Analysis Of Go Tell It On The Mountain By James Baldwin

Throughout the novel, Go Tell it on the Mountain written by James Baldwin, there is a shift between time periods. The way that James Baldwin wrote this novel, kept readers attentions and also provided readers with background information in regards to each of the characters’ lives and the events that were being taken place. James Baldwin’s writing technique switches time periods from the past to present time. At first, I found this writing technique to be confusing because often times I would find myself thinking that things that happened in the past of the character’s lives were really happening in present time. For example, on page 11, the narrative breaks from past time to present time when Baldwin goes from describing how Ella Mae and Elisha were no longer seeing each other after school to talking about Johns birthday. While reading this, I thought that the narrative was still in past time, but when I continued to read it caught my attention that this was going to be a background story about John’s 14th birthday.

Another instance of the use of Baldwin’s writing technique is in chapter two part two of “Gabriel’s Prayer”. In this chapter, Baldwin uses his writing

One significant time change that occurred in that chapter was when Baldwin was describing the last moment that Elizabeth and Richard had together before he committed suicide, then it transitions into present time with Elizabeth in the church. The transition into present time begins with the church singing “somebody needs you, Lord, Come by here” (205). I feel like Baldwin transitioned into the church singing that song particularly because the somebody that needed the lord to help them was Richard, but it was too late and now that someone that needs the lords help is Elizabeth. The way that Baldwin wrote this part of the novel also exaggerated how important religion was to