Sometimes, we spend so much time trying to prove ourselves to others, that we forget the talents we possess. In Go Tell It On the Mountain, James Baldwin addresses this problem by telling the story of John Grimes, a young boy who is trying to prove himself to his father, Gabriel. John has no idea why he is receiving so much hate from his father, who is the pastor of their church, so he spends lots of time trying to prove himself to the man he looks up, failing to realize his independence and strength. John’s freedom comes when he realizes that he no longer has to spend his days proving to Gabriel that he is a perfect son. James Baldwin was born and raised in Harlem, New York, in 1942 to a single mother, Emma Jones, who never told Baldwin his biological father’s name (Leeming 18). Jones married Baptist minister David Baldwin shortly after James was born, and young James aspired to be just like his father. Despite his …show more content…
stepfather being a pastor and his family being very religious, Baldwin was gay and was not a religious man for most of his adulthood. Baldwin’s early life was spent in Harlem, usually in seclusion and loneliness (“James Baldwin”). In James Baldwin: A Biography, David Leeming writes about the African-American culture that was deeply ingrained into Baldwin, shown in the topics he writes about. Baldwin’s novels often closely follow his own experiences and addressed serious topics that mattered to him, such as racial equality and religion. Baldwin was an inspirational figure, standing up for black rights and the LGBTQ community, all of which translates to his writing. Baldwin’s books have been praised by many other novelists, writers, and authors and his many books have been read worldwide and used as a source of inspiration for others (Leeming). To this day, Baldwin is considered one of the best African-American novelists of his time, and perhaps of all time as well, appealing to the people with his brash writing skills (“James Baldwin”). In Go Tell It On the Mountain, Baldwin portrays John as a lonely kid who desperately yearns for the love and attention of his “holy” father.
Gabriel never shows any love of any kind, and in fact shows lots of hatred towards a son who is in dire need of a father figure. This relationship was almost exactly like James and his stepfather, David Baldwin’s relationship: one-sided and inhumane. James’ stepfather would show his resentment and hatred towards James, “repeatedly telling his stepson that he was ugly, marked by the devil” (Field). In order to win David’s love, James behaved well at school, home, and church, and even showed interest in becoming a pastor, just like his stepfather (Leeming 22). Despite his best efforts, young James was never able to receive true love and affection from his stepfather, something that dealt many blows to James’ self esteem (Leeming 33). Everything that James experienced as a child is expressed in some way through John, from the lack of love from their illegitimate fathers, to their holy and religious
experiences. The story of Go Tell It On the Mountain begins on the morning of John Grimes’ fourteenth birthday. The whole book takes place in one day, but Baldwin uses flashbacks to different memories to explain how John’s family came to be. John’s blood father Richard “cut his wrists with his razor” before John was born, because of an accident that involved the police (Baldwin 174). Shortly afterwards, John’s mother Elizabeth married Gabriel, a Pentecostal pastor (Baldwin 175). Gabriel is known for being a holy and righteous man, but during his relationship with Deborah- Gabriel’s first wife-, he commits adultery with a woman named Esther. Soon after sleeping with Esther, he finds out that she is going to have a baby boy, and wants Gabriel “to leave your wife-and come with me” (Baldwin 130). Gabriel refuses, and sends Esther to a city far away. Gabriel’s son is named Royal, and Gabriel becomes very paranoid. “They seemed suddenly to … stand in judgment on him; he saw his guilt in everybody’s eyes” (Baldwin 135). Gabriel believes that the rest of the world knows his secret and judges him for it, causing Gabriel to release a massive amount of hatred towards John, another example of an illegitimate son. John notes that “His father had always said that his face was the face of Satan” (Baldwin 27). John desperately wants the love of his father, and aspires to “be a preacher when he grew up, just like his father” (Baldwin 1), hoping that being his father’s intellectual equal would create a closer bond between father and son. John is so obsessed with winning his father over that he longs to hear from Gabriel’s first wife, Deborah. John thinks that Deborah “could have told him- had he but been able from his hiding-place to ask!- how to make his father love him” (Baldwin 30). Unfortunately, Deborah has been dead for a long time and John is put in a hopeless situation. On the night of his birthday, John becomes saved through prayer and hymns, and “the powers of darkness had been beaten back” (Baldwin 206). John becomes a holy and righteous man, just like his father, and makes sure that Gabriel knows (Baldwin 207). John realizes that he will never be able to change his father, and instead looks to God, saying that “My witness is in Heaven and my record is on high” (Baldwin 207). It is only when John is able to acknowledge that he no longer wants to prove himself to Gabriel that he is able to step out of fear and into a world of light and true holiness. Because John is no longer caught up with his father, “he walked out of his father’s house” (Baldwin 215) and realizes that no matter what anyone- including his father- says about him, he was saved and that alone is enough to make him special (Baldwin 220). For the first time in the book, John finds himself smiling and thinking of what the Lord has in store for him rather than being tormented by thoughts of his father (Baldwin 217). Many people read James Baldwin’s Go Tell It On the Mountain and sympathize with John, because he never ends up receiving the love he so desperately wants from Gabriel, failing to realize that John has gone from being a young boy who relied on his father, to a strong man who sees worth in himself. Ultimately, John’s realization of self worth helps him start his own journey, free to be whoever he wants to be. Realizing his salvation and connection with God helps John realize that he is special in his own way.
Jesse James was born on September 5th, 1847 in Kearney, Mo Jesses parents are Robert S. and Zerelda James. His mother Zerelda James was born on January 29, 1825 in Woodford county Kentucky. His father was Robert S. James was born July 17, 1818 in Logan county in Kentucky he married his wife in 1841. He attended Georgetown collage in Kentucky after received his diploma he and his wife moved to Missouri. This is when they decided to have Jesse’s oldest brother frank once born they bought a farm.
On June 26th 1974, in Pequannock, New Jersey, Derek Sanderson Jeter was born. His parents were Charles Jeter and Dorothy Connors. His parents had a rare relationship for their time. Charles was african american and Dorothy was white. In the 1960s marriage of separate races was frowned upon but they loved each other and made it work. When Derek was still a small child, Charles moved the family to Kalamazoo, Michigan. This is where practically Dereks whole childhood took place.
Thus being born half-white, his views and ideas were sometimes not in the best interest of his people. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Du Bois had a poor but relatively happy New England childhood. While still in high school he began his long writing career by serving as a correspondent for newspapers in New York and in Springfield, Massachusetts. After his high school graduation he enrolled at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.
A deeply pious man, John considers the Bible a sublime source of moral code, guiding him through the challenges of his life. He proclaims to his kid son, for whom he has written this spiritual memoir, that the “Body of Christ, broken for you. Blood of Christ, shed for you” (81). While John manages to stay strong in the faith and nurture a healthy relationship with his son, his relationship with his own father did not follow the same blueprint. John’s father, also named John Ames, was a preacher and had a powerful effect on John’s upbringing. When John was a child, Father was a man of faith. He executed his role of spiritual advisor and father to John for most of his upbringing, but a shift in perspective disrupted that short-lived harmony. Father was always a man who longed for equanimity and peace. This longing was displayed in his dealings with his other son, Edward: the Prodigal son of their family unit, a man who fell away from faith while at school in Germany. John always felt that he “was the good son, so to speak, the one who never left his father's house” (238). Father always watched over John, examining for any sign of heterodoxy. He argued with John as if John were Edward, as if he were trying to get Edward back into the community. Eventually, John’s father's faith begins to falter. He reads the scholarly books
Born into the Okimasis clan of the Cree First Nations tribe, Jeremiah and Gabriel share a host of similarities and differences. One thing the two brothers have in common is the magnitude of sexual abuse they receive while attending residential school. Jeremiah is noticeably traumatized by the events that occur, as he locks his memories in a "chamber deep inside his mind." (80) In contrast, Gabriel seems to accept the abuse he receives, as he imagines himself falling "down on his knees," clinging to his vision of seeing "God the Father, sitting large and naked in his black leather armchair." (83) Another ...
In Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain, the theme of music is one of the novel’s most powerful themes. From symbolizing character growth to the healing of physical wounds, music plays an integral part in this novel. While many critics will point out that music has little effect on the human psyche, Charles Frazier shows his belief that music does indeed have a profound effect on the human mind throughout Cold Mountain. Throughout the novel, Inman, Ada, Ruby, Stobrod, and many other characters experience music that allows them to keep faith against the odds or even heal their wounds! There are three major types of music used in this novel; hymn music, folk music, and “natural music”. It is through these types of music that the characters in this novel regain their strength to continue their journeys. Many critics of Cold Mountain claim that Frazier ignored certain historical facts in order to make his point. However, when writing about the music of the South during the Civil War, Frazier stays very accurate in the use and power of music. In the world of Cold Mountain as well as the historical South, music is an extremely powerful force.
Harris, Trudier. New Essays On Go Tell It On The Mountain. Ed. Trudier Harris. Cambridge UP: New York, 1996. 1-28.
In 1924, James Baldwin was born during the Great Depression. By 1938, at the tender age of fourteen years old, young James became a Pentecostal preacher. However, in 1948 he renounced himself as a preacher and moved to Greenwich, New York. He was able to save enough money to move to Paris, France. James Baldwin became well known for his experience as a black male in America and also contributing heavily in the Civil Rights movement.
When reading “My Dungeon Shook: A Letter to my Nephew”, it was clear that Baldwin was not just writing a letter to his nephew but to society by interacting personal thoughts with public awareness.
Baldwin's mind seems to be saturated with anger towards his father; there is a cluster of gloomy and heartbreaking memories of his father in his mind. Baldwin confesses that "I could see him, sitting at the window, locked up in his terrors; hating and fearing every living soul including his children who had betrayed him" (223). Baldwin's father felt let down by his children, who wanted to be a part of that white world, which had once rejected him. Baldwin had no hope in his relationship with his father. He barely recalls the pleasurable time he spent with his father and points out, "I had forgotten, in the rage of my growing up, how proud my father had been of me when I was little" (234). The cloud of anger in Baldwin's mind scarcely lets him accept the fact that his father was not always the cold and distant person that he perceived him to be. It is as if Baldwin has for...
This book is told from the diary of the main character, Sam Gribley. Sam is a boy full of determination. He didn’t give up and go home like everyone thought he would. He is strong of mind. After the first night in the freezing rain, with no fire and no food, he still went on. He is a born survivor. He lasted the winter, through storms, hunger, and loneliness, and came out on top even when everyone expected him to fail. “The land is no place for a Gribley” p. 9
John Grimes, the eldest son of Gabriel Grimes, a former well-respected and dynamic preacher, is in search of answers to his unhappiness. John wants to find his place within the church, define his relationship with God, and wants to flush the dislike he has for his father out. His father favors John’s younger brother Roy over himself. Although Roy is a bad seed and has an impeccable ability to get into trouble, he undoubtedly remains the apple of his father’s eye. John has been compared to another young man named Elisha, who is a member of the church.
One of his intriguing skills as a writer is his ability to intertwine narration and analysis in his essays. James Baldwin mixes narration and analysis in his essays so well that coherence is never broken, and the subconscious is so tempted to agree with and relate to what he says, that if you don’t pay close attention, one will find himself agreeing with Baldwin, when he wasn’t even aware Baldwin was making a point. Physical placement of analytical arguments and analytical transitions, frequency and size of analytical arguments, and the language used within the analytical arguments are the keys to Baldwin’s graceful persuasion. Throughout this essay, I will be using Baldwin’s “Notes of a Native Son” as an example. “Notes of a Native Son” is an essay that Baldwin wrote which focuses primarily on his life around the time his father died, which also happens to be the same time his youngest brother was born.
‘Hills Like White Elephants’ is a short story authored by Ernest Hemingway about an American and a girl named Jig. In the story, the two are sitting in a train station waiting for the train to Madrid. While they wait, they have an intense ongoing debate on whether or not to abort Jig. At the end of the story, the train is about to arrive and the man carries luggage on the tracks as they prepare to leave. The end of the story does not clearly define the outcome of its decision. She said I feel good at the end of the story - happiness is a central theme of the story, but we wonder if she went through with the operation. The paper discusses the manner in which symbolism has been employed in the story to communicate about an abortion, the couple is considering to go through.
James was an authoritarian parent. He was controlling, in-charge and no one questioned him. He would play the role of the doting father. When his children made mistakes, he made a point to criticize them. He often compared them to other kids that he felt were “more perfect.” When his often unspoken expectations were not met he would yell and scream striking fear into his entire family. “He’s not a warm, fuzzy kind of guy, and he’s not going to inspire feelings of intimacy. But when his system works, he can boast about one thing: His recruits tend to obey” (Dewar).