Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

Go Tell It on the Mountain is an emotional story that contains time gaps throughout seventy years. The novel allows the reader a peek into the minds of multiple characters; however, the story takes place during one twenty-four hour period. The book explores several controversial topics in the United States history, including racism in New York's Harlem and the South, poverty, and the anger that racism stimulated.

Go Tell It on the Mountain unfolds in 1935 within the city of Harlem, New York. This is years after Gabriel and Elizabeth, although separately, migrate to Harlem during The Great Migration. Despite the hope for bettering life, the novel still displays two distinct aspects resulting from the migration. While John's family is a part of the church and are decently well-off, drunkards and prostitutes fill the route to the doors of the church. The novel is able to showcase both the culture and the poverty that the Harlem Renaissance conveyed. Even though majority of the novel takes place in Harlem, it is worth mentioning that in Gabriel's flashback, the deep South is also revealed. The novel's South stays true to history as Deborah is raped by multiple white men. With a lack of policing whites for causing harm towards blacks, her father attempts to seek vengeance but is only killed. Even though those tragedies don't show up in present day Harlem, the city is not problem less. Baldwin hints at Harlem's racial tensions in education, leisure, and social interactions. Often it navigates through the character's reactions with one another.

John: The novel begins on the morning of John’s fourteenth birthday. John’s “father” is the church pastor; however, John is confused about his faith and what his father represents.

Gabriel: John’s stepfather and the church pastor. He is very controlling and dominating. He knows that John is not his full-blooded son, so he does not give him his full love. When Gabriel was in his youth, he was a sinner, but he decided to dedicate his life to God as he got older.

Elizabeth: The mother of the children. John's father was Richard. They were not married, and Richard died before John was born. Elizabeth later married Gabriel. She lives an austere Christian lifestyle. She wants John to give his life to God and the church.

Florence: She is Gabriel's sister; however, she does not like him. She is sick and dying from an illness.

Baldwin makes several references to the Bible in Go Tell It on the Mountain, most importantly to the story of Ham, Noah’s son who saw his father naked one day. Noah consequently cursed Ham’s son Canaan to become the servant of Noah’s other sons.

Baldwin refers to several other people and stories from the Bible, at one point alluding to the story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt, and drawing a parallel to that exodus and the need for a similar exodus for African-Americans out of their subservient role in which whites have kept them. John's wrestling with Elisha evokes the story of Jacob wrestling with a mysterious supernatural being in Genesis.

The rhythm and language of the story draw heavily on the language of the Bible, particularly of the King James Version. Many of the passages use the patterns of repetition identified by scholars such as Robert Alter and others as being characteristic of Biblical poetry.[3]

James Baldwin grew up in Harlem and never knew his biological father. His Baptist minister stepfather was "Brooding, silent, tyrannical ... and physically abusive, he was also a storefront preacher of morbid intensity."[4] Also like John, Baldwin underwent a religious awakening at the age of 14, when Baldwin became a Pentecostal preacher. His later novels expressed his growing disillusionment with church life, and they also feature homosexual and bisexual themes.[4]

John is a confused adolescent boy. He cannot look at anything without having it painted in the light of the church. According to the church, he is committing sin because of his own nature, which is the cause of his confusion.

The story includes racial injustice, both as a background theme, and in one flashback sequence as leading to John's biological father's (Richard's) suicide. Richard had been wrongly imprisoned and beaten, despite having proclaimed his innocence.

The Public Broadcasting Service produced a made-for-television movie based on Go Tell It on the Mountain in 1984. Stan Lathan directed the film, with Paul Winfield starring as Gabriel in his adulthood and Ving Rhames playing Gabriel in his youth.[5] Baldwin was pleased with the adaptation, saying in an interview with The New York Times, "I am very, very happy about it [...] It did not betray the book."[6]

The work was translated into French in 1957 by Henri Hell and Maud Vidal under the title Les Élus du Seigneur.