Go Tell It On The Mountain By James Baldwin

“Go Tell It on the Mountain” by James Baldwin is a loosely based autobiography about James Baldwin’s life growing up in Harlem. I found this book to be a very interesting read and I feel like I learned a lot more about the African-American culture and their ways of religion. There is a lot going out throughout the novel with many side stories and different perspectives from the different characters. Perhaps the most troubling yet prevalent story line throughout is the struggle between John and his father, Gabriel. He is constantly looking for his father’s love and approval, but never gets it because he does not accept him as his own child. I came to find out throughout the novel that Gabriel has had a very tough past, with having a secret love child while

John struggles throughout the novel with the relationship with his father, religion, and racism. The other characters also struggle with religion and racism as well. They have all sinned, yet want to be good and forgiven of their sins by the Lord and are tired of racism in Harlem. The novel has a very religious theme throughout, including similar ties to the Bible with the struggle of Gabriel wanting a holy son given to him by the Lord, but does not want to count John because he is a bastard child. Racism is also very prevalent as they go through living in a place at a time when this was very difficult with stabbings, lynching, rapes, and slavery. What I found to be most interesting throughout the book was a specific passage from the novel that had to do with Florence and Gabriel when growing up. It starts out with Florence expressing her disappointment in Gabriel’s birth when she was five years old, because she feels like ever since that moment, she no longer had a future due to the fact that Gabriel was a boy and therefore more loved by their mother. “..Florence was a girl, and would by and by be married, and have children of her own, and all the duties of a woman;