The ambivalence of materialism and sanctity in James Baldwin’s go tell it on the mountain

Abstract EN

The paper is an analytical study of how James Baldwin succeeds in employing and interweaving Christian myths into the fabric of his novel Go Tell it on the Mountain and how the main characters are torn between belief and disbelief.

It also looks into how far could a phony and a holier-than-thou cleric turn into hell the life of those who live with him.

James Baldwin portrays the conflict of ideas in the minds of the main characters as regards religious and mundane tendencies.

It also tackles how the characters’ sense of history affects their social and private lives.

The characters find themselves engaged in several fundamental struggles that are fundamentally inextricable but the major struggle might be designated Sanctity vs.

Materialism.