Go Tell It On The Mountain Summary

While reading Go Tell It on The Mountain, written by James Baldwin. There are many characters in the story that have compelling stories from Gabriel, Elizabeth, and Florence; but the most complex character throughout the story is the main character John Grimes whose life is based off the life of James Baldwin. From the beginning to the end of the story we peel away more and more about John and we begin to learn more and more about him and the relationships that he has and what they mean to him, furthermore we learn about how he feels about his religion, sexuality, and most importantly his family. The story takes place over a course of 24 hours and beginning on John’s fourteenth birthday on a Saturday in 1935 and ends that Sunday after a church service. Part One: “The Seventh Day” starts with John giving the audience a mental description of his church Fire …show more content…
One of the things that I found in the book was that it was a loosely based autobiography on James Baldwin’s life. Like Baldwin, I myself grew up attending a Pentecostal church, so while I was reading the story there were things that Baldwin talks about when he mentions the church that I understood. The perfect example was when Baldwin talks about storefront churches; even though I didn’t attend one, I have been to multiple, so I found it very interesting that there are things that were in my book, that connected with personal things in my life. Specifically in Part Three: “The Threshing Floor”, John talks about hearing the saints rejoice and growing up in church that was something that I witnessed almost every Sunday I was in church. I personally enjoyed reading this book more so than I did Black Elk Speaks, so I believe that this is a book that you should definitely give to your future students, because it delves into issues that most people are uncomfortable talking about like religion and