James Arthur Baldwin was born to Emma Berdis Jones and an unknown father on August 2, 1924, in New York City. The fact that he did not know about the identity of his biological father haunted him all his life. Who was to become Baldwin’s stepfather was a laborer and Pentecostal preacher who came - as part of the Great Migration - to New York in 1919 “seeking better social conditions and economic opportunities.” (Kenan 1994: 26) After he married her, he began to preach in storefront churches and made a living of a job he had in a bottle factory on Long Island, and although he “worked steadily, until encroaching age and illness prohibited it”, were his wages seldom high enough to feed his big family2, especially during the Great Depression. (Kenan: 27) As described in “Notes of a Native Son” this situation had contributed to his father’s “intolerable bitterness of spirit.”(Kenan: 88) It was “unrelieved bitterness and anger” that “drove [his father] away permanently in 1932.” (Kenan: 27) James was very much influenced and shaped by his stepfather, and the problems that derived from his relationship to him became in my eyes a powerful motor for his poetry writings and determined his future decisions. To his father the young boys intelligence and his interest in books was but a source of danger, for “the Bible was the only book worth reading.” (Kenan: 29) If it wasn’t for Orilla “Bill” Miller, a white woman from the Midwest who stepped up against his fathers objections, and for Gertrude Ayer, a black principal who encouraged the young boy to write stories, plays and poems, James would have been deprived of a valuable education, because in the Baldwin household “education was suspect as a tool of the white devils not particularly useful to black men in a racist society that placed so many checks on their ambition.” (Kenan: 31) James Baldwin was brought up “in a household atmosphere of strict, even suffocating, religiosity” (Kenan: 32) and his father lived “like a prophet, in such unimaginably close communion with the Lord, that his long silence which were punctuated by moans and hallelujahs and snatches of old songs while he sat at the living room window never seemed strange to us.” (Baldwin 1984: 89)
Table of Contents
1. Introduction “I was born in church”
2. Historical Background - Pentecostalism and the ‘Negro’ Church
3. Various Connections to Christian Religion
Overview
The Title
The Motto
Part One
Part Two
Florence’s Prayer
Gabriel's Prayer
Elisabeth’s Prayer
Part Three
4. Conclusion
Objectives and Thematic Focus
The primary objective of this work is to analyze James Baldwin's novel "Go Tell It on the Mountain" through a religious lens, exploring how the author integrates biblical themes and Pentecostal traditions to construct the identity struggles of his characters. The research examines the tension between secular life and religious commitment within the context of the African American experience.
- The influence of Pentecostalism on Black church identity and individual spirituality.
- Biblical metaphors and their structural role in the novel's narrative parts.
- The conflict between personal desires, family pressures, and religious dogma.
- The literary integration of spirituals and biblical epigraphs to deepen poetic density.
- The concept of the "threshing floor" as a metaphor for judgment and transformation.
Excerpt from the Book
Part One
Part One “focuses on the vehemence of Johns… adolescence crisis”, who in vain tries to “break free of the pressure reality puts on his religious fanatic family life [and of the] normative-restrictive life as a Pentecostler and of the discriminating everyday life.” (Ramm: 129) This huge dilemma John has to somehow solve can be described as an ambivalent moving of John between the rigid religion of his father (away from world towards religious fanaticism) and the tolerant religiosity of Elisha including and respecting the world and a consume oriented life without God. (Ramm:190) When John wakes up on “the seventh day”, the day God rested from creating, a day that gives in his evocation of the Pentecost Day a hint for the rebirth of John (Ramm: 148) and a day that generally stands for the Sabbath – “a day of resting, fulfillment, completion, celebration [and] a recurrent marker of conclusion and beginning” (http://cla.calpoly.edu/~smarx/courses/346/Baldwin/GoTell.html) - he is ready to make a decision: “He would not be like his father.” (Baldwin:1991) This is contrastive to the very first sentence of the novel, where an authorial narrator tells his reader that “Everyone had always said that John would be a preacher when he grew up, just like his father.”
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction “I was born in church”: Provides biographical context on James Baldwin’s upbringing in a strict religious household and the influence of his stepfather on his early development.
2. Historical Background - Pentecostalism and the ‘Negro’ Church: Explores the origins of Black Pentecostalism and how its specific worship practices are reflected in the religious experiences of the novel's characters.
3. Various Connections to Christian Religion: Analyzes how Baldwin utilizes biblical structure, epigraphs, and the concept of the Trinity to frame the novel and the psychological struggle of his protagonists.
4. Conclusion: Summarizes how John’s religious initiation serves as a breakthrough from social constraints and highlights the importance of biblical knowledge for a deeper appreciation of the text.
Keywords
James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain, Pentecostalism, Black Church, Religion, Identity, Biblical Metaphor, Threshing Floor, African American Literature, Spirituals, Faith, Salvation, Religious Crisis, Literature Analysis
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core subject of this analysis?
The work focuses on a religious approach to James Baldwin’s first novel, "Go Tell It on the Mountain," specifically examining the role of Christianity and Pentecostalism in the characters' lives.
Which key themes are central to the publication?
Central themes include the search for identity among Black Americans, the impact of religious fanaticism versus tolerant faith, and the intersection of family history with spiritual struggle.
What is the primary research goal?
The goal is to demonstrate how Baldwin utilizes his deep familiarity with the Bible and African American church traditions to provide a structural and thematic framework for his narrative.
What methodology is employed?
The author uses a literary and contextual analysis, focusing on textual evidence from the novel, comparisons with biblical sources, and historical research into the Pentecostal movement.
What is covered in the main body of the work?
The main body breaks down the novel into its three parts, analyzing specific prayers, epigraphs, and key incidents to explain the characters' spiritual development and internal conflicts.
Which keywords best characterize the paper?
Key terms include James Baldwin, Pentecostalism, identity, biblical metaphor, and the "threshing floor."
How does the "threshing floor" motif function in the novel?
The author explains that the threshing floor, historically used to separate grain from chaff, serves as a powerful metaphor for judgment and the spiritual purification John experiences in the third part of the book.
Why does Baldwin incorporate spirituals and biblical epigraphs?
According to the text, these elements are not decorative but are "coherently fitted into the action," adding poetic density and framing the reader's understanding of the characters' contradictory lives within the church.
- Quote paper
- Martin Arndt (Author), 2001, James Baldwin’s "Go Tell It on the Mountain" - a religious approach, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/29769
