On Saturday, February 7, the Great Books and World Classics discussion group sponsored by Northern New Jersey Mensa and Mensa in Georgia discussed James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain. This book has consistently been ranked among the 100 best novels of the 20th century. However, it is not a book for children. It addresses some depressing themes, and it deals frankly with sexuality. Nevertheless, it is well worth reading. This book is about relationships: the relationships that the characters have with each other and the kind of relationship they want to have with God. Studying the relationships depicted in the novel may give you insight into your own relationships. (This is just one of the reasons why we read Great Books!)
A Semiautobiographical Novel
The characters in Go Tell It on the Mountain are based roughly on the members of Baldwin’s family.
- The central character in the novel is John Grimes, who represents Baldwin himself, when he was a teenager discovering his homosexuality.
- Gabriel Grimes is John’s stepfather, who John believes is his biological father. Like John Grimes, Baldwin was born out of wedlock and then adopted by his stepfather.
- Elizabeth Grimes is John’s mother.
- Florence Grimes is Gabriel’s older sister. Her name is not biblical. Although she is a Christian, she is not preoccupied with religion.
- Royal “Roy” Grimes is the son of Gabriel and Elizabeth.
- Rachel Grimes is Florence and Gabriel’s mother.
- Deborah Grimes is a friend of Florence and becomes Gabriel’s first wife.
- Esther is Gabriel’s mistress and the mother of Gabriel’s first son (also named Royal).
- Frank is Florence’s husband.
- Richard is Elizabeth’s boyfriend and the biological father of John.
The Meaning of the Names
This book is about people who are deeply steeped in Scripture, and most of the characters have names that come straight out of the Bible. Look up each of their names, and think about what this choice of name says about the character that Baldwin was depicting. For example, John’s name alludes to both John the Baptist and John of Patmos (the author of the book of Revelation). The only member of the Grimes family who does not have a Biblical name is Florence. Florence was a city in Italy that was home to the Renaissance, and Florence moves to Harlem (a famous black neighborhood in New York City) at the dawn of the Harlem Renaissance, which was a flourishing of African-American culture.
Human Relationships
This book is about relationships: each character’s relationships with other people and with the divine. First, consider the human relationships. As you read (or re-read) the book, think about what kind of relationship each pair of people had, the ideal form that this relationship might have taken, how the relationship turned out, and what (if anything) was preventing them from having the kind of relationship they might have liked. For example, Rachel is the mother of Florence and Gabriel. Why did Florence abandon her mother? How did Gabriel treat his wives, his mistress, his sons, and his stepson? (This exercise is good practice for assessing the relationships in your own life.)
The following is a list of characters and their relationships. (For brevity, each relationship is listed only once.) As you read the novel, take notes about each relationship:
Rachel
- Her first four children
- Florence
- Gabriel
- Deborah
Florence
- Gabriel
- Deborah
- Frank
- Elizabeth
- John
- Roy
Gabriel
- Deborah
- The white men
- Esther
- Royal (Esther’s son)
- Elizabeth
- Roy (Elizabeth’s son)
- John
- The church members
Deborah
- The white men
Esther
- Her employer
- Her son Royal
- Her parents
Elizabeth
- Richard
- John
- Roy
John
- Roy
- Elisha
- The church members
Relationship With the Divine
What were the characters seeking in their relationship with God? This is not the same question as what religion they profess or practice. Even people who go to the same church may each be seeking something different, and an individual may be seeking more than one thing in his or her religious life. Here is a list of the kinds of things that people might want to achieve through their religious life:
- Appease the spirits—This is the typical goal of an animistic religion. Animism is the notion that not just people but animals, plants, and inanimate objects (e.g., the heavenly bodies, forces of nature such as the wind, and ordinary objects such as stones) have a spirit that has thoughts and feelings and intentions toward human beings. Animists generally seek to manipulate or appease these spirits. None of the characters in this book are animists. However, many Christians hope to appease a wrathful God.
- Submit to the Lord — The Old Testament focuses on the Mosaic Covenant, which is an agreement between God and Abraham. The covenant was similar to an old-fashioned suzerainty treaty, in which a local ruler would submit to an emperor, such as the Egyptian pharaoh. If the local ruler submitted to his suzerain in a timely fashion, he would be rewarded. If he resisted, his kingdom could be destroyed utterly (this is what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah). A local ruler who submits to the suzerain would then be able to rule his own kingdom, while paying tribute to his lord. This idea was also the basis of the feudal system, where serfs (and slaves) submitted to their feudal lord, who submitted to his liege lord, who obeyed the pope, who answered to God. If the vassal obeyed his suzerain, the suzerain would keep his end of the bargain, as when God delivered the people of Israel from slavery.
- Obey the commandments— The Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) conveys the message that God has given humanity a set of commandments. These are rules that govern how people relate to God, to other people, to animals, and even to some objects. The idea is that a nation’s success or failure will hinge on the people’s obedience to these laws. Although Christians seldom follow all the rules set forth in the Bible for Jews, many Christians follow religious disciplines (e.g., resting on the Sabbath, abstaining from alcohol, fasting during Lent).
- Follow the leader—Many people seek to subordinate themselves to some charismatic leader, who will tell them what to think, how they should feel, and what they should do. These submissive people are easy prey for dangerous cults, which can exploit them financially and sexually.
- Lead me not into temptation—Religious teachings can urge people to avoid the kinds of self-indulgence that are harmful to their health and family life and undermine their economic prospects.
- Take the right side— A civil war is a war between factions within a society. When such a war breaks out, it pays to pick the side that will ultimately win. However, competing religious sects can divide a population into warring factions. When that happens, the society as a whole will suffer.
- Achieve mystical union with the divine — Is there more to the universe than the material world that we can perceive through our five senses? If so, how can we connect with it?
- Seek the truth—How did we come to be? What is the world like? What is the nature of humankind? What will become of us?
- Know right from wrong—“Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
- Manage your emotions—Fear not. Experience joy. Find inner peace.
- Face death—Christians hope for life everlasting, whereas Hindus yearn to escape from the endless cycle of reincarnation.
These are things that people may hope to achieve through religion, per se. People may also pursue other goals through church membership, such as social connections or social status. For example, John Grimes seeks a conversion experience, which is a form of mystical union with God. However, he seeks this union partly because he wants a better relationship with his stepfather (who he thinks is his true father) and with Elisha (upon whom he has a crush).
The things that each of the characters in the novel hoped to achieve through religion may have changed over time. Before the Civil War, the story of the Exodus inspired the slaves to dream of the end of slavery for everyone and sometimes even to escape from their own enslavement. After Emancipation, many former slaves embraced a “Protestant work ethic” or “Calvinist work ethic,” which is the idea that hard work, self-discipline, and frugality are not just practical matters that promote prosperity and social advancement but signs of spiritual salvation. Thus, the members of Gabriel’s church would rather spend time singing hymns in church than carousing at a juke joint or watching a scandalous movie at a movie theater. They hope that their piety will bring rewards in the next life, if not in this one.
Hopes and Frustrations
The structure of the novel is a frame with embedded flashbacks. The frame (the beginning and ending of the story) consists of a few days in Harlem in the mid 1930s. The flashbacks deal with events that begin before Emancipation and extend through a tumultuous period, from Reconstruction through World War I to the start of the Great Depression. Florence, Gabriel, and Elizabeth have all come to Harlem as part of the Great Migration, which led to the Harlem Renaissance. Yet the Harlem Renaissance was hard hit by the Great Depression. So, the characters’ hopes are continually being dashed by harsh experience: first by slavery, then by grinding poverty, as well as exploitation and brutality by some white men, whose misdeeds to unpunished. Even the migration to the “black mecca” ends in frustration because of the Great Depression. The characters tend to follow either of two coping strategies: either they simply try to enjoy life as much as they can (Esther and Roy), or they abstain from earthly pleasures in order to build a better life, in this world or the hereafter.
Baldwin and Civil Rights
Baldwin frankly depicts how badly blacks were treated by whites before and after the Civil War, both in the South and in the North. Go Tell It on the Mountain was published in 1953, which was just at the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement. Baldwin became an important figure in that movement. Not only did he work closely with key figures, such as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers, his writings and public speeches were highly influential. One of Baldwin’s strengths as a civil rights activist was that he was not racist himself. From early in his youth, he befriended white people who helped him in his literary career and in his political work. If black people’s lives (and poor white people’s lives) are nowhere near as hard as they were when Baldwin was growing up, Baldwin is partly to thank for that. Because of reforms initiated during the Civil Rights Movement, brutal and exploitive men could be held accountable for their misdeeds. As a result, brutality and exploitation could be punished through legal means.
Baldwin Debates Buckley
Here’s a fascinating video of Baldwin debating William F. Buckley at the Cambridge Union in England in 1965. Buckley founded the National Review magazine. In 1957, Buckley argued in Why the South Must Prevail that it was good for the South to deprive black citizens of voting rights. Note that one of the key achievements of the Civil Rights Movement was the Voting Rights Act, which President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed into law in 1965. This law prohibited racial discrimination in voting. Not only did it allow black people to vote, it enabled black people to serve on juries, since jurors were often selected from among the registered voters. Thus, the Civil Rights Act was an important step toward liberty and justice for all.