Go Tell It on the Mountain | Go Tell It on the Mountain

At a glance:

Author: James Baldwin
First Published: 1953
Type of Work: Novel
Type of Plot: Social realism
Time of Work: 1880–1935
Setting: Harlem, New York City
Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Bildungsroman
Subjects: African Americans, Maturation or coming of age, Family or family life, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Parents and children, Racism, Sex or sexuality, Suicide, New York City, Sin or Original sin, 1930’s, Spiritual life or spirituality, Ministry or ministers, Inner cities or inner-city life, Oppression, Fathers, Adultery, Christianity, Faith
Locales: Harlem, NY, South (U.S.)

John Grimes, a fourteen-year-old boy who, everyone says, is destined to be a preacher and a great leader of his people. He is insecure, intelligent, and ambivalent in the love/hate relationship with the Reverend Grimes, who has taken over as his father, and his church. John is a pubescent artist who finds within himself a terrible conflict over his religious heritage. The novel relates what happens on his fourteenth birthday, a day only his mother remembers. The final chapter finds John writhing on the floor of a sanctuary, his soul the prize in a battle he...

Go Tell It on the Mountain | Go Tell It on the Mountain

At a glance:

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