The Novel Emma : Text, Story, Critical Analysis: Volume 3 Starts
A Critical Analysis of the Novel
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Transcript of A Critical Analysis of the Novel
A Critical Analysis of the Novel “Go Tell It on the Mountain” by James Baldwin
The Novel “Go Tell It on the Mountain” saw its publication in 1953. Baldwin emerged
as a prominent voice in the Civil Rights Movement during 1950s. Hence this novel
cannot be devoid of the influences of racism and its evil consequences, the conflicts in
the minds of characters to name a few. This presentation aims to analyse the narrative
technique, the auto-biographical elements and themes employed in the novel in a critical
way.
Narration
Go Tell It on the Mountain is a multifaceted novel that tells many different stories and
confronts many different themes. On the simplest level, it is the story of a young boy
coming of age. The boy's story gains complexity as it is interwoven with the stories of his
mother, father, and aunt. Go Tell It on the Mountain is also the story of religion and
racism and familial expectations and perceptions and how these forces impact people
struggling to survive.
Go Tell It on the Mountain doesn't follow what many would consider to be the standard
style of narration in which the events in the novel are presented sequentially and move, as
the characters do, through a semblance of real time. Instead, Go Tell It on the
Mountain is set on the birthday of John Grimes, but the story spans several decades. The
flashbacks of John's aunt, his mother, and his father give the reader insight into the lives
and minds of the characters.
Such insight was important to Baldwin who was most interested in the person behind the
persona. He believed that to truly know a person and to understand why a person reacts
or behaves in a certain way, you have to know the important events that shaped that
person's life. By the end of the novel, the manner in which the characters react to any
given situation can be extrapolated not only from their past actions but also by the
understanding that the reader has gained of the character's motivating force.
By using the frame story, Baldwin is able to tell many stories in such a way that the
readers essentially go on a voyage of discovery, learning about the characters as they are
revealed by themselves and by the others. Had Baldwin told the story in traditional linear
style, much of the impact would have been lost. By withholding key information and
surprising the reader with it throughout the novel, Baldwin builds suspense and is better
able to hold the interest of his audience.
This style of narration also imitates the way people learn about each other in real life.
Upon first meeting, a person does not truly understand the motivation behind another
person's actions. In the novel, for example, the reader cannot comprehend the actions and
reactions of the characters in Part One because so very little is known about them. By
reading through, though, the reader gains an understanding of the characters and the
events that shaped their lives and, therefore, gains an understanding of why they behave
as they do.
Baldwin believed that the only way to happiness was to truly know the people in one's
life. In Go Tell It on the Mountain, it is painfully obvious that none of the characters
really know each other. It is only the omniscient narrator who has a full and unbiased
knowledge of all events of significant importance. The use of the omniscient narrator is,
in itself, vital to the novel because no single character knows the full and true story of
every other character. In fact, the individual characters cannot be trusted to give an
accurate description of their own personal histories, colored as these histories are by their
own feelings and perceptions.
By using the omniscient narrator, Baldwin is able to give an accurate and complete
description of the lives of his characters. The reader is shown their emotions, actions, and
reactions and is therefore able to understand their personalities. Although individual
characters may interpret and react to the same situation in different ways according to
their own preconceptions and prejudices, the reader is given the opportunity to see events
as they actually happened.
AUTO-BIOGRAPHICAL ELEMENT:
Go Tell it in the Mountain is an autobiographical text that reveals the complicated
relationships that Baldwin had with his stepfather David Baldwin whom his mother had
married when Baldwin was a toddler. As Trudier Harris argues in “James Baldwin”
(2001), “Not only did his [Baldwin’s] stepfather assert that James was ugly and bore the
mark of the devil, but he refused to recognize James’s native intelligence of his
sanctioning by white teachers. This painful autobiographical material would provide the
substance of Baldwin’s first novel”
James Arthur Baldwin was born to Emma Berdis Jones and an unknown father on August
2nd in 1924 in Harlem, New York. He never knew the identity of his biological father
which haunted him all his life. In 1927, Emma marries David Baldwin, a storefront
church preacher who has recently moved to Harlem from New Orleans. Both Emma and
David were a part of the great migration in 1919, coming from the south to the industrial
north seeking better social conditions and economic opportunities. James Baldwin was
the eldest of nine children, he was forced to assume a kind of maternal role towards his
brothers and sisters. He desperately tried to receive love, but was constantly required to
give it. His stern, distant and authoritarian stepfather insisted that the children devote as
much time they could to his views of Christian teachings. At the age of fourteen James
experienced a profound religious crisis which broke down his previous opposition to
become a preacher: “I became, during my fourteenth year, for the first time in my life
afraid-afraid of the evil within me and afraid of the evil without” quoted James Baldwin.
The life of Baldwin gets reflected through the character John Grimes. John’s life stands
as a testimony to the life of the author himself. John and Baldwin become the victims of
identity crisis because of their inability to recognise their biological fathers. Both
Baldwin and John try to escape the isolation by way of expressing zeal in acquiring
modern education. Both Baldwin and John are expected to be good role models for their
respective siblings.
THEMES:
Family conflicts
The Grimes family is central to this novel and the tensions between and across
generations drive the past and present narratives. Violence and fear rather than love are
the overriding experiences as Gabriel dominates Elizabeth and the children as the
patriarch of the household. Through the tension created by Gabriel, there is a criticism of
the lack of love in the family unit and in American society. This is made evident with the
sympathetic characterization of John and his sense of isolation that is created ostensibly
by his step-father.
As the past histories of Florence, Gabriel and Elizabeth are told in Part Two, the secrets
of the older generation are revealed and, consequently, the reasons behind Gabriel's
cruelty to his current family are explored. One of the main negative influences on this
family's structure is traced back to racism, as with the suicide of John's biological father
(Richard) and slavery, as with the references to Gabriel and Florence's mother, Rachel.
The repression of secrets, such as Gabriel's first child and John's illegitimate birth, is also
criticized through the negative portrayal of Gabriel. The decision to hide the past is
expressed in this novel as an impossible action to perform, as the movement between the
past and present narratives demonstrates. This technique of switching the time frame
emphasizes how history cannot be erased when read in combination with the content; the
past is ever present.
Racism:
This novel draws on a history of the United States in that it offers an insight into the
effects of slavery and the migration of African Americans from the South to cities in the
North (Chicago and New York). With the older generation (Florence, Gabriel and
Elizabeth in particular), their unhappiness and alienation from the wider white-dominated
society is translated into bitterness and destructive behaviour. John's battle with Gabriel
is indicative of an antagonistic father-son relationship, and it is also representative of the
divisive influence of racism as Gabriel's impotency outside of the home is avenged on his
family.
By using John as the central protagonist, a perspective of the third generation of African
Americans who have never lived in the South is given. He cannot fully understand, nor
appreciate, why Gabriel is so entrenched in his hatred of the whites. John accepts praise
from white and African-American schoolteachers, whereas Gabriel (similarly to Richard)
has no trust in white people. On an abstract level, Gabriel and Richard's separatist
positions are contrasted with John's desire for integration. He is aged 14 and it is possible
to see his views as being offered as a naive voice. It is also worth remembering, however,
that John's perspective underpins the novel as his views are returned to intermittently. In
this light, his voice is favored. This is especially apparent when he is drawn in
comparison with Gabriel.
This is balanced somewhat with the exposition of Gabriel's background which, in turn,
characterizes him as complex rather than simply evil as John tends to interpret him.
Baldwin avoids completely demonizing Gabriel, then, because his identity is flawed, for
example, by the murder of his first son Royal. Gabriel is a beneficial recipient of
patriarchy, though, and his hypocritical treatment of Elizabeth, when criticizing her for
sinning without admitting his own similar faults, is not explained by racist treatment
directly. His cruelty is seen to be both formed by the influence of racism and by his
opportunistic abuse of power.
Racism shatters the lives of Florence and her mother. Florence looks back on her life,
beginning with a night when she was 13, huddled in the small cabin that she shared with
her mother and her brother, Gabriel. They feared that their home would be burned down
by white men in a way of retaliation for a father's threat of retribution for the gang rape
of his daughter Deborah. The horses and riders passed, and they knew themselves to be
safe for the time being.
Florence's mother, Rachel, had been a slave before she was freed by the Civil War and
had suffered all the miseries and injustices of her position. She had lost several children
through death or auction; she had even had one, whom she was never allowed to see,
taken away to live in the master's house. For these reasons, Gabriel and Florence were
especially precious to her. However, being a boy in a male-centered society, Gabriel was
even more special to her.
Memory:
Memory becomes an important theme in this novel. Each character goes back to his/her
past and one finds “Memory” haunting the Grimes family throughout the novel.
Feminism:
“Patriarchy” is questioned in this novel thereby bringing out feminist consciousness
among the women characters.
Gabriel had been their mother's favorite since his birth, and Florence feels cheated of the
things that she wanted but that were given to Gabriel instead. He had a chance to attend
school, he had the best clothes and food that the family was able to afford, and he had the
care of his mother and sister. Yet Gabriel never appreciated what he was given and
carelessly squandered it all.