Go Tell It on the Mountain

Plot of the Novel

Based on the author's early experiences in a small church in Harlem, Go Tell It on the Mountain traces and elaborates upon the events that occur to John Grimes, the son of a preacher, on his 14th birthday. Through the use of flashbacks, the novel examines the struggling lives of John, his stepfather Gabriel, his mother Elizabeth, other members of his family, and his Sunday school teacher, Elisha, for whom John has great admiration.

The events span two days and a night with the Grimes family, with the hero being the 14-year-old John and his stepfather, Gabriel. James Baldwin divides his novel into three distinct parts. The first section of the novel, “The Seventh Day,” witnesses John's confusion over his future. It opens with John lying in bed on the morning of his 14th birthday, brooding over the family's expectation that he should be a preacher like his father. This part is where the novel's central action is and centers on John's maturing into manhood. John cannot figure out why his father hates him that much and gives all fatherly affection to his younger brother Roy. He struggles bitterly between his desire to win his father's love and his hatred for him. In so doing, the religious inclination of the boy makes him believe that he has committed the first major sin of his life, which eventually escalates into his religious crisis.

“Florence's Prayer” is the first prayer to be treated in Part Two, “The Prayers of the Saints,” which is broken into three stories that focus on the history of John's family: his stepfather Gabriel, his mother Elizabeth, and his aunt Florence. Florence, Gabriel's sister, recalls her childhood times when she resented her mother's favoritism over Gabriel and her dislike of her brother's treatment of his present and former wives.

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