84 pages • 2 hours read
James BaldwinGo Tell It on the Mountain
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1953A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Part 2, Chapter 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “The Prayers of Saints”
Part 2, Chapter 1 Summary: “Florence’s Prayer”
The story’s perspective switches to Florence as she enters her brother Gabriel’s church for the first time. She believes that Gabriel is “glad to see” (38) that she has come but only because her presence suggests that she is suffering in some fashion. Florence is able to overcome her pride in front of her brother. She sings and kneels with the rest of the congregation in front of Gabriel’s altar. Florence thinks about the events in her life that have led to this moment. Her mother tried to bring her to her brother’s church many years ago, but she always refused. However, she has recently become worried about the state of her soul. Aged 60, she is concerned that she must set her house in order. Her recent ill health has made her fear death, and she wants to set everything in order in case she dies.
The church service prompts Florence to reflect on her life. She remembers her mother leading the family in a prayer. At the time, Gabriel’s first wife Deborah was suffering. A group of white men raped Deborah, and the family prayed for her recovery and to save them from “all the other white men” who are threatening violence against their African American neighbors (40). Florence’s mother was alive before the abolition of slavery, when all she could do was “endure and trust in God” (41). She spent more than 30 years of her life as a slave before she was freed during the American Civil War. To Florence, these stories always made her mother seem incredibly old. Her father left the American South for the North shortly after the birth of Gabriel. For many years, Florence dreamed of making a similar journey.
Florence was the oldest child, but “Gabriel was the apple of his mother’s eye” (42). Florence was forced to carry out most of the household chores while Gabriel was doted upon. Though Gabriel was a wild and unruly child, their mother encouraged him to do well in school while Florence was not allowed to study. She grew to resent her brother and his privileges. Florence’s mother prayed constantly for her son to give up his wild ways. When he misbehaved, she beat him savagely and then prayed. For all of her religious devotion to her son, she did not seem to care much for Florence. Gabriel drank alcohol and chased after women, but he remained at the center of their mother’s thoughts. Florence grew to resent her brother. In 1900, when Florence was 26 years old, she decided to leave behind her dying mother and follow in her father’s footsteps by traveling north. She was happy to leave Gabriel to take care of their mother.
After traveling north, Florence married a man named Frank. They lived together in New York, but their marriage was not happy. Frank was an alcoholic and an irresponsible man. He spent their money in a frivolous fashion, ignoring Florence’s pleas. She tried and failed to change him. They fought often. Eventually, Frank left Florence. He lived with another woman and then died during World War One. Her marriage to Frank, as she remembers it, was a constant cycle of arguments, reunions, and disagreements about money and ambition. Florence remembers a letter she received when she was still married to Frank. In the letter, Gabriel’s first wife Deborah explained her suspicions that Gabriel had fathered an illegitimate child. Watching the church service, Florence wonders whether Deborah ever said anything to Gabriel. Florence still carries Deborah’s letter in her bag. She has saved it for years for a “savage opportunity” to use it against her brother (53). These days, however, she worries that her brother will triumph over her simply by outliving her and denying her the chance for revenge. She worries that he will smile at her funeral, believing himself to be saved and destined for heaven. Florence debates whether the time has come to present Deborah’s letter to Gabriel.
Part 2, Chapter 1 Analysis
Florence’s return to organized religion is prompted by her imminent death. Her unspecified disease is seemingly terminal, and she knows that she will die soon. Unable to receive treatment from doctors and already suffering from weight loss and other symptoms, she has tried everything to extend her life. This includes visits to “men or women in traffic with the devil” to receive folk remedies of questionable provenance (39). Florence is desperate, and her worsening health is only increasing her desperation. The practical, determined Florence glimpsed through the flashbacks contrasts with the more fearful, more frantic woman who is trying to save herself in the present. Her return to the church is her last act of desperation. If she cannot save her physical body from death, then she hopes to save her soul from hell. However, she is not optimistic that she will succeed.
Florence’s life story charts the history of discrimination in the United States. Her mother was a former slave who told her children horror stories about life before the American Civil War and the official end of slavery in the country. However, these stories have no real weight in Florence’s mind. To Florence, racism and discrimination seems vicious and constant. Just as John dismisses Gabriel’s recollections of racism in the American South, Florence dismisses her mother’s stories about life as a slave because these stories are too abstract and nebulous in a world which still seems to discriminate against African American people. Instead, Florence listens to her mother and sees the tragedy of her mother’s life. She decides to escape the American South and travel north to make a better life for herself. Florence fears that her mother’s suffering never ended, and she does not want to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Racism is experienced by every generation of African Americans portrayed in Go Tell it on the Mountain. Florence’s experience of constant, violent racism begins with her mother but—unfortunately for Florence—follows her north and throughout her life. Florence’s life story shows that racism is a part of the society, rather than something which is limited to history or geography.
Florence’s memories of the past also provide insight into Gabriel’s character. The way Florence remembers her brother is very different from the way Gabriel remembers himself. In the next chapter, the perspective switches to Gabriel, and he works through a list of ways that women have wronged him. He blames everyone else for his failures. From Florence’s perspective, however, the young Gabriel is shown to be an amoral, alcohol drinking, wayward man who treats her with contempt. The contrast between the young unruly Gabriel and the older preacher at the altar of the church shows the hypocrisy of Gabriel’s words. From Florence’s perspective, Gabriel is revealed to be everything he dislikes. The drinking, the fighting, and the promiscuity he denounces in others were very familiar to him in his youth. Florence’s perspective provides an alternative insight into Gabriel’s hypocrisy, allowing the audience to understand his flaws from an external point of view. As such, Gabriel’s criticisms of Roy and John are revealed to be hollow and hypocritical.
While Gabriel blames others for his past mistakes, Florence blames herself. As she looks back on her life, she remembers her mistakes. Her marriage to Frank was a disaster which left her only with regrets, but she was too proud to leave him and admit defeat. Ultimately, Frank made that decision on her behalf. Florence is left with a mixture of relief and regret following Frank’s death in World War I. Her biggest regret, however, is that she blames herself for falling in love with him. Like many of her problems, Florence internalizes society’s contempt and begins to blame herself. She uses skin whitening cream to try and lighten her skin color because she has spent a lifetime being told that her race makes her less of a person. Florence is so fiercely independent that she blames herself for many things that are not her fault, much like John. She takes the confessional atonement of the church to an absurd level and internalizes the hatred that is leveled at her by society for her skin color, her gender, and her social class.
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