to develop homosexual interest,
struggles to reconcile his sexuality with his faith.
Baldwin highlights the eroticism and sensuality of
the black worship service and locates both sexual-
ity and spirituality in the body of teenage Elisha,
John’s love interest, whose voice is the second voice
he hears during his struggle to find salvation.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Baldwin, James. “Everybody’s Protest Novel.” In The
Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction, 1948–1985,
27–33. New York: St. Martin’s, 1985.
———. Go Tell It on the Mountain. New York: Knopf,
1953.
Johnson, E. Patrick. “Feeling the Spirit of the Dark:
Expanding Notions of the Sacred in the AfricanGo Tell It on the Mountain 211