A Critical Analysis of the Novel “Go Tell It on the Mountain”   by James Baldwin

The Novel “Go Tell It on the Mountain” saw its publication in 1953. Baldwin emerged

as a prominent voice in the Civil Rights Movement during 1950s. Hence this novel

cannot be devoid of the influences of racism and its evil consequences, the conflicts in

the minds of characters to name a few. This presentation aims to analyse the narrative

technique, the auto-biographical elements and themes employed in the novel in a critical

way.

Narration

Go Tell It on the Mountain is a multifaceted novel that tells many different stories and

confronts many different themes. On the simplest level, it is the story of a young boy

coming of age. The boy's story gains complexity as it is interwoven with the stories of his

mother, father, and aunt. Go Tell It on the Mountain is also the story of religion and

racism and familial expectations and perceptions and how these forces impact people

struggling to survive.

Go Tell It on the Mountain doesn't follow what many would consider to be the standard

style of narration in which the events in the novel are presented sequentially and move, as

the characters do, through a semblance of real time. Instead, Go Tell It on the

Mountain is set on the birthday of John Grimes, but the story spans several decades. The

flashbacks of John's aunt, his mother, and his father give the reader insight into the lives

and minds of the characters.

Such insight was important to Baldwin who was most interested in the person behind the

persona. He believed that to truly know a person and to understand why a person reacts

or behaves in a certain way, you have to know the important events that shaped that

person's life. By the end of the novel, the manner in which the characters react to any

given situation can be extrapolated not only from their past actions but also by the

understanding that the reader has gained of the character's motivating force.

By using the frame story, Baldwin is able to tell many stories in such a way that the

readers essentially go on a voyage of discovery, learning about the characters as they are

revealed by themselves and by the others. Had Baldwin told the story in traditional linear

style, much of the impact would have been lost. By withholding key information and

surprising the reader with it throughout the novel, Baldwin builds suspense and is better

able to hold the interest of his audience.

This style of narration also imitates the way people learn about each other in real life.

Upon first meeting, a person does not truly understand the motivation behind another

person's actions. In the novel, for example, the reader cannot comprehend the actions and

reactions of the characters in Part One because so very little is known about them. By

reading through, though, the reader gains an understanding of the characters and the

events that shaped their lives and, therefore, gains an understanding of why they behave

as they do.

Baldwin believed that the only way to happiness was to truly know the people in one's

life. In Go Tell It on the Mountain, it is painfully obvious that none of the characters

really know each other. It is only the omniscient narrator who has a full and unbiased

knowledge of all events of significant importance. The use of the omniscient narrator is,

in itself, vital to the novel because no single character knows the full and true story of

every other character. In fact, the individual characters cannot be trusted to give an

accurate description of their own personal histories, colored as these histories are by their

own feelings and perceptions.

By using the omniscient narrator, Baldwin is able to give an accurate and complete

description of the lives of his characters. The reader is shown their emotions, actions, and

reactions and is therefore able to understand their personalities. Although individual

characters may interpret and react to the same situation in different ways according to

their own preconceptions and prejudices, the reader is given the opportunity to see events

as they actually happened.

AUTO-BIOGRAPHICAL ELEMENT:

Go Tell it in the Mountain is an autobiographical text that reveals the complicated

relationships that Baldwin had with his stepfather David Baldwin whom his mother had

married when Baldwin was a toddler. As Trudier Harris argues in “James Baldwin”

(2001), “Not only did his [Baldwin’s] stepfather assert that James was ugly and bore the

mark of the devil, but he refused to recognize James’s native intelligence of his

sanctioning by white teachers. This painful autobiographical material would provide the

substance of Baldwin’s first novel”

James Arthur Baldwin was born to Emma Berdis Jones and an unknown father on August

2nd in 1924 in Harlem, New York. He never knew the identity of his biological father

which haunted him all his life. In 1927, Emma marries David Baldwin, a storefront

church preacher who has recently moved to Harlem from New Orleans. Both Emma and

David were a part of the great migration in 1919, coming from the south to the industrial

north seeking better social conditions and economic opportunities. James Baldwin was

the eldest of nine children, he was forced to assume a kind of maternal role towards his

brothers and sisters. He desperately tried to receive love, but was constantly required to

give it. His stern, distant and authoritarian stepfather insisted that the children devote as

much time they could to his views of Christian teachings. At the age of fourteen James

experienced a profound religious crisis which broke down his previous opposition to

become a preacher: “I became, during my fourteenth year, for the first time in my life

afraid-afraid of the evil within me and afraid of the evil without” quoted James Baldwin.

The life of Baldwin gets reflected through the character John Grimes. John’s life stands

as a testimony to the life of the author himself. John and Baldwin become the victims of

identity crisis because of their inability to recognise their biological fathers. Both

Baldwin and John try to escape the isolation by way of expressing zeal in acquiring

modern education. Both Baldwin and John are expected to be good role models for their

respective siblings.

THEMES:

Family conflicts

The Grimes family is central to this novel and the tensions between and across

generations drive the past and present narratives. Violence and fear rather than love are

the overriding experiences as Gabriel dominates Elizabeth and the children as the

patriarch of the household. Through the tension created by Gabriel, there is a criticism of

the lack of love in the family unit and in American society. This is made evident with the

sympathetic characterization of John and his sense of isolation that is created ostensibly

by his step-father.

As the past histories of Florence, Gabriel and Elizabeth are told in Part Two, the secrets

of the older generation are revealed and, consequently, the reasons behind Gabriel's

cruelty to his current family are explored. One of the main negative influences on this

family's structure is traced back to racism, as with the suicide of John's biological father

(Richard) and slavery, as with the references to Gabriel and Florence's mother, Rachel.

The repression of secrets, such as Gabriel's first child and John's illegitimate birth, is also

criticized through the negative portrayal of Gabriel. The decision to hide the past is

expressed in this novel as an impossible action to perform, as the movement between the

past and present narratives demonstrates. This technique of switching the time frame

emphasizes how history cannot be erased when read in combination with the content; the

past is ever present.

Racism:

This novel draws on a history of the United States in that it offers an insight into the

effects of slavery and the migration of African Americans from the South to cities in the

North (Chicago and New York). With the older generation (Florence, Gabriel and

Elizabeth in particular), their unhappiness and alienation from the wider white-dominated

society is translated into bitterness and destructive behaviour. John's battle with Gabriel

is indicative of an antagonistic father-son relationship, and it is also representative of the

divisive influence of racism as Gabriel's impotency outside of the home is avenged on his

family.

By using John as the central protagonist, a perspective of the third generation of African

Americans who have never lived in the South is given. He cannot fully understand, nor

appreciate, why Gabriel is so entrenched in his hatred of the whites. John accepts praise

from white and African-American schoolteachers, whereas Gabriel (similarly to Richard)

has no trust in white people. On an abstract level, Gabriel and Richard's separatist

positions are contrasted with John's desire for integration. He is aged 14 and it is possible

to see his views as being offered as a naive voice. It is also worth remembering, however,

that John's perspective underpins the novel as his views are returned to intermittently. In

this light, his voice is favored. This is especially apparent when he is drawn in

comparison with Gabriel.

This is balanced somewhat with the exposition of Gabriel's background which, in turn,

characterizes him as complex rather than simply evil as John tends to interpret him.

Baldwin avoids completely demonizing Gabriel, then, because his identity is flawed, for

example, by the murder of his first son Royal. Gabriel is a beneficial recipient of

patriarchy, though, and his hypocritical treatment of Elizabeth, when criticizing her for

sinning without admitting his own similar faults, is not explained by racist treatment

directly. His cruelty is seen to be both formed by the influence of racism and by his

opportunistic abuse of power.

Racism shatters the lives of Florence and her mother. Florence looks back on her life,

beginning with a night when she was 13, huddled in the small cabin that she shared with

her mother and her brother, Gabriel. They feared that their home would be burned down

by white men in a way of retaliation for a father's threat of retribution for the gang rape

of his daughter Deborah. The horses and riders passed, and they knew themselves to be

safe for the time being.

Florence's mother, Rachel, had been a slave before she was freed by the Civil War and

had suffered all the miseries and injustices of her position. She had lost several children

through death or auction; she had even had one, whom she was never allowed to see,

taken away to live in the master's house. For these reasons, Gabriel and Florence were

especially precious to her. However, being a boy in a male-centered society, Gabriel was

even more special to her.

Memory:

Memory becomes an important theme in this novel. Each character goes back to his/her

past and one finds “Memory” haunting the Grimes family throughout the novel.

Feminism:

“Patriarchy” is questioned in this novel thereby bringing out feminist consciousness

among the women characters.

Gabriel had been their mother's favorite since his birth, and Florence feels cheated of the

things that she wanted but that were given to Gabriel instead. He had a chance to attend

school, he had the best clothes and food that the family was able to afford, and he had the

care of his mother and sister. Yet Gabriel never appreciated what he was given and

carelessly squandered it all.