Go Tell it on the Mountain

Go Tell it on the Mountain is a 1953 autobiographical novel by James Baldwin. The novel examines the role of the Christian Church in the lives of African-Americans, both as a source of repression and moral hypocrisy and as a source of inspiration and community. It also, more subtly, examines racism in the United States. The novel is likely Baldwin?s most famous.

Themes

Religion

Go Tell it on the Mountain is most prominently concerned with the Christian Church and the form of moral absolutism that the Grimes? church preached. The characters believe that a person either lives a strict, religiously observant life and goes to Heaven after death or lives a life of sin and suffers in Hell for all eternity after death. The church condemns alcohol, premarital sex and the kind of vibrant nightlife that was prominent in Harlem. This fills John with fear and dread, both of God and of the outside world, at the novel?s beginning.

Related Topics:
Moral absolutism - Heaven - Sin - Hell

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Only after John has a pure religious experience does he feel confident. Baldwin indicates an extreme distrust of church hierarchies but places confidence in an individual?s relationship with God as a source of strength and inspiration.

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The novel is also critical of the strict moral codes of the church. Gabriel, an ordained minister and the most religiously fervent character in the novel, is also perhaps the most destructive. His extramarital affair and his refusal to recognize his first son leads to misery and eventually death for his mistress and their son. Gabriel hypocritically accosts others for sin but he says simply that God has forgiven him although he has done little to repent for his actions or change his character. Ironically, the most noble and spiritually enlightened character in the book is John, the son of an unmarried couple.

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Racism

Racism in the United States also plays a role in Go Tell it on the Mountain, although not as to a the extent that it does in the works of other prominent African-American writers of the time, such as Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison.

Related Topics:
Richard Wright - Ralph Ellison

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Two secondary characters, Gabriel?s first wife Deborah and Elizabeth?s lover Richard, are the victims of race-motivated violence. More subtly though, Baldwin indicates that the status of African-Americans as lesser people in society has lead to the need for righteousness and austerity in characters like Gabriel, traits that have caused great harm to his family.

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