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1、Religion in Go Tell It on the Mountain1.0 IntroductionReligion plays an essentially important role in African-Americans cultural construction and constitutes one of the major themes in their literature practice.African-American writers preference to religion theme is probably because religion is inv
2、olved deeply in almost every aspect of the blacks life and reflects their emotional and physical states from a specific perspective. By studying religions role in African-American literature, we can better understand how religion functions in building African-American identity and constructing its s
3、ubculture. From another angel to look at it, we may also come to learn how the individual African-Americans are religiously marked in seeking their identities. James Baldwin has been an influential religious style writer and epitomizes African-American thematic tradition of religious literature to s
4、ome extent. To study James Baldwin and his novel Go TellIt on the Mountain will provide us a window of how religion works in shaping African-American ethnic identity.James Baldwin, an African-American writer, for his genius talents and industrious exploring African-Americans living conditions and sp
5、iritual state, boasts of many titles: novelist, essayist, dramatist, scriptwriter, short story writer and author of childrens book.His novels are notable for the personal way in which they explore questions of identity. He tries to explore the problem of the black Peoples identity from the perspecti
6、ves of post colonialism. His works portray the black peoples collective sufferings: their unspeakable pain and their dilemma during the process of seeking for their normal identities in the white- centered society.Baldwins childhood, his religious experience in the Harlem region，and his exile in Fra
7、nce give him both a special and an original identity. What he is trying to do is to make people respect the human value of the individual，especially of the African American people. Thus the problem of identity is an everlasting theme in Baldwins works，which is best illustrated in his first and most
8、important novel，Go Tell It on the Mountain. 2.0 African-American Religion and James Baldwins Religious ThemeTraditionally African-Americans appeal to black religion positively for consoling their souls and encouraging them to be patient to overcome hardships. However, God may sometimes treat them un
9、fairly and suffer them. Based on their unique exilic experience, African-Americans boast of its featured religious literature theme. Baldwins ambiguous feelings to God and his never-stop exploration of this theme has been given a full play in his writing, especially in his first novel Go Tell It on
10、the Mountain.2.1 Religions Traditional Role in African-American CultureReligion and religious institution such as church, are of the great importance in African-American communities. It is instrumental to enable African-American of the diasporas to survive and flourish under some of the most unfavor
11、able conditions of the modern world.African-American religion has not always and in all circumstances functioned in this way for the advancement of the masses. But it is difficult to understand how even the most skeptical observers of the black religious experience in American could deny that, on th
12、e whole, religion and its ancillary institutions have served the people positively. One can scarcely imagine how they would have fared without them. In terms of the role of religion in African-Americans life, W. E. B. Dubois remarked in 1924:This (religion) then is the gift of the Black Folk to new
13、world. Thus in singular and fine sense the slave became master, the bond servant became free and the meek not only inherited the earth but made their heritage a thing of questing for eternal youth, of fruitful labor, of joy and music, of the free spirit and of the ministering hand, of wide and poign
14、ant sympathy with men in their struggle to live and love which is, after all, the end of striving. From Dubois remark we can get the knowledge that how important role religion plays in enabling African-Americans to survive the hostile environment. 2.2 African-American Literature about ReligionThe lo
15、ng line of black writers appealing to religious topic has built up a significant African-American literature tradition where they pour pains and express hopes. Through this tradition, African-Americans religion and identity often interact, from which they have been diligently seeking their identity.
16、They quest for a lovely and fairly God and also constantly raise questions to Him: Why are they so miserable? Who are they? The paradox and schizophrenia of the black American experience with Christianity constitute a huge canon of African-American literature. Much of the symbolism, language, archet
17、ypal rhythm, and thematic call for justice in African-American literature are so steeped in Christian ethics that readers may feel the Christian pathos themselves that is agonizing at the heart of the blacks. The concept of God as an anthropometric being who has listened and responded to His childre
18、n leads black people to take their burdens to the lord, to express their feelings openly and honestly, and to shout out their happiness in the lord in reaction to their frustrations in the world.African-Americans unique surviving experience characterized by their aspiration and needs of elevation an
19、d liberation has been building an inimitable subculture in America, even in human evolution history. This subculture is especiallymarked by both religion consolation and torture.2.3 James Baldwins Exploration in ReligionJames Baldwins choosing to take religious matter as his novels theme is not by a
20、ccident. He was under the influence of the family environment. When James Baldwin was three years old in 1927, his mother, Emma Burdis Jones, married David Baldwin, who legalized Baldwins existence by adopting him. His stepfather was a pious evangelical preacher in Louisiana. Even having a large fam
21、ily to nurture and less status in Harlem, David Baldwin held his family to strict interpretations of biblical texts. Wives were to be obedient and children were to be helpful but invisible; neither was to challenge the authority of the father who, following biblical injunction, is the head of his ho
22、usehold. In such a family with strong religious atmosphere, James Baldwins conversion to Christian is a natural result. Robert Bone writes:Baldwins ambivalent relationship with his stepfather served as a constant source of tension during his formative years and informs some of his best mature writin
23、gs. The demands of caring for younger siblings and his stepfathers religious convictions in large part shielded the boy from the harsh realities of Harlem street life during the 1930s. James Baldwins exploration in Christianity grows out of his personal religious experience. Baldwins desire and effo
24、rts to seek a lovely and fatherly God and social justice also come from his awareness of being a black artist. Baldwins significance in exploring the blacks functional being identity lays in his link it with both religion and those elements behind religion: politics and racial discrimination. His at
25、tempt to the zero distance to the essence of religion is his industry in grasping his functional being or even the blacks functional being by way of God. 3.0 Religious Allusions and SymbolismBiblical allusions and religious symbolism are embedded throughout the text. Unfortunately most of scholars h
26、ave just failed to give enough emphasis on it. Michael F. Lynch has once remarked:In spite of the profusion of biblical allusions and Christian symbols and themes throughout Baldwins writing, the scholarship, aside from brief mention of the residual Christian content of his imagery, his preacherly r
27、hythms, and his role as an Old Testament prophet, has offered no sustained treatment of his religious thought or theology. Readers may come to misinterpret James Baldwins intension if they fail to understand the extensive use of biblical allusions and Christian rituals for symbolic expression. To pi
28、ck out these intended allusions will instrumentally boost readers understanding of Baldwins intended meaning hidden between the lines. From these allusions, readers can also learn that how John Grimes endures his fathers bitter treatment and attempts to win his spiritual independence and psychologic
29、al maturity.3.1 Multiple Allusions to Fathers and SonsAmong the complicated relationships interwoven between different characters in Go Tell It on the Mountain, fathers and sons relationships are the hardest to define or interpret. Its uniqueness lies in the multiple allusions to the Bible. To make
30、it concise, I will focus on the most evident ones: Gabriel (father) and Royal, Roy and John (sons).Gabriels history of delusive theology involves casting himself in biblical roles which minimize his culpability and warrant his abandonment of Royal and oppression of John. In Gabriels two brilliant se
31、rmons presented in the novel, he alludes to several biblical narratives that foreshadow his relationships with his sons Royal, Roy, John. His basic theme of the failures of “many a father who gave to their children no bread but a stone” predicts the character of his paternity. It also implies Gabrie
32、l as a priests hypocrite and the hardships of Johns growing into his manhood and identity.In one of his sermons, Gabriel brilliantly lists the sins committed by man and especially mentions that “sin that caused Cain to slay his brother”. By this reference, Gabriel regards John as Cain and links the
33、story of Cains exile and loss of inheritance for killing his brother with his present persecution of John. In Chapter Four of Genesis:Cain rose up against his bother Abel, and killed him And the lord said, “What have you done? Listen; your brothers blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now
34、you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brothers blood from your hand. When you till the land, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” By this allusion, Gabriel evidently takes the part of God, who is suppos
35、ed to be in the “legitimate” position to have authority to banish the “offender” John. Gabriel wants John to remain as vulnerable as possible. Baldwin suggests that Gabriel somehow associates Johns supposed sinfulness with the crime of Cain and that sees John as the symbolic murderer of his illegiti
36、mate son Royal (and the potential symbolic murder of Roy), exonerating Gabriel himself and requiring Johns removal to prevent his usurping Royals, and now Roys birthright. However Baldwin does not allow us to accept Gabriels view of the father-son conflict. In this case as in several others, he show
37、s us by use of the very religious faith Gabriel professes that Gabriel has misconceived his own relationship to scriptural paradigms. John is not Ishmael, but Jacob, who supplants his brother Esau as the accepted heir against the wishes of his father and with his mothers encouragement.The symbolic i
38、dentification is prepared for in the early episodes of the novel, where his mother encourages John and Roy is clearly regarded by his father as his true heir; and it is made explicit before the end of Part One in the wrestling scene before the beginning of the tarry service. Before Jacob could claim
39、 the birthright, won on the human level by buying it from Esau and by tricking his father into giving it, he has to wrestle with an angel of the Lord. So John on the night of his initiation into the community of saints wrestles with a strong and holy young man who represents the Lord. Baldwin descri
40、bes Johns wrestling with Elisha in language that identifies it as more than a playful encounter and makes it a serious test of Johns strength. John sees his victory as a manifestation of his power and is filled with a wild delight. Baldwin has already prepared the reader for Elishas role as Johns gu
41、ardian angel by giving some history of their friendship and emphasizing Elishas holiness, but more explicitly he identifies Elisha after the wrestling match as a young man in the Lord; who, a priest after the order of Melchizedek, had been given power over death and Hell” recalling the words and Mes
42、sianic connotations of Psalm 110 (Allen, “Religious Symbolism”). Johns wrestling with Elisha is vividly alluded to the story “Jacob Wrestles at Peniel”:Jacob left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socke
43、t; and Jacobs hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “whats your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but I
44、srael, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Penile. Thus, Jacob here is John; Elisha is Lord; and Peniel is the divine church. Throughout Johns ordeal on the threshing floor Elisha continues his symbolic role as the a
45、ngel of the Lord: his interposed body prevents Gabriel from striking his stepson; his voice guides John through the dark; and his parting kiss is called the seal ineffaceable forever like the seal of God on the foreheads of the saved in the Book of Revelation. Like Jacob, John wrestles with an angel
46、 of the Lord to win his place as the recipient of his fathers reluctant blessing and as the heir to leadership of the chosen people in spite of his brothers birth-based claim. Similarly Jacob receives the new name Israel, John wins his Christian (baptismal) name: “He comes through,” cried Elisha, di
47、dnt he, Deacon Grimes? The Lord done laid him out, and turned him around and wrote his new name down in glory. Bless our God”! Baldwins italics, besides emphasizing the identification with Jacob and the relation to Christian doctrine, remind us that Johns real name is not Grimes, although he may nev
48、er know it. By use of the Jacob archetype, Baldwin suggests that as the spirit has triumphed over the flesh in Johns conversion, so in psychic terms his consciousness of self has overcome adverse family circumstances.3.2Dirt Dust and Color In describing the church and the process of Johns conversion
49、, Baldwin uses much of dust and dirt and color to enrich and foreground its religious meanings. By this, the Grimes family and even the black communitys multi-dimensional aspects of religion rather than the simply dichotomy of sin/sacred are well illustrated. Baldwin gives a still more universal significance to the black-versus-white problem by device of religious symbolism: dust and dirt. The Saturday morning cleani