Go Tell It On the Mountain
(James Baldwin)

Part One – “The Seventh Day”

The novel begins on John’s fourteenth birthday in March of 1935. He is the eldest child of Gabriel, a preacher, and Elizabeth, who is pregnant. His younger siblings are Roy, Sarah, and baby Ruth. There is a nearby church called Temple of the Fire Baptized, and it is a large part of life for John and his family.

John describes all of the people in his neighborhood who are “sinners”, and those whom he admires, like Brother Elisha who has been saved. John wakes up, realizes it is his birthday and remembers that he has sinned, by masturbating in the bathroom at his school. This single act is tormenting John and puts a stress on him, and his relationship with his father because he believes that to be submissive to his father and to be submissive to God are mutually inclusive concepts. He has a particularly difficult relationship with his father, whom he sees as tyrannical.

The only thing that keeps John’s spirits up is the fact that he is a brilliant student and is often praised by both his black and white teachers.

John sees his house as totally disgusting and feels that nothing can be done to make it clean at this point. When he arrives downstairs in the kitchen, he sees that his little brother, Roy, is fighting with his mother, as always. They argue because Roy is rebellious, especially against his father’s puritanical beliefs, and everyone at their church keeps hoping that he will have a drastic change of heart. Throughout the arguing, no one seems to notice or remember that it is John’s birthday.

Elizabeth and Roy only stop arguing when it becomes obvious that they care about each other deeply, and most of their arguing is about the way Gabriel treats and disciplines his children and not about Elizabeth at all. When the arguing is over the children begin on their chores, John’s being to dust the furniture and sweep the living room. This is John’s chore every week, and he feels that no amount of dusting will ever make the room as clean as he wishes it would be. He sees old pictures on the mantle of his father with his first wife, Deborah, who died years ago, and of his Aunt Florence.

John wonders if Deborah could have told him how to make Gabriel love him. John finishes his chores and spends some time thinking about his troubled relationship with his father and his own sins, and then his mother calls him into the other room and gives him birthday money, having finally remembered. She tells him that she loves him and sends him out to pick up a present for himself.

John goes to Central Park and climbs his favorite hill, where he thinks about how he is torn between the life of religion that his father preaches, and the life of freedom that he sees in the people who are walking down Fifth Avenue. He wishes for a life of riches for he and his future wife and children, and doubts if any of the happy, wealthy people he sees walking in front of him read the Bible every day, but he doubts that they will burn in Hell, either. John’s father feels that all white people are evil, but John does not feel the same way. All of the white people he has met, mostly in school, are kind toward him, and he feels as though once he makes his mark on the world they will honor him. As John thinks about it, he wonders if he does fit in with the white people because he remembers the stories he heard about how white people treated black people in the south. He changes his mind and thinks that he probably could hate white people because of how wicked they have been in past times, and realizes that the world he is seeing in front of him on Fifth Avenue is not his world at all.

Before John heads home, he goes to see a movie which makes him think about Hell and the extensive choice he has to make between a life of religion and a life of freedom and what that would mean for him. Once he returns to his house, he sees that his mother and his Aunt Florence are taking care of Roy who has apparently been stabbed in a fight. Roy and his friends had gone to the other side of town to pick a fight with some white boys. John’s father makes him look at the wound, and he tells him that the wound is a reminder of what white people do to black people because they are evil. Elizabeth and Florence disagree with Gabriel because they know that Roy is always looking for a fight somewhere, and it is usually his own fault when something like this happens. Gabriel tells Elizabeth that it is her fault when stuff like this happens because she lets the kids do whatever they want, but Elizabeth says no one can control Roy because he will always rebel. Gabriel slaps Elizabeth and whips his son until his sister, Florence, stops him.

John heads to the church to do his chores there and runs into Elisha. He and Elisha get into a wrestling match, all in good fun, and John holds his own for a little while. Elisha talks to John about being saved, though John is not sure that he wants to be saved. Two church members come in and sing a spiritual with Elisha, while he plays the piano. John sees his parents and his Aunt Florence come into the church, and he is confused and surprised because his aunt has never been in the church before. He knows that something significant must be happening that night and begins to wonder and fear what that could be.

Part Two – “Florence’s Prayer”

It is Florence’s first time in the church because she does not agree with her brother’s religious views. She is only there out of fear, though she sees that Gabriel is quite happy with her presence. She knows that he feels she must be having a change of heart and he is happy to see her paving her path to salvation. Florence knows that she is seriously sick and is dying, and she fears death, which she sees staring at her from the corner. Florence swallows her pride and sings hymns with the rest and kneels at the altar. Florence begins to reflect on her life and the moments that led her here. She recalls the night that Gabriel’s first wife, Deborah, was raped and murdered by a group of white men and their mother led them in prayer. Their mother was a slave in the south for more than thirty years before she was rescued, and thus had a deep hatred for the white man. Florence’s mother would tell Florence and Gabriel tales of her own experiences and also stories of the Bible, which she found similar. Florence used to dream of fleeing, as her father did, so many years before.

Florence and Gabriel’s mother always had a soft spot for Gabriel and showed obvious favoritism toward him. Florence was not allowed schooling, though Gabriel’s education was always seen as hugely important. Florence was five years older than Gabriel, but her future, if their mother even thought she had one, was obviously insignificant in comparison to Gabriel’s. Gabriel did not want the schooling, that Florence so desperately wished she could have, and was a wild and reckless boy who set no store in the rules. Their mother would constantly pray for Gabriel to change and become the child she wanted him to be, and seemed to care remarkably little about Florence at all. Gabriel became quite the drinker in his youth and was a sinner amongst the worst of them. Despite the fact that Gabriel was the opposite of what any parent would want, he was the golden child in their mother’s eyes, and Florence was always on the sidelines. Florence hated her brother with a passion and finally, at the age of twenty-six, she got up the nerve to do exactly what her father did; she left her mother, who was on her death-bed, and headed north ready for a life she had always dreamed of.

For a moment, the reader is put back into John’s perspective as he people-watches at the church, with more church-goers arriving. Florence remembers when she met her husband, Frank, and their life in New York City. Frank was an alcoholic and quite irresponsible with money, which put a large burden on Florence and their marriage. They would fight often about Frank’s shortcomings, and when they did he would leave for days and come back more pathetic than when he left. Eventually Frank got tired of the fighting and left Florence for another woman whom he until he died in France during the First World War. The only reason Florence even found out about Frank’s death is because his girlfriend informed her of it. Florence remembers a time when she got a letter from Deborah, Gabriel’s first wife, suspecting that Gabriel had a child with another woman that he never told her about. Florence never found out if Deborah confronted Gabriel about it. Florence had always carried the letter around with her, armed with blackmail against the brother she has so loathed, and that night at the church was no difference. Florence realizes that her brother will outlive her, and laugh at her dead body in its grave, because he has been saved and is a different man. Florence wonders if this night would be the perfect night to show Gabriel the letter and to let him know that she has known about it for all of those years, and so did Deborah.

Part Three – “Gabriel’s Prayer”

While in the church Gabriel begins to look back on his life. He recalls sitting at his mother’s bedside while she was dying, and the way she looked at him, knowing that her son is an alcoholic, and she was never able to help him or change him. Gabriel then decided to make a change in his life and be saved. When he was twenty-two years old, he experienced a religious rebirth and felt alive again. Gabriel began preaching and gained respect from many people who would come from all around to hear his sermons. Gabriel met a woman named Deborah who had been friends with Florence and was a couple years older than him. Deborah had been raped by a group of white men when she was younger and since then had become acutely religious. Gabriel admired her religious conviction as he was looking for a way to change his life at this point. Gabriel married Deborah after being visited by God in a dream. God had told Gabriel that he will have a son who will save him from all of his sins and he will be granted forgiveness, and his son will also be saved.

Gabriel briefly comes back to reality when he hears Elisha preaching and fears for a moment that John has been saved. Gabriel does not want John to be saved because John is not Gabriel’s birth son, not the son that God had promised to him in his dream. Roy is Gabriel’s son and is a spitting image of Gabriel in his youth, full of rebellion and recklessness; therefore Gabriel is convinced that Roy is the son that God will save for him. John is Elizabeth’s son that she had with another man out of wedlock and Gabriel refuses to think of her bastard child as his own, no matter how much she insists that all the children are treated equally by them. Gabriel sees John as nothing more than a product of Elizabeth’s sins from her life before she met him, and not worthy of becoming a child of God, or of being his means to be saved.

Gabriel spends some time thinking about a woman named Esther whom he had an affair with shortly after he and Deborah were married. Esther worked for the same family that Gabriel did, and he did not approve of her impiety, and even pitied her for it, so he invited her to attend one of his sermons. One day Esther came to see him and he lectured her about her sins, though hypocritically ended up sleeping with her. Though their affair was short, only nine days, she informed him months later that she was pregnant. Gabriel stole money from Deborah to give Esther so she could get away to have the child, as he did not want anyone to find out that he had fallen off the wagon. Gabriel had no intention of leaving Deborah to be with Esther, as he saw Esther as an evil woman. He felt as though God sent Esther to him to test his loyalties and willpower, a test which Gabriel obviously failed. Esther sent Gabriel a nasty letter a few months later from Chicago. Esther died while giving birth, but not before she named her son, Royal, as Gabriel always said he would name his first son. Esther did not do it out of respect but out of mocking, because Gabriel wanted to name his son after the royal line of those who are faithful, something he obviously was not.

Gabriel and Deborah remained close to Royal as he grew up, though never acknowledging that Gabriel was, in fact, Royal’s father. If Deborah knew the truth, she did not let on. Years later, when Deborah was quite ill, she told Gabriel that Royal had been killed in a knife fight, as he was quite rebellious like a younger Gabriel and Gabriel began to sob. Deborah finally asked Gabriel if Royal was his child and Gabriel confessed to her that he was. She told him that she knew the whole time and was simply waiting for him to confess to her because she would have raised Royal as her own child. Deborah was not able to have her own children and would have been glad to raise Royal as a part of their family. Deborah told Gabriel that it would be difficult for God to forgive him for this giant sin and he better pray day and night until he is forgiven.

Back in the church, John is trying to pray. As he is kneeling he looks around him and tries to concentrate. He struggles with the knowledge of the hatred that occurs between he and his father, not knowing that Gabriel is not his birth father. He hears people speaking of salvation but has a hard time deciding what that means to him, if anything. Gabriel feels, through John’s stare, that John is judging him as everyone always has. Gabriel tells John to kneel before him.

Part Four – “Elizabeth’s Prayer”

As Elizabeth stands in the church, she begins to reflect back on her life. She remembers losing her mother at the age of eight. Rather than allowing Elizabeth to stay with her father, her aunt brings her to live in Maryland, taking her away from her father forever. Elizabeth hated living with her aunt and resented her for taking her from her father. Elizabeth’s aunt would constantly remind her of all she did for her, and Elizabeth was too proud to be grateful for the gift she never asked for. Her aunt despised her disrespect and warned her that God would punish her for it.

Elizabeth met a grocery clerk named Richard in 1919, and she fell madly in love with him right off the bat. Richard wanted to move to New York, as he hated living in the South and he wanted Elizabeth to come with him, where they could be married. Elizabeth convinced her aunt to allow her to move to Harlem to stay with a relative and she and Richard got jobs in a hotel. While Elizabeth had been living with her aunt, and under her aunt's religious guidelines, she had managed to hold onto her virginity. New York City was a much different place than Maryland, with people who did not judge and no aunt to be watching over her and soon she and Richard fell into a life of sin and sex with one another. Elizabeth was the strength in her relationship with Richard and feared that he was too fragile to stand on his own; thus she stayed with him in spite of his adamantly antireligious view on life. Richard and Elizabeth were, mostly, truly happy together, and Elizabeth looks back on their time together fondly. Her only regret in their relationship was not telling him that she was having his baby. Elizabeth felt that telling him that she was pregnant would put a strain on their relationship and make Richard feel as though he had to marry her, but she did not want to put that pressure on him.

One night Richard was in the wrong place at the wrong time when a group of black adolescents who had just committed a robbery stood on the subway platform next to him. When the police came they assumed Richard was one of the robbers and took him into custody, not believing his story that he was simply waiting for the subway and did not know the other guys. Richard was badly beaten in jail and was taken to trial for the robbery he had nothing to do with, and was eventually cleared of all charges. Though Richard was innocent, he felt that his reputation would never bounce back from that moment and that the police would always be watchful of him from that moment on, and thus he took his own life. Elizabeth was devastated and regretted not telling him about their child.

Elizabeth began working in an office building as part of a cleaning crew, and there she met Florence. Elizabeth had just given birth to John, her son with Richard. Florence was quite a bit older than Elizabeth, but the two of them became close friends, regardless. Florence introduced Elizabeth to her brother, Gabriel, who had recently lost his wife and moved to New York. After being with Richard, Elizabeth had lost her religion, and her faith and Gabriel helped her to find it again. Gabriel promised to care for John as if he were his own son, and gave Elizabeth a strength and comfort that she had not been able to find since Richard had killed himself. Elizabeth was finally beginning to have hopes and dreams for the future again. Elizabeth remembers how loud John cried when he was born, after she went through the suffering of child birth, and again she hears John cry. John is writhing on the ground of the church, in certain agony, as he allows God to save him from his sins and his life, feeling obvious pain under the weight and power of God.

Part Five – “The Threshing Floor”

John is having a spiritual rebirth and awakening. He begins to hallucinate sharply and has many thoughts ravaging his mind, from those of his relationship with his father to all of his fears and doubts about life. He feels great, vivid, suffering though it is all in his head. John sees visions of heaven and hell and life leading to death. After enduring the painful transformation of his mind and body, he finally catches a glimpse of God Himself and knows that he has been saved. Upon waking in the morning, John knows that he was saved over the night, and he allowed to Lord into his mind and body; he took the plunge. He finds that his entire family, and Brother Elisha, stayed with him throughout the night. John’s transformation is the cause of much rejoicing and pride amongst his family and the people of the church. Elizabeth and Florence are extremely proud of John and encourage him in this new phase of his life. Unfortunately, and much to John’s dismay, Gabriel does not seem happy at all, he seems rather cold and distant as always. John tells Gabriel that he saw God and he knows that he has, in fact, been saved, but Gabriel seems skeptical. Gabriel tells John that just because he says it is so does not make it so; he needs to live the life of a saved man and show he is a man of God in his actions.

Elizabeth is overcome with ardent emotion suddenly, as the other women of the congregation congratulate her on John being saved. She is happy for her son but also emotional about the many things she has experienced in her life and her feelings about these things. The other women just assume that Elizabeth is happy for John, not understanding that she has experienced more than they can know or understand. As Florence and Gabriel leave the church Florence finally confronts Gabriel with all her animosity toward him and his treatment of other people. She asks him if he has ever met anyone in life that he did not try to make feel terrible about their life and decisions. To her, and to many others, Gabriel is always the rain on the parade; while everyone else rejoices he is the skeptic and the downer. Florence shows Gabriel the letter that she had been carrying for so many years; the letter from Deborah claiming that she knows Royal is his child. She tells him that he cannot make Elizabeth and John pay for his sins, along with Elizabeth’s, just so Roy and Royal do not have to, even though Royal is already dead. Though they are all coming from a sin-ridding ritual, Florence digs up Gabriel’s sins and threatens to tell Elizabeth about his affair with Esther and his other son, Royal, as Elizabeth has no idea.

John is having a hard time dealing with his emotions about his new life. He walks with Elisha and begs him to help with the change. John needs Elisha to help him stay on track and stay out of the way of sin. Elisha refers to John as his little brother, as they are both God’s children now, and tells him that he would never let him falter. When they arrive at John’s house, Florence and the other women from the church wave to them from the street and Elisha gives John a kiss on the forehead as he drops him off at his doorstep. John’s parents walk up to the doorstep where he stands and see John smiling at Elisha as he walks away. John looks up at Gabriel and smiles at him, but Gabriel looks at him sternly as ever, with no love or smile on his face. John looks into the doorway and sees his mother standing there, smiling back at him as always.