James Baldwin and Go Tell It on the Mountain

Criticism

• He said:” I represent sin, love, death, sex, hell, terror and other things too frightening for you to recognize.”

• The American dream has been achieved at the expense of blacks.

• John is trapped by his conflict with his father and an oppressive religious background, but he must come to terms with his roots in order to become truly free.

Questions to focus on:

• religious and ethical questions posed by the novel

• John’s conversion is an escape from the outrageously narrow range of American Negro life.

• Baldwin’s attempt to free himself• the role Christianity plays in black literature.• Religion is to alleviate the pain of the hero’s ali

enation• religious symbolism and psychic reality

Main Characters:

• John, his stepfather Gabriel, Elizabeth (his mother), Florence, Roy (his brother), Sarah (sister), Ruth (baby)

• Deborah, Elisha, Richard

Theme:

• Religion cheat people, opium

• Black people’s issue

Summary of John in Part I

• John: is a precocious boy, emotional complex boy, he is burdened with a sense of shame, not happy with what he was, he had pressure from people (including his parents) around. He felt desperate, fearful, afraid of others, being lonely, different from others:

• Troubles: first ethnic, then religious• Ethnic: his trouble begins at home, with his father(fa

ther-son relationship: he is obedient; his rebellion, hatred to his father---he wants to kill Gabriel, his father dislikes him; John wants to live a life different from his father, from others in the neighborhood—his attitude toward white people, woman in the film standing for depravity (he really like their life even though he is told that they are evil, he wants to be powerful, rich, so that’s why he wanders and wonders all the time)

• P20, last para： long for love, anti-christian attitude against Gabriel; p51: wanted to kill father

• Religious:• Elisha: a symbol of piety, pure Christian, Ella an

d Elisha are separated by the church, church is a suppressor of instinct, human natural desire, a threat to one’s dream and aspiration as well.

• P52: fighting---physical fight is an outlet of spiritual resistance, attitude to Elisha, Elisha is a pattern of life for John to follow, but John didn’t like to follow him, he wishes for anther life, a secular life instead.

• So John is dreamy, ambitious, burdened with shame, fear of church, his father, white’s life.

Gabriel

• Why he was married to Deborah?• To show his capability of self-denial• Deborah: a symbol of divinity, but he is unfaithf

ul to Deborah, love affair, he felt he did something wrong, he is a hypocrite, he is a combination of good and evil

• his personality: complex, good---devote himself to church; bad---his attitude to John,

• Father-son relationship:• p21, his father is God’s minister, irony, but his f

ather’s behavior –not a good father is John’s eye. John knew his father is a hypocrite. John is skeptical.

• P194, para 1: the only voice, his own voice, secular life, different way of thinking, he is not wholeheartedly , on the one hand he repel the church, on the other hand, attracted by the church. P196, no help and warmth from his father.

• Function of church: black church is the only consolation to black people, but black church is a liar, tell people falsehood.

Part III: John’s conversion

• John’s resistance: one part of John’s mind

• P221: he was ready for reconciliation, but father wasn’t happy.

• Florence---irreligious person, she knew church was a liar. The best symbol of the church is her brother. Garbiel is not changed.

• Why Florence goes to church at last?

• The theme of rejection, desertion, alienation

• John is an archetype of black people: (1) white oppression (2) black people’s own oppression, double-edged trouble

Technique：

• Mountain: determination to achieve his goal, asking for power

• Moses: prayer on the mountain, 40 years of wandering