Go Tell It On the Mountain
(James Baldwin)

John Grimes

John is the protagonist of the novel. He is a boy who has just turned fourteen and is searching for his place in life and acceptance from his father. John does not know that Gabriel is not his biological father and goes out of his way to achieve spiritual awakening and salvation in the hopes that Gabriel will finally love and be proud of him.

John does well in school and is well-liked by his teachers, including the white ones. He does not understand the older generation’s hatred toward white people, as he does not carry the scars of slavery and discrimination as the rest of them do.

John does not know whether he loves or hates the church and all it represents, but knows he is horrified and terrified of sin.

Gabriel Grimes

Gabriel is the stepfather of John, though John believes Gabriel to be his biological father. Gabriel lived a life of sin in his younger years and had a spiritual awakening in his early 20’s, when he met his first wife Deborah. Shortly after his marriage he had an affair with a woman named Esther which resulted in the birth of his first son, Royal, though Gabriel never told anyone that Royal was his son.

After Royal’s death, Gabriel came clean of his affair to Deborah. Later Gabriel married Elizabeth who already had given birth to John, and promised to treat John as his own, but did not. Gabriel is a preacher who is widely renowned, though he carries a lot of bitter resentment toward many people in his life and is not terribly friendly or forgiving, despite the fact that he is a hypocrite.

Elizabeth Grimes

Elizabeth is the mother of John, along with his siblings Roy, Sarah, and Ruth, and the wife of Gabriel. Elizabeth moved to New York City early in her adulthood with the intention of marrying her boyfriend, Richard, with whom she was expecting a child.

Unfortunately, Richard killed himself before Elizabeth could tell him that she was pregnant. Elizabeth married Gabriel who promised to treat John as his own, though he fell through on that promise. She was extremely hopeful of life that Gabriel could give her, as he seemed to be a truly religious man on the straight and narrow. He may have brought her to a place she wanted to be, but he has spent much time undermining her authority, as well. Elizabeth is uncommonly kind and loving toward her children.

Aunt Florence

Florence is the sister of Gabriel and a loyal friend of Elizabeth. She has carried resentment toward Gabriel for her entire life because their mother showed an obvious favoritism toward Gabriel, though he did nothing to deserve it as he was a bad seed.

Florence married an alcoholic named Frank who eventually left her for another woman then died in France during World War I. She carries with her the secret that Gabriel fathered a child from an extramarital affair while he was with Deborah and holds this knowledge over his head as blackmail. She is seriously ill but determined to make Gabriel respect both John and Elizabeth before she dies, knowing that he has respected few others in his life.

Brother Elisha

Elisha is a member of the church congregation and truly loving and accepting of everyone around him. Elisha is John’s role model and idol, as he someday hopes to be just like him. Elisha has been saved by the church, and John sees how happy Elisha is and hopes that if he is saved he will become that happy as well, and hopefully Gabriel will love him.

Elisha sticks by John through his awakening and walks him home afterward, planting a holy kiss on his forehead as a way to welcome him to his spiritual family.

Roy

Roy is John’s younger brother and Gabriel’s hope for Godly acceptance. Roy is a lot like Gabriel was when he was young, quite rebellious and reckless. Roy has little respect for his father and what he represents, nor does he appreciate his father’s parenting style.

Roy does not feel as though there is a place or a need for religion in his life, though it seems to be his father’s entire life. Roy and his mother often argue about Gabriel and his desire for Roy to accept God in his life and ask for salvation.

Roy shares a name with his half-brother Royal, who died before he was born and he does not know about.

Royal

Royal is the son of Gabriel and Esther. Royal has a relationship with Gabriel but has no idea that Gabriel is his father, as his mother died in childbirth and his father refused to tell anyone that he had an affair, preferring instead to keep an eye on Royal from afar.

Royal possessed many of the same qualities that Gabriel had when he was younger, being quite the sinner and caring little for the rules. Royal finds out when his wife, Deborah, is on her death bed that Royal has been killed in a knife fight in a bar and tells Gabriel that she knows Royal is his son.

Deborah

Deborah was Gabriel’s first wife and a dear friend of Florence. Deborah was a bit older than Gabriel, but he found her veracity for religion to be refreshing and hoped that she could help him on his journey to salvation. Deborah had been raped by a group of white men when she was a teenager, and that awakened her religious side.

Shortly after Deborah and Gabriel were married, he had an affair which resulted in the birth of Royal. Deborah always suspected that Royal was his child and told him years later, when he finally admitted it to her, that she would have taken Royal in and raised him as her own child if he had only told her. Deborah was barren, and she died at a fairly young age.

Esther

Esther is the mother of Royal and the woman that Gabriel had an affair with. Esther’s affair with Gabriel lasted only nine days, but she became pregnant. Gabriel would not stay with Esther because he saw her as nothing more than a harlot that got was tempting him with, a test that he failed. When he learned of her pregnancy, Gabriel sent Esther to Chicago to have the baby.

Esther despised Gabriel for kicking her and the baby to the curb and wrote him a mean letter upon the birth of the baby. She named the baby Royal, which Gabriel always wanted to name his first son because he knew the bloodline of those who are faithful is a royal line. Esther felt the name Royal would mock his hypocrisy. She died from complications of childbirth after having Royal.

Frank

Frank was the husband of Florence, to whom she was married for ten years. Frank was an alcoholic who was highly irresponsible with money. He always lived well beyond his means and spent the little money he had remarkably extravagantly. He and Florence would get into fights, and he would leave to go on a drinking and spending binge for days on end, returning to Florence even more pathetic and broke than he was before he left. Eventually Frank left Florence to live with another woman. Florence later learned, from Frank’s girlfriend, that he died in France while fighting in World War I.

Rachel

Rachel was the mother of Gabriel and Florence. She had been a slave and would always tell her children of the evil of the white man. She teaches her children about the Civil War as well as the emancipation of the slaves.

Rachel shows a strong favoritism toward Gabriel and not much thought at all to Florence, though Gabriel was a bit of a bad seed and was always off drinking, sinning, and being reckless.

Rachel’s character serves as a history lesson to the reader, to inform them of slavery and the injustice toward blacks in America, even after slavery was abolished.

Richard

Richard was the boyfriend of Elizabeth before she met Gabriel, and the biological father of John. Richard was antireligious and moderately reckless. He and Elizabeth moved to New York City to get away from the injustice of the south and also Elizabeth’s strict aunt.

Richard was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and assumed to be part of a group of robbers who had held up a store. He was badly beaten by the white police officers, and though he was cleared at trial he knew that he would forever be labeled and have a tarnished reputation just because of his association with the case. Richard took his own life the first night he was home from jail, never having found out that Elizabeth was pregnant with his child.

Ella Mae

Ella Mae is a teenage girl who is a member of the church. She is a close friend of Elisha’s, and possibly more, which John may or may not be jealous of, as he seems to be slightly infatuated with Elisha.

Ella Mae and Elisha are both publicly warned about the dangers of sinning and the repercussions of doing so, in front of the congregation, which leads one to believe that there is more going on with them than just friendship.

The Saints

The Saints are Mother Washington, Sister Price and Sister McCandless. The Saints are members of the church who have already been saved. On the night when John is being saved and accepting his role as one of God’s children, he becomes a Saint, and the rest of the Saints are all there with him.

The Saints have all experienced a spiritual awakening and accepted God as their savior and their leader. The Saints all welcome John and are proud of him and congratulate him and his parents on his newfound transformation.

Sarah and Ruth

Sarah and Ruth are the little sisters of John and Roy. The girls do not come into play much in the novel, which may be telling of how unimportant they are in the Grimes family. Gabriel’s vision of God told him of a son that he will have who will bear the stamp of God and be saved, but not of a daughter.

The only children that Gabriel ever seems to acknowledge in his life are Royal, whom no one even knew was his son, and Roy, whom Gabriel puts all of his hope into. John, Sarah, and Ruth do not even seem to register with Gabriel.