Being Black and Religious: The Search for Self Realization in James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain

Abstract

James Baldwin’s novels present the protagonist’s search for identity in a complicated, confused and disappointing social background. His Characters are black Americans constrained and convoluted by the existing systems of America.  James Baldwin’s rich intellectual journey illustrates the direction of black American thought and culture in the late twentieth century. His novels and essays have had a stunning impact on American life and opened up new ways to understand contemporary societal problems. He presents the fierce and polemical black American life and exposes the innumerable overtones and undertones of interracial relations.  A fundamental idea in Baldwin’s vision has always been that of a black man as a victim of history.  He expresses the wishes, thoughts and experiences of thousands of blacks, their sorrow and strain, despair, aspiration and hatred. This research article looks into how the religion and society blocks the desires of an young black American in James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain