Go Tell it on the Mountain door James Baldwin

1, Facts:

a) Author: James Baldwin
b) Title: Go Tell It On The Mountain
Publisher: Dell Publishing, Broadway, New York.
Year of first edition: 1952, 1953

2, First Reaction:

a) Reason for choosing: I was searching at our local library for a book for English. My parents said they read a book of James Baldwin “If Beale Street Could Talk,” I couldn’t find that but I saw Go Tell It On The Mountain and I read the back of the book. There stood that the book is about the black experience in Harlem. That’s interesting, thought I, and so I chose Go Tell It On The Mountain.
b) Contents: My first reaction is: Oh my god, I wish I never chose this book. Go Tell It On The Mountain is full of religion and I really don’t know much about religion. Around 25% of the sentences is the Lord this, God that. That makes it very difficult for somebody without knowledge about religion for understanding this book. I don’t understand much of the book. About the story I can say that the only thing the people do in the book, is weeping and crying. I really got crazy about that.

3, Getting into depth

a) Summary: The author of the book, James Baldwin is talking during the complete story. The story is splitted up in three parts: The seventh day, The prayers of the saints and the threshing floor. Go Tell It On The Mountain is about the life of a black family in Harlem and all the religious things they are doing. In the seventh day we’ll get to know John, the son of his stepfather Gabriel, who is a preacher. John has a lot of problems because he discovers that his desires and goals lie outside of the narrow expectations of his family and the religious community. Roy is his brother and he got stabbed by some white men and that causes a lot of fights between John, his parents and his aunt Florence. The stabbing is the most important situation in part one. It’s typing for the split in the family.
The second part, the prayers of the saints is splitted up in three parts too: Florence’s prayer, Gabriel’s Prayer and Elizabeth’s prayer. All those parts are mostly about the sins of John’s parts in their young ages. It is the mainpart of the book. They want that God forgives them and that they’ll get in heaven when they die.
The last part, the threshing floor. In this last part, John surrenders himself in a sort of a religious ecstacy. He still can’t come out of his dilemma (his family or himself) At the end, he gets to God, that’s the ending of the book.
b) Investigation of the narrative technique:
1: Way of writing: James Baldwin wrote in Go Tell It On The Mountain in every sentence like this: Then happened this, with cause that. The sentences are not so .long and I like that because it is otherwise difficult to get what the author is telling to his public.
2: Place and Time: The place is, like more books of Baldwin, the black community of Harlem, New York. Baldwin comes from Harlem and used his own experiences for Go Tell It On The Mountain. The time varies in all parts of the book, but generally you can say, that Go Tell It On The Mountain is about the period from 1890 till 1955. The world is getting modern in that time, but especially in Harlem, not with all the comforts of today’s world.
3: The characters themselves: I should say that some characters in the book are round and some flat. John’s father is par example flat. You’ll get to know him just from one side: He’s the bad step-father of John and they are no big friends. John is an example of a round character. You’ll get to know his good and his bad sides, and you’ll get to know all his dilemma’s and all things like that. I think that combination is right, because the book needs it like that way.
4: Situations: There are very few situations in Go Tell It On The Mountain. Except the stabbing in the first part is only the last part with John and God worth to mention. There are some situations, but most of them are arguments between different members of the family. Those are very important, but you don’t mention that while you are reading the book.
5: Way of telling the story: James Baldwin didn’t write the book chronological. That makes it very difficult for me to get what Baldwin is telling. He describes different people on different places in different times and that’s very difficult to follow.
c) Finding the theme: The book’s title is not the theme of the book. For the people in the book, go tell on the mountain about God is their theme. The real theme is a black family trying to live with their religion and all the dilemma’s and problems they are facing. The religion takes big part in Go Tell It On The Mountain, but it’s not the main theme. The book is about all their problems and dilemma’s, and that’s the most important of the book, so that’s the theme. Especially the first part is typical for a big dilemma in the book. What should John do?
d) Place in Literary History:
1: It was published for the first time in 1953 in New York.
2: I know about the writer that he is (was, died in ’87) a very famous author. I also read on an internet-website that he was gay and that most of his books were about homo-sexuality.
3: I really don’t know anything about the time this books was written. This is the first book I ever read coming not from the nineties. I can’t say anything about it.
4: I think Go Tell It On The Mountain is typical for the author, for a part. This book is not about being gay, but it’s about Harlem, and most books of James Baldwin are about Harlem. I can’t compare the storylines because I have not read any other James Baldwin books.

4: Judgement:

What a positive influence has on the book, is the way of writing. He tells everything quite clear in his sentences. The story is well thought out, but sometimes difficult to understand. The last part appeals to me the most. It is a strange part, John comes to God, but I think that nobody on the world could write anything like this. It’s very special.
The continuing changing of person in the book works very negative to me. In most parts of the book it’s very, very hard to understand about who of the person’s a part is. I still don’t know about who some parts are. Maybe is that typical for that time, I don’t’ know. Chapters are missing in the book to, and I think that it could be a lot easier to understand if Baldwin had cut the book in chapters with a clear title. The book remains very hard to understand in this way.
I can’t compare the book with a film. There was not made a film about this book. I can’t compare it with another book too. It’s quite unique in his sort.
The theme is absolutely not recognisable for me. I am not so religious, I am not black, I don’t live in Harlem, I don’t have family-problems and my father is not a preacher. It also didn’t make me think. I still can’t think about the way people in Harlem 50 years ago. That was my expectations when I started, but it’s not in the book.
The language in the book is not so difficult. The words are quite easy but the hardness in the book is more: Where is he talking about. Maybe is that because I don’t have lot bible-knowledge.
My final judgement is that Go Tell It On The Mountain is not a book to read for your pleasure. The book is unique, but on the other side very boring. Sometimes you read a page full of some people preaching in the church. I can’t imagine that people like it to read that. The book is also difficult to understand and follow. That could be a lot better. I think the book is quite real. It could have happened very easy in that time, I think
I would recommend this book to religious people because only then you can understand the book. I think that for non-religious people (like myself) Go Tell It On The Mountain too boring is.