“But to look back from the stony plain along the road which led one to that place is not at all the same thing as walking on the road; the perspective to say the very least, changes only with the journey; only when the road has, all abruptly and treacherously, and with an absoluteness that permits no argument, turned or dropped or risen is one able to see all that one could not have seen from any other place.”
The story follows fourteen year old John Grimes who is struggling to find his identity. He has to deal with his bully of a step father and what his family expects him to be.
He is expected to be a preacher, but is plagued with doubts as he experiences worldly thoughts.
Part of the problem is his stepfather, Gabriel Grimes. Gabriel prohibits John from reading anything other than the Bible and does not allow him to dance or enjoy any other pleasures as he feels this will lead John to a life of sin. Gabriel has his own secrets that riddle him with guilt and cause him to lash out in anger.
The novel is chock full of Biblical metaphors as John finds his identity. The novel is divided into three sections and it is in the final section entitles "The Threshing Floor" that John is saved.
Of course, the readers are faced with determining who the real sinners are and who are the ones that are actually saved:
“There are people in the world for whom 'coming along' is a perpetual process, people who are destined never to arrive.”
John finds refuge within his church community away from the violence from home. Gabriel who claims to be a holy man still struggles with his past:
“The morning of that day, as Gabriel rose and started out to work, the sky was low and nearly black and the air too thick to breath. Late in the afternoon the wind rose, the skies opened, and the rain came. The rain came down as though once more in Heaven the Lord had been persuaded of the good uses of a flood. It drove before it the bowed wanderer, clapped children into houses, licked with fearful anger against the high, strong wall, and the wall of the lean-to, and the wall of the cabin, beat against the bark and the leaves of trees, trampled the broad grass, and broke the neck of the flower. The world turned dark, forever, everywhere, and windows ran as though their glass panes bore all the tears of eternity, threatening at every instant to shatter inward against this force, uncontrollable, so abruptly visited on the earth.”
When John is saved he is finally free from the resentment he feels toward his stepfather. We don't know if John will become a preacher as everyone wants him to, but with his new found community he is free to express himself and figure out his identity. He no longer fears what his stepfather thinks of him.
Structure
The novel opens on the morning of John's fourteenth birthday and ends on the threshing floor later that night. In between the opening and closing chapters are three chapters following Florence, Gabriel and Elizabeth. John's aunt, stepfather and mother respectively. We see insights into their pasts and discover why they act the way they do and how their relationship with God or lack thereof is changed.
Spoiler Alert
The next section has spoilers and if you do not wish to read them move on to the next section.
Florence's Prayer (John's step aunt) Florence has rejected God for many years. This is the first time in decades that she has stepped into a church. She has no reason to believe in God. Her husband was killed during the first world war and Gabriel was always her mother's favorite in spite of his sinful past. Her best friend Deborah was at one point married to Gabriel and she has kept one of the letters Deborah sent her illustrating Gabriel's sinful nature with another woman. She wants to give this letter to Elizabeth so Gabriel can stop tormenting Elizabeth and her bastard child. Florence is close to death and decides it will not matter since Gabriel will outlive her.
Gabriel's Prayer (John's stepfather) Gabriel gave in to feelings of lust causing him to impregnate another woman. He abandons her and her son for fear of judgement from his peers, he grows resentful of his wife and remains that way long after she, the woman he impregnated and his first son are all dead. His guilt causes him to last out against his current wife Elizabeth and her illegitimate child. His anger and guilt all stem from his past and this causes him to lash out mainly at his stepson.
Elizabeth's Prayer (John's mother) Elizabeth is a kind, good woman who gave herself to her one, true love Richard despite not being married. Richard is arrested and tortures for a crime he didn't commit. When there isn't enough evidence to convict him he is released, but Richard, a proud, black man can't take the humiliation and fear of what he went through slits his wrists before Elizabeth has a chance to tell him that she's pregnant. She marries Gabriel to give her and her son a better chance at life and she truly believes it is God's will to do so. She loves her son John and knows he is destined for great things.
SKIP TO HERE. NO MORE SPOILERS James Baldwin
This is a semi-autobiographical novel as some of what John experiences were drawn from Baldwin's real life. Both were raised in an impoverished Harlem, both had problems with their stepfathers and both were saved at the age of fourteen.
Baldwin found his voice and escaped to France where blacks and gays were treated better than they were in the fifties United States.
Conclusion
This was my first time reading "Go Tell It on the Mountain" and while I have nothing in common with John and his circumstances, I was drawn into the story and was fascinated at what was going on. I wanted to know more about all the characters and what they were going through. I especially enjoyed reading the prayers as the backstories of all the characters were particularly intriguing.
I recommend this book to anyone who loves literature in general and to those who:
-love the rich language of the Bible
-struggle with their own identity with religion
-want to know more about the black experience before the civil rights movement
-identify with coming of age stories
I identified mainly with the women and their struggles with morality, religion and sin. I believe in redemption, but like the women in the novel it seems more difficult to obtain sometimes especially when the whole world tells you you have to behave in a certain way.
I think this novel is universally relatable whether or not you believe in God or not. You may not be able to relate to the characters and the color of their skin, especially if you've never been persecuted for the color of your skin, but it can at least give you insight into what it's like to fear for your life. To fear being attributed to something because just because you look like the person who did it. In that sense, I think we can all relate to it.
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