jasonkirk's Full Review: James Baldwin - Go Tell It on the Mountain
A neglected child. A black man in a white man's world. A gay man searching for his path in life. "You write of your experiences," James Baldwin once said. He exemplified this more than anything. James Baldwin wrote to overcome the obstacles in his life. He wrote in a calculated order, dealing with his past, present and future. In doing so, Baldwin wrote from somewhere far beyond, a place which authors strive for, but rarely achieve - the soul.
This is the first of three reviews on books by James Baldwin. This series of reviews includes Go Tell it on the Mountain, Giovanni's Room and "Notes of a Native Son."
As his early literature, Baldwin's first book, Go Tell it on the Mountain and essay, "Notes of a Native Son" turned into his coping mechanisms for a childhood of neglect, self loathing and a profound hatred and misunderstanding which separated Baldwin and his father in a rift of silence. Go Tell it on the Mountain was an unofficial autobiography of Baldwin's childhood. The main character, Johnny, is frail, intelligent, the oldest in a large family, all of which correspond to Baldwin's childhood. Like James, known to many as Jimmy, Johnny had a bad relationship with his father. Right down to a shared name of "Frog eyes," by which other children would taunt, Johnny was Jimmy. In Go Tell it on the Mountain, there is a distance between John and his father, created by the religious overzealousness of his father and by his own hatred, which taints even the kindest act of love. "It was his hatred and his intelligence that he cherished, the one feeding the other. He lived for the day when his father would be dying and he, John, would curse him on his death bed." Baldwin had felt this way about his father while he was a child, but as he grew, and through his writing, explored this father-son relationship, he would later come to terms with this hatred.
"My father asked me abruptly, 'You'd rather write than preach, wouldn't you?' I was astonished at his question - because it was a real question. I answered, 'Yes.' That was all he said. It was awful to remember that was all he ever said. "
Dealing with so many harsh memories, Go Tell it on the Mountain took Baldwin many tries to complete. He began many times, but none, even upon completion, seemed to be what he wanted. The fact that Mountain was so hard for Baldwin to complete, went beyond the normal first book problems. As he was writing he came to terms with who he was, where he had come from and also reached a realization that maybe, after all, there was love from his father. In "Notes of a Native Son", Baldwin finally accepted that he was filled with hatred and that he had to control it.
"This fight begins, however, in the heart and it now had been laid to my charge to keep my own heart free of hatred and despair. this intimation made my heart heavy and, now that my father was irrecoverable, I wished that he had been beside me so I could have searched his face for the answers which only the future would give me now."
James Baldwin was an ugly child, who had always been the smallest. He was going to hell and no one cared because no one loved him. These are the truths which Baldwin accepted as a child, and finally came to terms with through his writing. Much the same, in Go Tell it on the Mountain, John's father constantly reminds him that he is ugly, small and has no friends. Baldwin realized that if the world does a good enough job at oppressing a person, that person will begin to oppress themselves. This is what Baldwin had been doing while he was a child. Baldwin had succeeded to such a degree at oppressing himself, that he became isolated. His self-esteem was internally shattered from within and never let to heal because of external events and people. Like nearly all people, Baldwin longed to be "normal."
"He wanted to be one of them, playing in the streets, unfrightened, moving with such grace and power, but he knew this could not be. Yet, if he could not play their games, he could do something they could not do; he was able, as one of his teachers said, to think. But, this brought him little in the way of consolation, for today he was terrified of his thoughts. He wanted to be with these boys in the street, heedless and thoughtless, wearing out his treacherous and bewildering body."
Unfortunately, there were many factors which did not allow Baldwin to fit in. From his high intelligence and small stature, to his father, just going on each day was a challenge. Living with a preacher for a father, Baldwin dealt with religion and his soul's redemption constantly. For a child of 14, eternal fire and damnation were a burden that could only be lifted years later when Baldwin let his affliction flow from his pen as he wrote, "John thought of Hell, of his soul's redemption, and struggled to find a compromise between the way that led to life everlasting and the way that ended in the pit."
While the main focus of Baldwin's first book was to overcome a past filled with pain and hatred, he also made attempts, which were later followed up in greater depth and with more understanding, to deal with other areas of suffering which plagued this tortured man. The issue of race was one such area.
"They both stopped, astonished, and looked at one another. John struggled to catch his breath and apologize, but the old man smiled. John smiled back. It was as though he and the old man had between them a great secret."
Baldwin had known of hate, but had yet to experience the hatred and malice which existed between whites and blacks while he was the age of Johnny. In the preceding, Johnny has not yet been tainted, but through what Baldwin wrote and the fact that it is surprising to see such an exchange, he made his first steps toward examining the race issue. "In John's mind then, the people and the avenue underwent a change, and he feared them and knew that one day he could hate them if God did not change his heart." A greater connection can be found between Go Tell it on the Mountain and Giovanni's Room, in which Baldwin addresses the issues of homosexuality. In Go Tell it on the Mountain, Elisha is an older boy in the church. Throughout, the subtle undercurrents of Johnny's attraction for him can be seen. "John stared at Elisha all during the lesson, admiring the timbre of Elisha's voice, very much deeper and manlier than his own, admiring the leanness, and grace, and strength, and darkness of Elisha."
"He who is filthy, let him be filthy still." was a reoccurring theme of dirtiness that began in Go Tell it on the Mountain. John masturbated and thus believed himself to be dirty. He was constantly surrounded by dirt and scum. From his house, to the streets, he could not escape it. These references were Baldwin's early way of dealing with the issue of his sexuality. The feelings which would come later in Giovanni's Room would not have been tangible yet to a young boy, but the young boy who was filled with problems and things he did not understand, would soon enough find that life as an adult was no easier, especially when dealing with being gay and living the life.
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