James Baldwin's Go Tell It On The Mountain

Title: Go Tell It on the Mountain

Author: James Baldwin

Date of Publication: 1953 Biographical Information about the author:

James Baldwin was an essayist, playwright, and novelist in the 1950’s until his death in 1987. His works often delve into the issues of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies. Baldwin was born in Harlem, New York and was raised by a single mom whom left his father because of his drug abuse, but quickly remarried. As a young child, James spent most of his time caring for his numerous siblings, leaving little time to be a kid. Being black in a racially divided world, Baldwin encountered many altercations. One instance, James recalls being bullied by two police officers for his race. This and other

He turned to religion as a means of safety from his peers’ bullying and also from his stepfather’s abuse. He became a junior Minister and quickly drew large crowds. After only a few years in the church, Baldwin realized his turn to religion was only for personal reasons and he stopped practicing religion altogether. He began writing in the mid 1940’s and had his first work published in 1947. He later went on to write Go Tell It on the Mountain, Notes of a Native Son, Giovanni’s Room, and several other acclaimed works. He stood for racial equality through nonviolence and even conducted a lecture tour for the Congress of Racial Equality. He wrote numerous articles about the movements and was featured on Time’s magazine cover. It was known that James Baldwin was gay though he never came out Even so, he made an appearance in the Civil Rights

This moment demonstrates the novel’s almost sarcastic tone.

Another moment where tone is developed occurs when Elizabeth moves to the city to be with Roy. The narrator tells how they will soon be married but only as soon as Roy saves up enough money, which isn’t happening anytime in the near future because he is in school and makes very little money to begin with. Although Roy doesn’t directly say he’s not going to marry Elizabeth, in a snarky way the narrator points this out to the reader.

Identify similes and metaphors that appear in the work. Quote, cite, and explain the simile or metaphor.

Similes:

"And the darkness of John's sin was like the darkness of the church on Saturday evenings" (Baldwin 18). This simile is obvious. John’s wrongs are considered the evilest of them all because a church is most vacant on Saturday nights. This simile also implies that John is not far from salvation, if he sought it, much like Saturday night is merely hours away from Sunday morning the most religious church