Choose one of the following symbols and explain its meaning and significance in John's life (what we know of it so far): the yellow stain on the ceiling, the yellow light in the kitchen, or the rug.
In the story, the yellow stain on the celling is very symbolic. I believe it to be representative of the sins he committed that haunt him. On the morning he had awoke and was frantic that he had sinned, the yellow stain on the ceiling seemed to be emphasized by him and and illuminating possibilities of what the sin could be when he said it turned into a naked woman. This stain is significant in John's life because it is a constant reminder of his imperfections and the pain caused by his father due to his imperfections. I predict that the yellow stain will remain on the ceiling until John comes to accept himself and not always see himself as an imperfect soul.
Throughout the beginning portion of John's journey, the yellow stain on the ceiling is symbolic of his impure thoughts. Due to his family's religious beliefs, John's view of the stain as a naked lady is considered a sin. John mentions his internal struggles and the idea that his thoughts go against his religious structure and society's view of a Christian. The stain reflects a negative self-image and is a permeant reminder of his sins. This symbol is foreshadowing of John's development and deeper knowledge of himself and possibly acceptance of himself as an individual outside society's expectations.
To expand on my previous statement, the first acknowledgement of John's sins are discussed by stating, "John wondered at his panic, then wondered about the time; and then (while the yellow stain on the ceiling slowly transformed itself into a woman's nakedness) he remembered that it was his fourteenth birthday and that he had sinned" (Baldwin 11). The stain can also be a symbol to represent the ridding of innocence, which foreshadows internal conflict dealing with religious beliefs.
The yellow stain on the ceiling symbolizes the sin that he can't seem to get away from. He has a lot of pressure on him already, being that his parents see him as the good kid that's going to grow up and do something positive with his life. The stain is over his bed so he's forced to see it whenever he lays down. In the book the stain turns into a nude woman which is his conscience reminding him of his impure thoughts, sins, he's had. He already struggles with his religious faith and this yellow stain makes it even harder especially since he feels like going against God is going against his father. Hopefully being reminded of his sin everyday with help him grow from it and allow him to build a stronger religious faith. So, eventually he can reach his full potential that his parents see him achieving.
In the novel "Go Tell it on the Mountain" the main character John continuously sees the color yellow through out his home. One place in particular is in his room on his ceiling right above his bed. This spot is significant because it represents his imperfections and sins. This spot is hard to escape just like Johns imperfects and sins because he must see it daily every time he enters his bedroom just like he must travel with his sin and imperfections daily they are in inescapable. John must come to grips that he is human and no one is perfect, even though he is surrounded by a family and community that is so religious and judgmental. He must learned to be who he wants to be and not what his family expects him to be.
When John wakes up on the morning of his birthday, he becomes captivated by the yellow sunlight that invades the front room. This yellow light represents the uncleanliness John feels about himself and his questioning of whether or not his surroundings are filled with sin much more than he previously believed. The sin he has committed brings a yellow-shaded blanket of filth to John's life that he does not see any way possible to clean. This yellow light also symbolizes the veil that others put on to hide their imperfections. As John concentrates on the ever deepening hue of this light, he begins to wonder about and fear the hidden characteristics he imagines others may have.
In the story "Go Tell it on the Mountain" there is a rug that is very significant and meaningful in John's life. The rug with plenty color patterns is apart of John's Saturday cleaning chores. John has to constantly sweep this filthy rug until it becomes clean enough to his satisfaction. The rug is very meaningful to John because no matter how long or how hard he sweeps the rug, it remains dirty. John sees himself sweeping the dirty and filthy rug for the rest of his life until it is dust free. This situation can also mean how John views his life as a whole. John may picture himself stuck with a specific task, like cleaning a rug that has him trapped for the remainder of his life. The significant part about the rug is that John treats sweeping and cleaning the rug as if it is an endless journey. He believes that he is coming closer to finishing his journey (cleaning the rug), but in reality he really is not. The journey continues each week, and the rug remains full of dust after all of Johns hard work.
One of the following symbols from the book that was significant to me was the rug that John had to sweep. While John was sweeping the rug he references that every time he would fill the dustpan, it seemed like little demons would lay more dirt on the rug. So, to me the rug with the dust on it symbolizes a person with sin and no matter how much they try to escape sin (by sweeping), it always seems to come back upon them twice as hard. Also, he says that it was like the story of a guy pushing a boulder up a hill and the giant that guarded the hill kept pushing the boulder back down the hill when he would make it to the top. To expand on what i previously said, it's as if even when he is living "right" by the lord, the devil is always there to bring him down with sin. The whole rug symbolizes a person that was once innocent, the most glorious carpet which was once the rooms glory, to now being experienced, which was now dusty and faded.
The most symbolic to me during the reading thus far would be the rug. This symbol is very important for different reasons. The first would be because he does not like cleaning the rug at all because it says "... and he felt that should he sweep it forever, the clouds of dust would not diminish, the rug would not be clean." (Baldwin 19) The dust and the rug symbolize John's sin. The sin that stays in his mind all the time that he feels he cannot tell anyone because people in the church and his family will look down upon him. Just as John believes the rug will never be clean, he also believes his sin cannot be wiped away. Another significant about the rug is that it use to be "room's glory, but was now so faded that it was all one swimming color, and so frayed in places that it tangled with the broom." (19) How the rug use to be and how it is now, shows how John looks at his own sin. At first his sin was new, but now the sin is swimming through his brain day and night making sure nobody knows, but it will stay tangled in his mind just like the broom and rug as long as he doesn't tell anybody.
In James Baldwin's "Go Tell It On The Mountain", the yellow stain on the ceiling symbolizes John's everlasting struggle with sin. The yellow stain on the ceiling serves as a reminder to John of his sins that he has committed. John lives in a very strict Christian house hold where sin is seriously frowned upon by his family. In the story, as John lies down to go to sleep, he looks up and sees the yellow stain that suddenly turns into a naked lady. This "image" of the naked lady reminds John of his constant battle with sin due to his impure thoughts of the naked lady. John desires nothing more than to be the perfect child that his parents and church family view him as, but his struggle with sin and impurity prevents him from doing so. He knows that this yellow stain/image of a naked lady goes against his Christian beliefs, therefore, he feels ashamed that he continues to think about this yellow stain, especially when he already struggles with his faith. This yellow stain represents John's constant everyday struggle with sin, and because the yellow stain serves as a reminder of his struggle with his sins, it leaves him with two choices. One, either he can continue in this path and live the life of a sinner, disappointing his father and his family or two he can try and get rid of his impure thoughts, improve his faith, and be the positive successful man that his father, his family, and the church declare that he will be.
In the story, a yellow light shines on everything in the kitchen, as Roy and the mother talk and John watches a far. I think the light symbolized impurity because the light was not white but yellow. The light showed that everyone in the family had some impurity about them whether obvious like Roy or not obvious like the mother. It is also symbolic that the yellow light shined in the kitchen, a family room. The kitchen is a room that everyone uses and the family as a whole interacts in. The light also exposes impurity because through the yellow light John speaks of how he sees the room: "the room was narrow and dirty;nothing could alter its dimensions, no labor could ever make it clean" (21). Through this light John could see the "dirt" that has always been there and that will always be there in this "holy family".
In James Baldwin's novel "Go Tell It On The Mountain", John wakes up and see's the yellow stain on the ceiling. As we learned in class the color yellow represents decay, and decrepitude. Decrepitude is the quality or condition of being weakened. While looking at the yellow stain, John sees a naked woman. At this point John knows that he has sinned. I saw his sinning as a decaying of his faith. I don't think that john wants be a preacher and is having second thoughts as he gets older and closer to his proposed destiny.
Good point.! After reading your blog, I think John will, "grow up", or make a decision that will benefit his own life. However, he decision will affect the way that his church and family will look at him.
In James Baldwin's Go Tell it on the Mountain, the rug is a symbol of what John will go through if he does not figure how to get rid of his sin. The dust that comes off the rug represents the sins that will stick to John. The way the dust can also be seen is as the smokes of hell. The dust starts "clogging his nose and sticking to his sweaty skin." (p.26). Baldwin also describes the rug as a "life long task...like that of a man whose curse was to push a boulder up a steep hill, only to have the giant who guarded the hill roll the boulder down again--and so on forever throughout eternity." (p.26). This quote gives an instant allusion of hell with a man having a curse, the giant man being the devil, and for this awful task lasting for an eternity. If John does not get rid of the dust representing his sins, he will be sweeping the rug for forever which represents his life in hell.
In the first story of Go tell it on the mountain you can really see that the family is really into religion by the conversation and setting of the first chapter. So on John’s birthday it shows me a sign of weakness when it comes to his faith because of sin he has committed in earlier times. I believe the yellow stain that he saw on the ceiling was a symbol of sin he has committed and never repented for it so now it just hangs over his head. I made this inference because as soon as the preacher brought to the light that Elisha and the girl was sinning all of a sudden John began to look at his own sin and how he was living the life that was planned out for him. I felt that he wasn’t ready to be what everybody else wanted him to be because in the story he looked how religious people was living he felt like it wasn’t any fun involved with taking that route so he started to second guess if he really wanted to be as religious as his parents. But that goes back to the stain on his wall it just like it saying that this is the beginning of your sin and as the years go on the stain will continue to grow because he would keep on sinning.
In the beginning of the story, there are many different symbolic objects that represent different obstacles and problems faced by the James' family. John's mother asks him to complete a chore which is to sweep the front room and dust the furniture. For John, sweeping this rug wasn't just an ordinary chore, it brought back many different memories. "To sweep the front room meant, principally to sweep the heavy red and green and purple Oriental-style carpet that had once been the room's glory"(18). Over time, this rug had become very filthy and full of dust and made John feel as if he would be sweeping it forever. This rug is symbolic because it represents John's continuous struggle to prove himself to his family. No matter how many times he sweeps the rug, it is always full of dust that wouldn't diminish. Also, no matter how many times John tries to get past his many sins that he has committed, his parents still expect him to be the "best" and not fail. It's as if the task of sweeping the rug and John's struggle to get past his sins seem to be impossible tasks. When he finally thinks that he has made some progress with the rug and even his own life and he's able to throw away all of the dust, the demons pile on even more dust as if he never swept the rug or tried to turn his life around. John tries to complete the task that he was given but the fact that it is an old rug full of dusk makes it even harder.
Part one of Baldwin's "Go Tell It On The Mountain" initiates by establishing the rigorousness of religion forced onto John and his siblings by their father. Their father is displayed as a man who forbids his children from engaging in childhood activities, which he deemed sinful based on the activities' ability to encourage sinful desires. Unfortunately, John has engaged in sinful desires even though he has been destined to walk in his father's footsteps. John's sin causes conflicting emotions, which he tries to find an adequate solution to. His solution is symbolized by the sunlight from the kitchen scene. The sunlight exposes John's hard work to ensure the kitchen's cleanliness. However, John cannot defeat the grime located inside the kitchen's walls. Similarly, John's sin will constantly be present inside him no matter how much he tries to present himself as a composed religious character.
The yellow stain is symbolic of John's struggle with his sinful nature, or his flesh. There's a standard that John is being held to to follow in his father's footsteps, and be the man of God that his father as well as his church believes that he should be. The yellow stain turning into a naked lady just shows that he is human, and his godly nature is being overrun by his sin nature. John is struggling to choose which path to go down, the sinful route or the one that would make his family and church proud and the stain is just a representation of his sins haunting him.
The rug in the novel represents John's struggling journey to happiness. He sweeps the rug continuously but the dust just flies around the air, suffocating him, and resettles. The dust represents the expectations placed on him by his family members. They all expect for him to be a pastor, like his father, but he doesn't want to be anything like his dad. They all suffocate John with their heavy expectations. He feels weighed down by the amount of false hope everyone has for him.
In the novel "Go Tell it on the Mountain" the main character John continuously sees the color yellow on the ceiling of his bedroom. Because John's family are such religious individuals, it is very difficult for him to deal with sins ans sinful thoughts. John is seen as the good child. He struggles with maintaining this image given to him by others. When one sins, they are to repent and ask for forgiveness and be done with that situation. John has not quite learned this. Because he hasn't, the guilt is inevitable, it is always with him just as the stain remains of the Ceiling. I predict as the story moves forward John will learn this lesson and it will eventually not bother him as much.
Have you ever sinned? If so, did you ever get the gut feeling that you are filthy and have done something horribly wrong? In "Go Tell It On The Mountain," John wakes up on his fourteenth birthday to see the yellow stain that quickly transforms into a naked woman. To him the stain serves as a reminder of his sinning due to a bet. In continuation, John comes from a strictly religious home who is judgmental and have high beliefs for him to follow the path of the Lord. When Pastor James brings up the topic of Elijah and Ella Mae's sinning John looks at himself and sees the path that he is following and the path that everyone else is wanting him to follow is not the path he wants.
In James Baldwin novel, “Go tell it on the Mountain”, the rug symbolize a reward less chore with painful emotions. The rug symbolizes Johns’ life, as he sees it. He does all this hard work, but in the end he is still not rewarded nor does he feel satisfied or accomplished in his personal life. He has to live with the fact that his father sees him as the devil. He turned fourteen and expected thing to change, but it’s still this endless cycle that he can’t seem to break.
In Baldwin's novel, "Go Tell It on the Mountain" the symbol that stood out to me was the rug. No matter how much John swept the rug, it remained dirty and full of dust. The rug symbolize the sin that we commit daily. Whenever we ask for forgiveness, we are forgiven. However, we continue to do wrong and sin again. I think that the continuous dust represent the sin that we constantly commit. This is significant in John's life because he must strive to live a better life, one with fewer sins than others because his life was put in the spotlight; everyone expected him to do good and to be a good example among his peers.
John stares at the ceiling after waking from his sleep. There is a yellow stain that catches his attention. He imagines this yellow stain morphing into a naked woman before his eyes. The yellow stain is a symbol in the story that represents John’s confusion in the face of his search for identity. A stain is dirty; thus, this could stand for sin. John states that he had sinned with his hands (Baldwin 11). Perhaps he was caught in a fight with one of the boys at school since he mentions thinking about how the boys are better than him. However, he seems to admire these boys. Perhaps he had done some sort of sexual act , hinted by the line on page 11: "He had sinned with his hands a sin that was hard to forgive." A stain is hard to get rid of. Ergo, the stain could represent the impure thoughts that plague John. The stain does seemingly transform into a naked woman. John had been raised in a religious environment with his father as a pastor. Thus, such impure thoughts are deemed as heretical. He is frustrated with himself because he is torn between how he had been raised and what his body is going through. He seems to want to run away from his family because he dislikes his father. Hence, the stain could represent something physical, like his father.
In the novel, there are many symbolic items. These items include a yellow stain on the ceiling. John would stare at the stain from his bed, "while the yellow stain on the ceiling slowly transformed itself into a woman's nakedness.."(Baldwin 11). The yellow stain symbolizes sin. John feels guilty for the 'sin of hand' he committed at school. He thinks of this while staring at the yellow stain on his ceiling. Therefore the yellow stain does indeed represent and or symbolize sin.
In Go Tell It On The Mountain, by James Baldwin, the color yellow signifies sin, and imperfection. John, the older of the children, is expected to be the child that grows up correctly and does what is needed of him, and also to follow the right path to Heaven. However, John struggles to see himself as this person and starts to feel like he cannot follow in this path. He feels that imperfection is not acceptable in the life of Christianity. Every time John thinks about his life, as it relates to Christianity, he sees himself as a sinner and that it will never fade away. For example, the yellow light was referenced when John entered the kitchen as "the pale end-of-winter sunlight filled the room and yellowed all their faces" (Baldwin 14). This shows that because John is so worried about being so perfect, and doing what is expected of him, all he sees is the wrong that goes on and it creates a negative effect on his life, thus being signified by the color yellow. Once John realizes that true Christianity does not require perfection, the yellow light will fade, and reveal his true identity as a person, and in Christ.
In the book Go Tell It On the Mountain, John, a fourteen year old boy wakes up on his birthday to a yellow stain on the ceiling of his room. This yellow stain symbolized a sin that John had committed "with his hands...in the school lavatory, alone" (Baldwin 11). The yellow stain then transformed into "a woman's nakedness" to symbolize dirtiness and a sign of masturbation (Baldwin 11). The significance of the yellow stain in John's life was to signify a wrongful doing that John had committed even though he knew this sin was a punishment "in Hell a thousand years" (Baldwin 11). This stain also symbolizes John's innocence because he knew this "sin was hard to forgive" and he felt under so much pressure because he was raised in a religious community and he didn't know if this darkness would be trapped inside of himself forever.
In the novel Go tell it On the Mountain, the character John is told by his mother to sweep the front room. The front room consisted of a colorful rug whose color has faded over time. This rug symbolizes John’s life long journey full of the sins he has committed. The rug ends at the ‘French door’ which signifies the end of John’s sinful journey. As John sweeps the rug, he is putting the sins that he has already committed in the past. His past sins are put into the dust pan at the end of the rug, but more sins are added back to the rug. The book states, “He saw in the expanse behind him the dust that he had raised settling again into the carpet…” (p. 20). In John’s life journey he gets rid of old sin, but commits even more sin. This gives the conclusion that no matter how John attempts to clean up his sins, he continues to sin to again.
In James Baldwin's Go Tell It On the Mountain the protagonist John's admiration and in depth description of Elisha his sunday school teacher may symbolize a foreshadowing of an issue with his sexuality. The fact that John is distracted from learning his lessons in Sunday school by his instructor who is also a man could symbolize that John is unsure of who he is and is also trying to figure out what his life is really about. His life is based on the "golden text," and his thoughts about another man reflect that this life of holiness that his parents desire for him to have may not be what he wants. He is focused on being perfect in the eyes of his father but this early sign of "sin," or John not being able to focus due to another man show that he is human and that he is not at all perfect. From this early stage in the novel John is able to realize that the life he has been living in order to impress his parents is not all the life he wants for himself. His religion based life is something that reader can tell from early on is chosen for him not chosen by him. It is not hard to tell that the protagonist John, sins and has thoughts of sin because he is being forced to live under harsh judgement.
In the novel, Go telling on the mountain by James Baldwin;early into the story the main character John is faced with what seems to be a weekly chore, which is a to clean three-block colored, oriental-style rug in the front room. I believe the rug symbolizes most peoples life, not just John's. Being that John is force to live a life closely related to a "holy life", and to follow in his father's footsteps. I think be cause of everyone's expectations for him to be like his father and grow up to be a preacher, he becomes overwhelmed and results in his constant struggle with trying to live a life with out sin. Sin is a consistent thought of his daily. The rug symbolizes a person's life.As children we are all Innocence also the center of attention, our parents "glory", but in time that innocence becomes tarnished. though you can ask for forgiveness for your sins, more will be created. "he saw in the expanse behind him the dust that he had raised settling again into the carpet...".(Baldwin 20) this quotes explains that when you try to clean the rug (people trying to be forgiven for their sins), you can "clean" it for the time being but as you move forward in you life it is never truly "cleansed". John mentions in the novel that the rug has never really been cleaned, i think this relates to peoples lives, saying that their sins are not "gone" until they are baptized, and are "cleansed" from all of the sins they have conducted up until that point.
In this novel by James Baldwin there is a internal conflict with one of the main characters John who is the oldest boy in the Grimes family. He's torn between is life within the church and his on personal thoughts. The rugs symbolizes the life of an ordinary person who are faced with certain obstacles that forces one to question who they are. The dirt on the rug in which he is trying to sweep up represents sin in which he is trying to cleanse himself of. He feels as though he cant escape these sinful thoughts and is unaware of the fact that we all sin and its part of being human. He says " the clouds of dust would not diminish, the rug would not be clean (Baldwin,20)." as if he is trying to get rid of all the sin in his life but its human nature for one to sin which John is slowly starting to realize .
The Rug In the story, James Baldwin emphasizes in great detail the rug he was instructed to clean by his mother. The rug is introduced as the "red and green and purple Oriental-style carpet that had once been the room's glory..." The rug symbolizes the labor in his life. He compares the hard work of cleaning a rug to the circumstances he has undergone in his ow life. He complains about how the rug remains dirty no matter how much sweeps it. In comparison to his life, the filth refers to his sins. Meanwhile, he ask for forgiveness of his past sins(old dirt) more sins are committed (new dirt). Further along when the writer describes the rug he notes " he felt that he should sweep it forever, the clouds of dust will not diminish." After reading this passage, it infers that John's life is full with sin, he can beg for forgiveness for as long as he wants but as his sins are being forgiven they are also coming. This reasons as to no matter how much he cleans the rug new dirt will come to replace the ones he just swept out.
One of the many symbols in the novel "Go Tell it on the Mountain" by James Baldwin is the rug John sweeps for his mother. This rug symbolizes John's life and how it is not fully clean. In the novel, the narrator says: "To sweep the front room meant, principally, to sweep the heavy red and green and purple Oriental style carpet that had once been that room's glory, but was now so faded that it was all one swimming pool of color" (19). This passage relates to John's religion-based life because like the rug, John once had a firm decision that he would dedicate his life to the church and be like Elisha, the older kid from church who John looked up to, but as John gets older that decision to be like Elisha soon began to fade and he found himself not wanting to be so close knit to the church. As the story continues, John finds himself sweeping a rug with endless dust in it that could also tie back to his endless labor within the house. John's family is very uptight when it comes down to religion. John's father has a particular dislike to him because he believes that his son had a wickedness with him ever since he was born. This particular day is John's birthday, but as he predicted while laying in bed, his entire family had forgotten about it. John is now fourteen years old and wondering what his life will withhold in the future. From reading the first 21 pages, John reveals a hatred towards his father and lets the readers know that he wants to break away from the ideal life his father wants him to have.
In the beginning, Baldwin elaborates on many symbols that John places significance upon. Each deals with the battle that raged within John regarding his current life choices and his future. However, the rug symbolized John’s substantial effort towards maintaining a righteous path. Sweeping the rug represents his struggles put into obtaining this life, while the dust represents sin and evil. John states, “… he felt should he sweep it forever, the clouds of dust would not diminish...” (19-20). This statement first reveals John’s thoughts towards the idea of the Christian life he currently seeks, and suggests that even though he desperately strives to live the Christian life he will never escape sin. John also states, “Yet for each dustpan he so laboriously filled at the doorsill demons added twenty more” (20). This not only reiterates John’s beliefs regarding his sin, but also suggests that John realizes that the work required for such a righteous life overshadows the reward. Therefore, the rug not only forces John to see that he can never escape the endless trap of sin, but also gives him the idea that such a rigorous lifestyle may not provide a tremendous reward.
John Grimme was expected to be a priest, and he had a role model named Brother Elisha. Elisha made a mistake and John follow suit.The yellow stain symbolizes his thoughts of women and their nakedness. The symbol location also plays a role in the story by showing itself to John when he wakes up or about to sleep, and he is constantly reminded of it. The timing and introduction of the stain symbolizes another issue and fact. It was shown early in the story, and early in his age. He takes it as a reminder of who he should not be, and what not to think when his hormones a rising. John is very strong but the stain will be a foreshadowing of his future imperfection and future sins.
The "yellow light" that the sun is casting in the front room, could be perceived as the blanket of sin that's clouding his thoughts and his vision. The yellow light (sin), distorts his reality in a way. It makes him even view his mother in a different way, he sees the "deep, perpetual scowl in her forehead, the downturned, tightened mouth, and her strong, thin, brown, and bony hands"(15). The light lets John view the unclean, or sinful view of others around him. Then, once the sun's light darkened his mother's face changed. "Her face became the face he gave her in his dreams,the face that had been hers in a photograph he had seen once, long ago, a photograph taken before he was born" (15). This light could be also perceived as John's inner personality finally starting to break out and become more dominant, as if John is going through a war within himself and the "good" and "bad" sides are fighting to take over.
The yellow stain on John's ceiling is the most interesting example of symbolism. On page 10 of James Baldwin's book, John woke up with something unexplained stirring inside of him and he then noticed the yellow stain on his ceiling. The yellow stain can have many different interpretations for example the stain could symbolize the tainting of John's soul by his sins. The stain could even represent that "he had sinned with his hands a sin that was hard to forgive" (11). Perhaps the stain could represent John's hardening of his heart against the Lord (14) or maybe it could represent the deep and profound dislike he has for his father.
John's mother told him to sweep the front room, which meant the huge rug that would never get clean no matter how long he would clean it. I believe the rug was symbolic of his sins in his life. No matter how long he leans it, it remains covered in dirt and is never fully clean. Just like in his life no matter how many times he asks for forgiveness and gets "cleansed", he continues to sin or get dirty again.
Throughout the first twenty-one pages of the book, I feel that some of the symbols mentioned foreshadows life-changing events that will occur in John's life. For instance, the yellow light in the kitchen showed another face of his mother, a face he some what feared. The yellow light could foresee that John will discover something about his parents that could possibly change his views on his parents. In the book, Baldwin describes his mother as someone who appears older, and filthy. When the rooms darkens, everything was back to normal. His mother's face was "younger and proud." In John's parents raised their children strictly within the church. They do not go out, nor do they have friends. It seems like the "holy ways" is something that he only knows how to live his life. To me, the Yellow Light symbolize a change, not only on his views of his family, but also about how he thinks about life in general.
In the novel, “Go tell it on the Mountain,” by James Baldwin the main character, John, is asked to sweep the Oriental rug in the front room. For John, this rug symbolizes his walk with God, described as the former “glory” of the room, that is presently faded and altered from its former state, is parallel to his faith as an object that is “subject to death or alteration” (13). The dust represents his impure thoughts and the sin he feels could never be cleaned from his soul. Although Baldwin says “John’s heart was harden against the Lord,” (14) John still struggles with his faith and sin, but his determination fueled by his desire to be a good person, is mirrored in his ambitious task of sweeping the rug in attempt to rid the rug of some of its dust. “Yet for each dustpan he filled demons added to the rug twenty more” (20). And the action of sweeping the rug is kindred to going to church to repent his sins. John’s struggle with sin and his faith is portrayed by his perception of sweeping the rug as “his impossible, lifelong task” (20). He compares the charge of sweeping to a story of man doomed to repeat his actions without gaining any satisfaction: He was cursed “to push a boulder up a steep hill, only to have the giant who guarded the hill roll the boulder down again, throughout eternity… he nearly wept to think that so much labor brought so little reward” (20).
In James Baldwin's novel "Go Tell It on the Mountain" the main character is John, the son of a deacon who is very harsh and demanding in the upbringing of his children and wants them to live a God fearing life. John is expected to be like his father, a destiny which seems to be inescapable. Everyone keeps telling him how he will be a great leader of his people, but around John's 14th birthday he realizes this is not the future he wants. His "destiny" is symbolized in the rug in the front room, that he has the chore of cleaning. The rug is purple, green, and red and once was the highlight of the room but now has just faded into one color and isn't very noticeable. Also the rug continuously collects dust so no matter how much John sweeps the rug it is still full of filth. The rug fading into one color could be symbolic of John be forgotten or going unnoticed in his home. Every time his mother had a new child she drifted father away and doesn't notice John as much. She doesn't even remember his birthday, so he is just mixed into the family and doesn't have a special place anymore, like the carpet has no distinct colors. The dust that the rug collects could be symbolic of the "filth" and sin that john is filled with that he seems not to be able to escape. Also his "destiny" to follow in his father's footsteps. He tries to escape this to, but then he is continuously told that he will be like his father and "a great leader of his people". Both John's "destiny" and sin is inescapable no matter how hard he tries o escape it or how much of a conflict it causes.
"Go Tell It on the Mountain" by James Baldwin uses a few symbols throughout the opening to the novel. One of the symbols in the novel was the rug that John's mother asked him to sweep. The rug symbolizes John and the dust symbolizes the many sins committed that will stick with you for the rest of your life and consume you. John starts to sweep the rug (cleanse himself from sin) and "dust rose, clogging his nose and sticking to his sweaty skin, and he felt that should he sweep it forever, the clouds of dust would not diminish, the rug would not be clean" (Baldwin 20). The more John tries to hid his sin from others, the more his sin will consume him and this could be very important for the remainder of the novel. This could suggest that there is more sinning to come for John.
The yellow stain on the ceiling in John's bedroom symbolizes his faults, sins and impurities. Just as John cannot escape his sins, he finds the stain very difficult to get away from. He has been pressured by his parents and all the people around him and has been coined to be the “good kid” compared to his brother, Roy. All the stress and strain from these expectations of him to do better than Roy has taken a toll on John. John starts to feel guilty about his sins because he is beginning to not feel a close connection with God and he does not want to turn his back on him and disappoint his father. Although John was raised up in the church and has always been around God and in religious atmospheres, both at home and at church, he has also been in the world and has begun to embrace the many sins within the world. Olivia Sherman: Week 2
In James Baldwin’s “Go Tell It On The Mountain,” the main character John wakes up on the morning of his fourteenth birthday being overwhelmed with the guilt of being a “sinner” as he glares at a yellow stain on the ceiling. He begins to picture the yellow stain as a naked woman, which is symbol of his sins. The yellow stain is a representation of John’s flaw of being the golden child of the family. The stain is his impure thoughts in which he sees as sins. John is often the “good” son compared to his brother Roy. He believes that to be in God’s love he must be in his father’s love hence his submissiveness for his father.
In "Go Tell It on the Mountain," John, the main character, wakes up every morning and does his chores. He constantly sweeps the rug to "purify" it. Unbeknownst to him, this rug would accurately portray his life. Even though he has imperfection throughout his life, he tries everyday to make himself better. Yes, he has committed sins and the "cloud of dust" would represent those sins. As he takes his time sweeping the rug, he cannot remove all the dust because it will come back everyday. Just like the sins that he has committed, they will never perish. It will be with him for the rest of his life.
In the novel “Go Tell It on the Mountains,” the yellow stain symbolizes John’s sins, expectations, and his yearn for acceptance. After he sinned, he notices the yellow stain on the ceiling. He notices that the stain turns into a naked woman. Like the yellow stain, his sins will always be there looking back at him. Growing up, John was expected to be a great preacher like his father. He was expected to be the better child between him and his brother Roy. He was expected to be all around a great person. With all these expectations on his shoulders, John felt very pressured to be great. When he sees the stain, he is reminded of his sins. He feels less connected with God and feels like he let his father down. John has always tried to be a good child to win his father’s acceptance. He wanted his father to act kinder towards him. To earn his father’s acceptance, he tries to be a great kid without any complaints.
In this story "Go Tell it on the Mountain,"There is a rug that John sweep every Saturday that seems to never come clean from the dirt and dust.The rug symbolizes his imperfect life. John tried his best to make the rug come clean,no matter how hard or Long he sweep.just like in his life he try over and over to become prefect.but John feel has if he was stuck on a task that takes a lifetime to complete Just like his road to become prefect. Both of them seems impossible to complete.
In the book, "Go Tell It On The Mountain" there is a main character named John that is known as the "good child". He feels as if he is always supposed to meet the expectations that his parents wants him to meet. As he matures and gets older he really isn't the "good child" anymore, he then begins to see yellow stains in certain places. Those yellow stains that he's been seeing in many places represents the sin that he has committed and his disconnection with the relationship that he has with God. Before he actually started seeing yellow stains, he begins to think sinfully. For instance, at church he begins to wonder about Elisha and Ella Mae's relationship with each other. He wants to know whether or not Elisha has ever sinned or been tempted and how him and Ella Mae acts towards each other when they are alone. When he actually sees the yellow stains, the sins that he has been thinking about or doing has to be sexual, according to page 11, "The yellow stain slowly transformed itself into a woman's nakedness."
In Jame Baldwin's novel, "Go Tell It on the Mountains," the rug symbolizes a person's life full of sins. His description of sweeping makes me feel as though it's a burden type of chore. The rug used to be the house's "glory." However, as time passed by, it collected dust and lost its value. In another perspective, that rug can symbolize how a person's life is pure and new when that person is born into the world, but as time passes by, those dust are comparable to sins. It attaches to the person and dulls its character. I think it all falls into place because it was his birthday that morning also. No matter how much he tried to clean the rug, it would still be dirty. It's somewhat like saying no matter how much a person can go to confession and try to free themselves from sins, that person will always sin again. John's thoughts always takes over. He feels as though his expectations are more than what he can handle. He's way too hard on himself. He hates cleaning the rug because no matter how much he tries to clean it, it will always become dirty. That's like no matter how much he tries not to sin, he will end up sinning, perhaps not even on purpose.
In "Go tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin, there are a lot of symbolic examples that represent John's life. For instance, one of John's many chores is to sweep the red, purple and green rug that is now worn out. Even though John spent a vast amount of time sweeping, it still remained dirty. In this comparison, the dust on the rug corresponds to John's sins. For so many years the church life was thrown in his face as well as simply just living in the world. He was starting to feel like it was entirely too late because every time he tried to change, Satan wouldn’t allow it. Sooner or later John will realize that sin is just a part of life.
In James Baldwin’s “Go Tell It On The Mountain,” the main character John's sins are symbolized by the yellow stain that is on the ceiling. He was always a good kid and excelled at many things in his life, such as school and being in relation with god. In John's case, being the good child is a big burden on him as he has to meet the expectations of his family and his only sins will only feel greater because of that.
In the book "Go Tell It On The Mountain" by James Baldwin the character comits a sin on his birthday. As he is growing in age, he is starting to question things and his life. When Roy interrogated their mother, it gave John a sense of peace because he asked all of his burning questions. After Roy's banter, John had to clean the rug. He said when he cleaned the rug it would get dirty again and the dust would get on his skin. This shows that however how much he sins, it will always come back to haunt him. In his father's eyes all things are unforgivable.
An object as simple as a rug had become a symbol of inevitability in John’s life. James Baldwin brilliantly incorporated real internal emotional, psychological, and religious dilemmas into John’s life. Those inner struggles began to manifest during Johns chores. John had routinely swept the colorful rug without it presenting any significance to him. Although, once he realizes that “should he sweep it forever, the clouds of dust would not diminish, [and] the rug would not be clean”(Baldwin 19). John understood the dust represented the persistence of sin. He then realized the rug represented the flesh, the physical body susceptible to sin. Lastly, him swaying back and forth diligently sweeping the rug represented his lukewarm-ness as a Christian. John now knows that the flesh is always without sin, because sin is persistent and the flesh is weak to it. John also identifies how sin has begun "clogging his nose and sticking to his sweaty skin" (Baldwin 26), tormenting him through every Christian deed. John now has a greater insight into an inevitable truth. He now has to choose between either a life of the flesh or a life of the Christian.
In the novel "Go Tell It on the Mountain," the main character, John, is given the task of sweeping the front room. The rug that takes up a majority of the space in the room symbolizes a big portion of John's life. As he would "sweep it forever, the clouds of dust would not diminish" causing the rug to remain dirty (Baldwin 19-20). The rug symbolizes his conscious as he tries to rid it from the sinful thoughts, or the dirt, by vigorously sweeping it. But his mind is unwilling to rid the evil thoughts as evidenced through the fact that "each dustpan he so laboriously filled at the doorsill demons added to the rug twenty more" (20). So far he struggles with his faith as he realizes that the impure thoughts his mind is conjuring up will only cause him to further ponder on his wrongdoings.
In the James Baldwin novel, the carpet that John is sweeping represents so many aspects of his family. The former recognizable colors of the carpet are symbolic to what his family once was, “… to sweep the heavy red and green and purple Oriental-style carpet. The color red represents the emotion that was once present in his house, green representing how his family between being peaceful to being violent and purple represents the pain (Baldwin 19). The present rug that he was sweeping was now faded and frayed, which is symbolic of how his family is really dysfunctional and rough around the edges. When John was sweeping the carpet “the dust rose,.. and he felt that he should sweep it forever” because the dust was still present in the carpet (19). The dust is all the bad stuff that is family hides and every Saturday everything is brought out, for example his brother Roy asks many questions of his mother. And as he sweeps he still has not revealed all there is to see and hear.
Through my interpretation of the portion read, the yellow stain on the ceiling represents the sins he has committed in his lifetime. This yellow stain reminds John of the secular thoughts he has. This is a challenge because he is surrounded by the yellow stains at all times. It’s an even greater challenge considering that he is from a church-going family. In which having secular thoughts are completely against his Christianity. Often times, it becomes a challenge to overcome the sins you commit especially when you are reminded of it on a daily basis. In order for John to overcome the sins he committed, he must find a way to escape the yellow stain. Simply because it is a constant reminder of his sins and wrong doing.
In the story "Go Tell It on the Mountain”, by James Baldwin the yellow stain on the ceiling symbolizes sin of the main character John. In the beginning of the story we are vaguely introduced to the struggles that John faces being the son of a deacon. On the morning when he wakes and finds himself staring up at the yellow stain it defines a moment of realizing his “filth” or “impurity.” When describing that the stain transforms into what he imagined to be a naked woman this depicted that John is battling himself and his thoughts. The stain serves as a constant reminder of how he must learn to cope with his “dirty” thoughts and strive to overcome them to become a better person like everyone knows he can become. Once he has he can learn that the stain is just a stain and nothing more but a symbol of his past sin.
The yellow light in kitchen represents how rotten his family really is. John mentions how this particular light illuminates all the dirt that is "in every cover, angle, and crevice..." (Baldwin 15). While the family portrays this righteous and pure life to their congregation they are really living in their own sin at home. Its ironic the dirt is found in the kitchen where the family has to come together to eat. Maybe this kitchen could symbolize the church as well. While people come together to worship God are they portraying God like behaviors but living in their own roach infested kitchens themselves?
The yellow stain on the ceiling in the Johns bedroom symbolizes his sins, wrong doings, and his uncleanliness. John can’t not get away from his sins; he also finds it very hard to get away from the yellow stain also. His parents see him as the “good kid” who will go off to college and make a success of his life. John starts to feel all the pressure his parents are putting on him to be this godly child who doesn’t sin. The yellow stain is over John’s bed where he will be able to see remember of his sins. After a while John starts to picture the yellow stain as a naked women and those are his impure thoughts coming back into his head. He feels that if he goes against God he is going against his father. Hoping the stain will remind him of all his sins, so he can get back on the rite path to his success of his spiritual and mortal life.
In the novel, Go Tell It On The Mountain, there are many things that have a symbolic meaning. One of these things that has symbolic meaning is a yellow stain on the ceiling. This was noticed once John awoke from his slumber on his fourteenth birthday and stared at the ceiling. The color yellow as learned in class, symbolizes violence and a stain represents something dirty and that isn’t pure anymore. Therefore this means that John has committed the act sin by using his hand to commit an evil act that goes against humanity because as he looks at the yellow stain he visualizes it being transformed formed into a naked women and thinks back to what he was doing in the boys’ latrine at school. Also, it is shown that he has committed a sin due to him coming from such a religious family.
In the book, Go Tell It on the Mountain, John was a young boy trying to find himself. Surrounded by confusion of what a true christian maybe he was uncertain of the destiny the Lord had set for his life. He was aware it wouldn't be long before he would be living that holy life he had referred to and wasn't prepared for what was to happen on his fourteenth birthday.
As John woke up the morning of his birthday he was struck with a erection. He looked to the ceiling where there was a yellow stain. The yellow stain had reappear in his mind as a naked woman where he was taken a back realizing that everyday it was his birthday. Following his realization he began to be consumed with guilt for his sin. The very sin his pastor preached about the sin of lust.John wanted much more out of life and had fear in his heart as he pondered the sinful thoughts. The yellow stain symbolizes the stain he placed on his innocence for he was no longer pure. The yellow stain embodied the tarnish of guilt and shame John felt.
In the novel "Go Tell It On The Mountain" written by James Baldwin, the yellow stain on the ceiling symbolizes John's struggle with sin. He is part of a very strict Christina family where sin is looked down upon. The yellow satin on the ceiling is a reminder to John of the sin that he has done." While the yellow stain on the ceiling slowly transformed into a women's nakedness."( Baldwin 12). The image reminds John of the sin that he has committed while he was at school one day. John knows that thinking about the naked lady goes against everything he believes in but can't seem to control himself from doing so. He has to choose either continue live life as a sinner and disappoint everyone that wants him to become a successful person or ask forgiveness and renew his faith.
When I see the yellow stain on the wall I think of his sin. He always see others being confronted on their sin and yet there is no way for his sin to be confronted. This yellow stain in the ceiling is a way to remind him that I sin and need to look at myself before I talk about anyone else
The yellow stains that the main character Johns, in the story Go Tell it on the Mountain by author James Baldwin. Focus on every night can represent many different things. For one it makes John think about his sin of lust, which comes in the image of a naked woman to him at times. Since John was raised in the church as a child he knows first-hand from the incident with Elisha and Ella Mae that lust is a sin that is frowned upon. The yellow stain that is in the family house can also represent the family as one, and how sinfully they truly are. Even though the family my act like they have everything together at church it is total opposite when they are at home and in their own comfort zone. So that makes you then think of how other people that are in the church may act.
In the beginning of the novel we get a picture of the Grimes family as being a nearly perfect "sinless" family, as the narrator omnisciently describes John's thoughts as he views those on the street Sunday morning. Further into the story we get the image of the yellow light streaming through the kitchen on John's 14th birthday. This yellow light is a representation of all the impurities and realities unknown to John until this day. The kitchen he has known to be, literally, so clean is exposed for its underlying grime and filth. Even the mother when exposed to the light does not have such an innocent and goddess-like appearance, her face is of those who are exhausted, sad, overworked, and unwanted. As the light begins to fade his mother's face turns into the one in his dreams and all the imperfections of the kitchen seem to disappear.
The yellow stain on the ceiling symbolizes John's struggle with his sins. The rug also plays a key role in the way John sees life and he expresses that when he provides details about the dust that keeps reappearing. While reading I noticed that his family had a hard time maintaing "the church role". The church played a huge part in the way they were raised even though Roy questioned the way there lives were. For John, he looked at things differently because he was struggling to find his own identity. He knows what he wants to do but may be having a hard time choosing between morals and his father. Behind closed doors John's family has all committed a sin but a stain is hard to get rid of.
Reply posted for Kai Williams January 27, 2013 at 7:40 PM
I like the way you said Jophn is have a hard time finding hisself. I agree he is trying to establish an identity and the more he trys to find who he is I think he will sin a little more and more. The thing I didn't not get in your blog was at the end when you said, "A stain is hard to get rid of", are you sugesting got won't forgive them for the families sins? If so I will have to disagress that stain will come out with a little bit of shout. lol Just repent and mean it and God will forgive you for all your sins no matter how small or big. Anyways I like you post good job R.Adams.
I almost feel as if the rug is symbolic of two things, the inevitable struggle with fate John seems to face in his life and its connection to his self discovery process. John has allowed himself to become convinced that what other people have said and proclaimed on his life is the only way to see his future. Now that he is beginning to uncover what is his own will power, the internal struggle he faces can be reflected in his troubles with the carpet. It is like no matter how hard he fights, or how many efforts he makes, he will always be put back into his place by fate. Little does he know how many options at this pivotal stage in life he really owns as a human being. He is struggling between an absurd standard of expectation and basic human characteristics that he has convinced himself makes him lesser as a person. The rug will never be fully dust free and the boulder will never make it up the hill until John realizes his own potential.
A Tale of Sinners James Baldwin's Go Tell It On The Mountain begins with an introduction to John Grimes and the life he lives and is expected to live. John is an admitted sinner, his sin is homosexuality. He lusts after Elisha, a 17 year old pianists at his church, and the older boys in his school. John is not the only sinner in his church, Elisha and Ella Mae are guilty of almost sinning. They frequently take walks alone and hold hands, these actions are the gateway to an unforgivable sin, a sin that requires the pastor's early intervention to save them from eternal damnation. As John wakes up from his remembrance of these events he realizes today is his birthday and nobody remembered. Instead of receiving gifts and special treatment, he walks in on his mother and brother arguing and a grueling set of chores. His brother Roy seems destined to a life of sin unless the grace of God acts powerfully upon him. But these facts do not disturb John as much as the realization that his life is full of people that expect him to follow in his father's footsteps. Along with the realization that, because he is 14, this future is no longer as distant as he imagined, and is instead speeding closer every day.
The yellow stain on the ceiling is symbolic of John's sins and is there to keep John conscious of his wrong doings. I believe the yellow stain is also there to remind John that he is human just like everyone else and it should help him realize he has to grow with himself. John will eventually understand that he should accept himself and the family in which he was born into. Even though the pain from his father is a constant burden on his shoulder he will soon deepen himself and become more open to his flaws and accept his true self.
John wakes up on his fourteenth birthday staring at the ceiling at a yellow stain. As he watches this stain slowly transform into a naked women, he sins. This stain on the ceiling is yellow, not white like the rest of the ceiling pointing out its dirtiness or "filthiness." This stain represents the sin in John's life and the world around him. This dirty stain that turns into a sinful image that John stares at while he commits sins shows us where John's head is at this point in his life. He is lost in between the life he was raised in which was with the church, and his feelings of unattachment to this life and his desire to do something different than follow in his father's footsteps.
In the novel “Go tell it on the mountain” I think that the yellow stain represents sin that John has committed in his life. The stain is seemingly permanent and it serves as a constant reminder of what John did in his past. The stain will not be removed until John has come to terms with his form of being “comfortable” in societies terms. The stain is on the ceiling so every time he lays down he looks up to this nasty yellow stain, maybe its James Baldwin’s idea to have this lingering over his head or to show John that he doesn’t have much to look up to at all in life if he doesn’t continue to live in sin because without it he will be alone. His sin keeps him pure with society but it doesn’t make him as a man better.
The yellow stain has a great symbolism that shows the struggle of life. John was raised as a strict christian but yet still had impure thoughts that he felt could be his ultimate downfall in life. The white part of the ceiling represents the innocence and purity that he once embraced.The yellow represents the lost of this innocence and the new the journey that he has to embrace as a person who is no longer innocent but experienced. The yellow stain also represents Johns realization that he is a sinner and the stain gives him an outlook on his soul which has been forever stained by his lust. John is truly torn between his love for God and his newly found love for the world.
In the novel, Go Tell It On The Mountain, John has just turned fourteen years old and its the morning of his birthday. No one seems to remember and John is made to being helping clean. His mother sends him to sweep the front room which included their rug. John described this chore of sweeping the rug as "his impossible, lifelong task, his hard trail" (Baldwin 20). He feels this way because no matter how hard and how much he sweeps the rug it just never seems to be clean. As John labors he gets nowhere, "for each dustpan he...filled at the doorsill demons added to the rug twenty more" (Baldwin 20). The rug in this part of the book could symbolize John's struggle with his sins and trying to get back to more Christian ways. John is constantly reminded of his sin and he feels like no matter how hard he tries to do right he continues in sin. He also feels that this is an impossible task just as cleaning the rug is. Just as he tries to rid the rug of debris he tries to rid his mind of impure thoughts. Baldwin uses the rug to help the reader better understand and relate to John's struggle with his sins.
In the novel "Go Tell It On The Mountain" by James Baldwin, John is ordered by his mother to take the broom to sweep and clean a certain rug in the living room. Since it was John's birthday, the thought of cleaning the very oriental-style carpet that he hated so much on "his" special day angered John. This lead him into a deep-thinking frenzy about his future and his sins. As he was sweeping this rug, he thought about how it was such a prized possession in the family back in the past and how it is now dirty with filth that seemed as if it cannot be cleaned. The rug represents John himself, symbolizing him as once being the the prized possession that was highly and respectfully looked upon from the family back in past, but it is now so filthy with dirt that it will seem like an eternity to wipe it clean. The filth represents John's sins, as he feels like it would be a life-long task to sweep this certain filth away within himself. How he feels about sweeping away filth from the rug is the same way he feels about sweeping the filth away within his own heart... a consequence.
In reading the novel, "Go Tell It On The Mountain", by James Baldwin; I notice that everything unclean, whether its his thoughts or the room before him was seen by the color yellow. Prime example on the day of John's birthday he stares ate a yellow stain on the wall and his imagination turns it into a naked woman (10-11). Even though our flesh may make our mind see things such as naked woman on walls God wants us not to dwell on those thoughts. Even thinking dirty thought are unclean and are looked upon as a sin. Ironic enough later that day when John finally left out of the bed and went to where his family was he seen their figures and everything else in a "yellow light intensified" (14). He also states how he sees the room looking dirty and no matter if they were to clean it, it will never be clean. I believe so far yellow symbolizes filthiness in this novel. John is so upset that his thought are turning unclean and he just looks at his family in a ungodly manner. I think John will invision more filthy thoughts throughout this novel and I am expecting them to be seen through a yellow light. John feels pressure to be such a good child or human being that he is starting to stray away from God and the future expected of him.
We know that the color yellow could mean a number of distasteful things but, in John's case the yellow light that is shown in the kitchen exposes all the dirt and filth within his family. Behind the light all the dirt and sin is hidden but when the yellow light is shown it reveals it all. John is certainly the stand out of the family because of his distant relationship and lack of respect for his dad and because of his lack of knowledge and interest in God. He is still trying to find his way but he knows he wants to go against the morals of his family. Therefore his sins are openly expressed but, his families sins are hidden by the fact that the highly believe in and follow God but they are all inevitable to the exposure of the yellow light.
In the novel, “Go Tell It on the Mountain”, by James Baldwin, John Grimes wakes up to and is describes how he is now seeing the kitchen in this new light. The kitchen light is seen as symbolic because it demonstrates how John is now thinking of himself and the life that he may or may not live. The way that he describes the kitchen in an eerie light, his family is the color of an intense yellow, and that everything around him is dirty shows how he is viewing the life in a satanically way. Everything that is dirty to him is beneath him; they are not on as high on a pedestal he is. John’s “evil” side wants to live a life where things are good and he can enjoy the find things in life and live in a clean home. Then, there is how John views his family. Take for instance how he gives details of his mother sitting in the kitchen. “…the dark, hard lines running downward from her eyes, and the deep, perpetual scowl in her forehead, and the downturned, tightened mouth, and the strong, thin, brown, and bony hands…” (Baldwin 15). This description of his mother is depressing and sullen like there is no reward of following the Lord because he will end up looking as his mother does…over-worked and tired and not happy with her life. Lastly, there the whole light that the kitchen is in, the “the pale end-of-winter sunlight” is symbolic itself for death. Death is pale and usually symbolic for the color white and winter. This again demonstrates how John is seeing that following a life of servitude to the Lord would be deathly and choice that he seriously would have to think about in his future. John is at a “fork in the road” in life where one leads to good and the other evil. He wants to be a good person but he does not want that to cost him living a life he enjoys but from what his father has told him that life is nothing but work of Satan himself. Therefore, for a while he will going through a struggle within himself fighting an inner war between good and evil just as he sees the good and evil sides in life.
The color yellow seems to be a reoccurring image in this excerpt. It is a symbol of sin. The yellow stain to me represents John's past innocence. He realizes that he has sinned and it all came from a stain on a wall. The stain was just a stain up until his fourteenth birthday where he is going to see a change in his physical appearance and thoughts. From this moment on John would no longer be innocent. By seeing the naked woman he also realizes that he had sinned or that his innocence was no longer a part of him but something now in his past. Sin is like a stain that you can not get rid of and John is enlightened by this in the first couple of pages of the book.
The color yellow is a representation of John's sin for example when John looked at the yellow stain on the ceiling he saw a naked women in its image. Since John felt as though he had to become a holy, non sinning preacher like his father he did everything he could to fulfill that goal. However, in attempting to become this person he faced many obstacles and the main obstacle that he came across was sin. This was symbolized by him constantly seeing the color yellow reminding him of all the sin surrounding him and preventing him from becoming like his father.
In the beginning of the Go Tell It On The Mountain, there are many different symbols that represent different obstacles and problems faced by the James' family. John's mother asks him to sweep the front room and dust the furniture. For John, sweeping this rug wasn't just an ordinary chore, it brought back many different memories. "To sweep the front room meant, principally to sweep the heavy red and green and purple Oriental-style carpet that had once been the room's glory"(18). Over time, this rug had become very filthy and full of dust and made John feel as if he would be sweeping it forever. This rug is symbolic because it represents John's continuous struggle to prove himself to his family. No matter how many times he sweeps the rug, it is always full of dust that wouldn't diminish. Also, no matter how many times John tries to get past his many sins that he has committed, his parents still expect him to be the "best" and not fail. It's as if the task of sweeping the rug and John's struggle to get past his sins seem to be impossible tasks.
The symbolism of the yellow stain on the ceiling is an interesting symbol Baldwin decides to write about. The color yellow, in literature, is symbolic for death of disease. The way the color is on the ceiling may allude to the growing stain on John’s home since there is a lingering question about John’s decision in the end. The fact that it is on the ceiling may symbolize how heaven, and more importantly John’s salvation, is the question hanging over his family’s household. The color may stand for the death of John’s former spirituality and birth of a new spirit if he accepts Christ, or even his growing questioning of which road he should take. The stain is an odd question that will linger on his mind as he continues on his journey.
In the story, the yellow stain on the celling is very symbolic. I believe it to be representative of the sins he committed that haunt him. On the morning he had awoke and was frantic that he had sinned, the yellow stain on the ceiling seemed to be emphasized by him and and illuminating possibilities of what the sin could be when he said it turned into a naked woman. This stain is significant in John's life because it is a constant reminder of his imperfections and the pain caused by his father due to his imperfections. I predict that the yellow stain will remain on the ceiling until John comes to accept himself and not always see himself as an imperfect soul.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the beginning portion of John's journey, the yellow stain on the ceiling is symbolic of his impure thoughts. Due to his family's religious beliefs, John's view of the stain as a naked lady is considered a sin. John mentions his internal struggles and the idea that his thoughts go against his religious structure and society's view of a Christian. The stain reflects a negative self-image and is a permeant reminder of his sins. This symbol is foreshadowing of John's development and deeper knowledge of himself and possibly acceptance of himself as an individual outside society's expectations.
ReplyDeleteTo expand on my previous statement, the first acknowledgement of John's sins are discussed by stating, "John wondered at his panic, then wondered about the time; and then (while the yellow stain on the ceiling slowly transformed itself into a woman's nakedness) he remembered that it was his fourteenth birthday and that he had sinned" (Baldwin 11). The stain can also be a symbol to represent the ridding of innocence, which foreshadows internal conflict dealing with religious beliefs.
DeleteThe yellow stain on the ceiling symbolizes the sin that he can't seem to get away from. He has a lot of pressure on him already, being that his parents see him as the good kid that's going to grow up and do something positive with his life. The stain is over his bed so he's forced to see it whenever he lays down. In the book the stain turns into a nude woman which is his conscience reminding him of his impure thoughts, sins, he's had. He already struggles with his religious faith and this yellow stain makes it even harder especially since he feels like going against God is going against his father. Hopefully being reminded of his sin everyday with help him grow from it and allow him to build a stronger religious faith. So, eventually he can reach his full potential that his parents see him achieving.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel "Go Tell it on the Mountain" the main character John continuously sees the color yellow through out his home. One place in particular is in his room on his ceiling right above his bed. This spot is significant because it represents his imperfections and sins. This spot is hard to escape just like Johns imperfects and sins because he must see it daily every time he enters his bedroom just like he must travel with his sin and imperfections daily they are in inescapable. John must come to grips that he is human and no one is perfect, even though he is surrounded by a family and community that is so religious and judgmental. He must learned to be who he wants to be and not what his family expects him to be.
ReplyDeleteWhen John wakes up on the morning of his birthday, he becomes captivated by the yellow sunlight that invades the front room. This yellow light represents the uncleanliness John feels about himself and his questioning of whether or not his surroundings are filled with sin much more than he previously believed. The sin he has committed brings a yellow-shaded blanket of filth to John's life that he does not see any way possible to clean. This yellow light also symbolizes the veil that others put on to hide their imperfections. As John concentrates on the ever deepening hue of this light, he begins to wonder about and fear the hidden characteristics he imagines others may have.
ReplyDeleteIn the story "Go Tell it on the Mountain" there is a rug that is very significant and meaningful in John's life. The rug with plenty color patterns is apart of John's Saturday cleaning chores. John has to constantly sweep this filthy rug until it becomes clean enough to his satisfaction. The rug is very meaningful to John because no matter how long or how hard he sweeps the rug, it remains dirty. John sees himself sweeping the dirty and filthy rug for the rest of his life until it is dust free. This situation can also mean how John views his life as a whole. John may picture himself stuck with a specific task, like cleaning a rug that has him trapped for the remainder of his life. The significant part about the rug is that John treats sweeping and cleaning the rug as if it is an endless journey. He believes that he is coming closer to finishing his journey (cleaning the rug), but in reality he really is not. The journey continues each week, and the rug remains full of dust after all of Johns hard work.
ReplyDeleteOne of the following symbols from the book that was significant to me was the rug that John had to sweep. While John was sweeping the rug he references that every time he would fill the dustpan, it seemed like little demons would lay more dirt on the rug. So, to me the rug with the dust on it symbolizes a person with sin and no matter how much they try to escape sin (by sweeping), it always seems to come back upon them twice as hard. Also, he says that it was like the story of a guy pushing a boulder up a hill and the giant that guarded the hill kept pushing the boulder back down the hill when he would make it to the top. To expand on what i previously said, it's as if even when he is living "right" by the lord, the devil is always there to bring him down with sin. The whole rug symbolizes a person that was once innocent, the most glorious carpet which was once the rooms glory, to now being experienced, which was now dusty and faded.
ReplyDeleteThe most symbolic to me during the reading thus far would be the rug. This symbol is very important for different reasons. The first would be because he does not like cleaning the rug at all because it says "... and he felt that should he sweep it forever, the clouds of dust would not diminish, the rug would not be clean." (Baldwin 19) The dust and the rug symbolize John's sin. The sin that stays in his mind all the time that he feels he cannot tell anyone because people in the church and his family will look down upon him. Just as John believes the rug will never be clean, he also believes his sin cannot be wiped away. Another significant about the rug is that it use to be "room's glory, but was now so faded that it was all one swimming color, and so frayed in places that it tangled with the broom." (19) How the rug use to be and how it is now, shows how John looks at his own sin. At first his sin was new, but now the sin is swimming through his brain day and night making sure nobody knows, but it will stay tangled in his mind just like the broom and rug as long as he doesn't tell anybody.
ReplyDeleteIn James Baldwin's "Go Tell It On The Mountain", the yellow stain on the ceiling symbolizes John's everlasting struggle with sin. The yellow stain on the ceiling serves as a reminder to John of his sins that he has committed. John lives in a very strict Christian house hold where sin is seriously frowned upon by his family. In the story, as John lies down to go to sleep, he looks up and sees the yellow stain that suddenly turns into a naked lady. This "image" of the naked lady reminds John of his constant battle with sin due to his impure thoughts of the naked lady. John desires nothing more than to be the perfect child that his parents and church family view him as, but his struggle with sin and impurity prevents him from doing so. He knows that this yellow stain/image of a naked lady goes against his Christian beliefs, therefore, he feels ashamed that he continues to think about this yellow stain, especially when he already struggles with his faith. This yellow stain represents John's constant everyday struggle with sin, and because the yellow stain serves as a reminder of his struggle with his sins, it leaves him with two choices. One, either he can continue in this path and live the life of a sinner, disappointing his father and his family or two he can try and get rid of his impure thoughts, improve his faith, and be the positive successful man that his father, his family, and the church declare that he will be.
ReplyDeleteIn the story, a yellow light shines on everything in the kitchen, as Roy and the mother talk and John watches a far. I think the light symbolized impurity because the light was not white but yellow. The light showed that everyone in the family had some impurity about them whether obvious like Roy or not obvious like the mother. It is also symbolic that the yellow light shined in the kitchen, a family room. The kitchen is a room that everyone uses and the family as a whole interacts in. The light also exposes impurity because through the yellow light John speaks of how he sees the room: "the room was narrow and dirty;nothing could alter its dimensions, no labor could ever make it clean" (21). Through this light John could see the "dirt" that has always been there and that will always be there in this "holy family".
ReplyDeleteIn James Baldwin's novel "Go Tell It On The Mountain", John wakes up and see's the yellow stain on the ceiling. As we learned in class the color yellow represents decay, and decrepitude. Decrepitude is the quality or condition of being weakened. While looking at the yellow stain, John sees a naked woman. At this point John knows that he has sinned. I saw his sinning as a decaying of his faith. I don't think that john wants be a preacher and is having second thoughts as he gets older and closer to his proposed destiny.
ReplyDeleteGood point.! After reading your blog, I think John will, "grow up", or make a decision that will benefit his own life. However, he decision will affect the way that his church and family will look at him.
DeleteIn James Baldwin's Go Tell it on the Mountain, the rug is a symbol of what John will go through if he does not figure how to get rid of his sin. The dust that comes off the rug represents the sins that will stick to John. The way the dust can also be seen is as the smokes of hell. The dust starts "clogging his nose and sticking to his sweaty skin." (p.26). Baldwin also describes the rug as a "life long task...like that of a man whose curse was to push a boulder up a steep hill, only to have the giant who guarded the hill roll the boulder down again--and so on forever throughout eternity." (p.26). This quote gives an instant allusion of hell with a man having a curse, the giant man being the devil, and for this awful task lasting for an eternity. If John does not get rid of the dust representing his sins, he will be sweeping the rug for forever which represents his life in hell.
ReplyDeleteIn the first story of Go tell it on the mountain you can really see that the family is really into religion by the conversation and setting of the first chapter. So on John’s birthday it shows me a sign of weakness when it comes to his faith because of sin he has committed in earlier times. I believe the yellow stain that he saw on the ceiling was a symbol of sin he has committed and never repented for it so now it just hangs over his head. I made this inference because as soon as the preacher brought to the light that Elisha and the girl was sinning all of a sudden John began to look at his own sin and how he was living the life that was planned out for him. I felt that he wasn’t ready to be what everybody else wanted him to be because in the story he looked how religious people was living he felt like it wasn’t any fun involved with taking that route so he started to second guess if he really wanted to be as religious as his parents. But that goes back to the stain on his wall it just like it saying that this is the beginning of your sin and as the years go on the stain will continue to grow because he would keep on sinning.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of the story, there are many different symbolic objects that represent different obstacles and problems faced by the James' family. John's mother asks him to complete a chore which is to sweep the front room and dust the furniture. For John, sweeping this rug wasn't just an ordinary chore, it brought back many different memories. "To sweep the front room meant, principally to sweep the heavy red and green and purple Oriental-style carpet that had once been the room's glory"(18). Over time, this rug had become very filthy and full of dust and made John feel as if he would be sweeping it forever. This rug is symbolic because it represents John's continuous struggle to prove himself to his family. No matter how many times he sweeps the rug, it is always full of dust that wouldn't diminish. Also, no matter how many times John tries to get past his many sins that he has committed, his parents still expect him to be the "best" and not fail. It's as if the task of sweeping the rug and John's struggle to get past his sins seem to be impossible tasks. When he finally thinks that he has made some progress with the rug and even his own life and he's able to throw away all of the dust, the demons pile on even more dust as if he never swept the rug or tried to turn his life around. John tries to complete the task that he was given but the fact that it is an old rug full of dusk makes it even harder.
ReplyDeletePart one of Baldwin's "Go Tell It On The Mountain" initiates by establishing the rigorousness of religion forced onto John and his siblings by their father. Their father is displayed as a man who forbids his children from engaging in childhood activities, which he deemed sinful based on the activities' ability to encourage sinful desires. Unfortunately, John has engaged in sinful desires even though he has been destined to walk in his father's footsteps. John's sin causes conflicting emotions, which he tries to find an adequate solution to. His solution is symbolized by the sunlight from the kitchen scene. The sunlight exposes John's hard work to ensure the kitchen's cleanliness. However, John cannot defeat the grime located inside the kitchen's walls. Similarly, John's sin will constantly be present inside him no matter how much he tries to present himself as a composed religious character.
ReplyDeleteThe yellow stain is symbolic of John's struggle with his sinful nature, or his flesh. There's a standard that John is being held to to follow in his father's footsteps, and be the man of God that his father as well as his church believes that he should be. The yellow stain turning into a naked lady just shows that he is human, and his godly nature is being overrun by his sin nature. John is struggling to choose which path to go down, the sinful route or the one that would make his family and church proud and the stain is just a representation of his sins haunting him.
ReplyDeleteThe rug in the novel represents John's struggling journey to happiness. He sweeps the rug continuously but the dust just flies around the air, suffocating him, and resettles. The dust represents the expectations placed on him by his family members. They all expect for him to be a pastor, like his father, but he doesn't want to be anything like his dad. They all suffocate John with their heavy expectations. He feels weighed down by the amount of false hope everyone has for him.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel "Go Tell it on the Mountain" the main character John continuously sees the color yellow on the ceiling of his bedroom. Because John's family are such religious individuals, it is very difficult for him to deal with sins ans sinful thoughts. John is seen as the good child. He struggles with maintaining this image given to him by others. When one sins, they are to repent and ask for forgiveness and be done with that situation. John has not quite learned this. Because he hasn't, the guilt is inevitable, it is always with him just as the stain remains of the Ceiling. I predict as the story moves forward John will learn this lesson and it will eventually not bother him as much.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever sinned? If so, did you ever get the gut feeling that you are filthy and have done something horribly wrong? In "Go Tell It On The Mountain," John wakes up on his fourteenth birthday to see the yellow stain that quickly transforms into a naked woman. To him the stain serves as a reminder of his sinning due to a bet. In continuation, John comes from a strictly religious home who is judgmental and have high beliefs for him to follow the path of the Lord. When Pastor James brings up the topic of Elijah and Ella Mae's sinning John looks at himself and sees the path that he is following and the path that everyone else is wanting him to follow is not the path he wants.
ReplyDeleteIn James Baldwin novel, “Go tell it on the Mountain”, the rug symbolize a reward less chore with painful emotions. The rug symbolizes Johns’ life, as he sees it. He does all this hard work, but in the end he is still not rewarded nor does he feel satisfied or accomplished in his personal life. He has to live with the fact that his father sees him as the devil. He turned fourteen and expected thing to change, but it’s still this endless cycle that he can’t seem to break.
ReplyDeleteIn Baldwin's novel, "Go Tell It on the Mountain" the symbol that stood out to me was the rug. No matter how much John swept the rug, it remained dirty and full of dust. The rug symbolize the sin that we commit daily. Whenever we ask for forgiveness, we are forgiven. However, we continue to do wrong and sin again. I think that the continuous dust represent the sin that we constantly commit. This is significant in John's life because he must strive to live a better life, one with fewer sins than others because his life was put in the spotlight; everyone expected him to do good and to be a good example among his peers.
ReplyDeleteJohn stares at the ceiling after waking from his sleep. There is a yellow stain that catches his attention. He imagines this yellow stain morphing into a naked woman before his eyes. The yellow stain is a symbol in the story that represents John’s confusion in the face of his search for identity. A stain is dirty; thus, this could stand for sin. John states that he had sinned with his hands (Baldwin 11). Perhaps he was caught in a fight with one of the boys at school since he mentions thinking about how the boys are better than him. However, he seems to admire these boys. Perhaps he had done some sort of sexual act , hinted by the line on page 11: "He had sinned with his hands a sin that was hard to forgive." A stain is hard to get rid of. Ergo, the stain could represent the impure thoughts that plague John. The stain does seemingly transform into a naked woman. John had been raised in a religious environment with his father as a pastor. Thus, such impure thoughts are deemed as heretical. He is frustrated with himself because he is torn between how he had been raised and what his body is going through. He seems to want to run away from his family because he dislikes his father. Hence, the stain could represent something physical, like his father.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel, there are many symbolic items. These items include a yellow stain on the ceiling. John would stare at the stain from his bed, "while the yellow stain on the ceiling slowly transformed itself into a woman's nakedness.."(Baldwin 11). The yellow stain symbolizes sin. John feels guilty for the 'sin of hand' he committed at school. He thinks of this while staring at the yellow stain on his ceiling. Therefore the yellow stain does indeed represent and or symbolize sin.
ReplyDeleteIn Go Tell It On The Mountain, by James Baldwin, the color yellow signifies sin, and imperfection. John, the older of the children, is expected to be the child that grows up correctly and does what is needed of him, and also to follow the right path to Heaven. However, John struggles to see himself as this person and starts to feel like he cannot follow in this path. He feels that imperfection is not acceptable in the life of Christianity. Every time John thinks about his life, as it relates to Christianity, he sees himself as a sinner and that it will never fade away. For example, the yellow light was referenced when John entered the kitchen as "the pale end-of-winter sunlight filled the room and yellowed all their faces" (Baldwin 14). This shows that because John is so worried about being so perfect, and doing what is expected of him, all he sees is the wrong that goes on and it creates a negative effect on his life, thus being signified by the color yellow. Once John realizes that true Christianity does not require perfection, the yellow light will fade, and reveal his true identity as a person, and in Christ.
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ReplyDeleteIn the book Go Tell It On the Mountain, John, a fourteen year old boy wakes up on his birthday to a yellow stain on the ceiling of his room. This yellow stain symbolized a sin that John had committed "with his hands...in the school lavatory, alone" (Baldwin 11). The yellow stain then transformed into "a woman's nakedness" to symbolize dirtiness and a sign of masturbation (Baldwin 11). The significance of the yellow stain in John's life was to signify a wrongful doing that John had committed even though he knew this sin was a punishment "in Hell a thousand years" (Baldwin 11). This stain also symbolizes John's innocence because he knew this "sin was hard to forgive" and he felt under so much pressure because he was raised in a religious community and he didn't know if this darkness would be trapped inside of himself forever.
In the novel Go tell it On the Mountain, the character John is told by his mother to sweep the front room. The front room consisted of a colorful rug whose color has faded over time. This rug symbolizes John’s life long journey full of the sins he has committed. The rug ends at the ‘French door’ which signifies the end of John’s sinful journey. As John sweeps the rug, he is putting the sins that he has already committed in the past. His past sins are put into the dust pan at the end of the rug, but more sins are added back to the rug. The book states, “He saw in the expanse behind him the dust that he had raised settling again into the carpet…” (p. 20). In John’s life journey he gets rid of old sin, but commits even more sin. This gives the conclusion that no matter how John attempts to clean up his sins, he continues to sin to again.
ReplyDeleteIn James Baldwin's Go Tell It On the Mountain the protagonist John's admiration and in depth description of Elisha his sunday school teacher may symbolize a foreshadowing of an issue with his sexuality. The fact that John is distracted from learning his lessons in Sunday school by his instructor who is also a man could symbolize that John is unsure of who he is and is also trying to figure out what his life is really about. His life is based on the "golden text," and his thoughts about another man reflect that this life of holiness that his parents desire for him to have may not be what he wants. He is focused on being perfect in the eyes of his father but this early sign of "sin," or John not being able to focus due to another man show that he is human and that he is not at all perfect. From this early stage in the novel John is able to realize that the life he has been living in order to impress his parents is not all the life he wants for himself. His religion based life is something that reader can tell from early on is chosen for him not chosen by him. It is not hard to tell that the protagonist John, sins and has thoughts of sin because he is being forced to live under harsh judgement.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel, Go telling on the mountain by James Baldwin;early into the story the main character John is faced with what seems to be a weekly chore, which is a to clean three-block colored, oriental-style rug in the front room. I believe the rug symbolizes most peoples life, not just John's. Being that John is force to live a life closely related to a "holy life", and to follow in his father's footsteps. I think be cause of everyone's expectations for him to be like his father and grow up to be a preacher, he becomes overwhelmed and results in his constant struggle with trying to live a life with out sin. Sin is a consistent thought of his daily. The rug symbolizes a person's life.As children we are all Innocence also the center of attention, our parents "glory", but in time that innocence becomes tarnished. though you can ask for forgiveness for your sins, more will be created. "he saw in the expanse behind him the dust that he had raised settling again into the carpet...".(Baldwin 20) this quotes explains that when you try to clean the rug (people trying to be forgiven for their sins), you can "clean" it for the time being but as you move forward in you life it is never truly "cleansed". John mentions in the novel that the rug has never really been cleaned, i think this relates to peoples lives, saying that their sins are not "gone" until they are baptized, and are "cleansed" from all of the sins they have conducted up until that point.
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ReplyDeleteIn this novel by James Baldwin there is a internal conflict with one of the main characters John who is the oldest boy in the Grimes family. He's torn between is life within the church and his on personal thoughts. The rugs symbolizes the life of an ordinary person who are faced with certain obstacles that forces one to question who they are. The dirt on the rug in which he is trying to sweep up represents sin in which he is trying to cleanse himself of. He feels as though he cant escape these sinful thoughts and is unaware of the fact that we all sin and its part of being human. He says " the clouds of dust would not diminish, the rug would not be clean (Baldwin,20)." as if he is trying to get rid of all the sin in his life but its human nature for one to sin which John is slowly starting to realize .
The Rug
ReplyDeleteIn the story, James Baldwin emphasizes in great detail the rug he was instructed to clean by his mother. The rug is introduced as the "red and green and purple Oriental-style carpet that had once been the room's glory..." The rug symbolizes the labor in his life. He compares the hard work of cleaning a rug to the circumstances he has undergone in his ow life. He complains about how the rug remains dirty no matter how much sweeps it. In comparison to his life, the filth refers to his sins. Meanwhile, he ask for forgiveness of his past sins(old dirt) more sins are committed (new dirt). Further along when the writer describes the rug he notes " he felt that he should sweep it forever, the clouds of dust will not diminish." After reading this passage, it infers that John's life is full with sin, he can beg for forgiveness for as long as he wants but as his sins are being forgiven they are also coming. This reasons as to no matter how much he cleans the rug new dirt will come to replace the ones he just swept out.
One of the many symbols in the novel "Go Tell it on the Mountain" by James Baldwin is the rug John sweeps for his mother. This rug symbolizes John's life and how it is not fully clean. In the novel, the narrator says: "To sweep the front room meant, principally, to sweep the heavy red and green and purple Oriental style carpet that had once been that room's glory, but was now so faded that it was all one swimming pool of color" (19). This passage relates to John's religion-based life because like the rug, John once had a firm decision that he would dedicate his life to the church and be like Elisha, the older kid from church who John looked up to, but as John gets older that decision to be like Elisha soon began to fade and he found himself not wanting to be so close knit to the church. As the story continues, John finds himself sweeping a rug with endless dust in it that could also tie back to his endless labor within the house. John's family is very uptight when it comes down to religion. John's father has a particular dislike to him because he believes that his son had a wickedness with him ever since he was born. This particular day is John's birthday, but as he predicted while laying in bed, his entire family had forgotten about it. John is now fourteen years old and wondering what his life will withhold in the future. From reading the first 21 pages, John reveals a hatred towards his father and lets the readers know that he wants to break away from the ideal life his father wants him to have.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning, Baldwin elaborates on many symbols that John places significance upon. Each deals with the battle that raged within John regarding his current life choices and his future. However, the rug symbolized John’s substantial effort towards maintaining a righteous path. Sweeping the rug represents his struggles put into obtaining this life, while the dust represents sin and evil. John states, “… he felt should he sweep it forever, the clouds of dust would not diminish...” (19-20). This statement first reveals John’s thoughts towards the idea of the Christian life he currently seeks, and suggests that even though he desperately strives to live the Christian life he will never escape sin. John also states, “Yet for each dustpan he so laboriously filled at the doorsill demons added twenty more” (20). This not only reiterates John’s beliefs regarding his sin, but also suggests that John realizes that the work required for such a righteous life overshadows the reward. Therefore, the rug not only forces John to see that he can never escape the endless trap of sin, but also gives him the idea that such a rigorous lifestyle may not provide a tremendous reward.
ReplyDeleteYellow Stain
ReplyDeleteJohn Grimme was expected to be a priest, and he had a role model named Brother Elisha. Elisha made a mistake and John follow suit.The yellow stain symbolizes his thoughts of women and their nakedness. The symbol location also plays a role in the story by showing itself to John when he wakes up or about to sleep, and he is constantly reminded of it. The timing and introduction of the stain symbolizes another issue and fact. It was shown early in the story, and early in his age. He takes it as a reminder of who he should not be, and what not to think when his hormones a rising. John is very strong but the stain will be a foreshadowing of his future imperfection and future sins.
The "yellow light" that the sun is casting in the front room, could be perceived as the blanket of sin that's clouding his thoughts and his vision. The yellow light (sin), distorts his reality in a way. It makes him even view his mother in a different way, he sees the "deep, perpetual scowl in her forehead, the downturned, tightened mouth, and her strong, thin, brown, and bony hands"(15). The light lets John view the unclean, or sinful view of others around him. Then, once the sun's light darkened his mother's face changed. "Her face became the face he gave her in his dreams,the face that had been hers in a photograph he had seen once, long ago, a photograph taken before he was born" (15). This light could be also perceived as John's inner personality finally starting to break out and become more dominant, as if John is going through a war within himself and the "good" and "bad" sides are fighting to take over.
ReplyDeleteThe yellow stain on John's ceiling is the most interesting example of symbolism. On page 10 of James Baldwin's book, John woke up with something unexplained stirring inside of him and he then noticed the yellow stain on his ceiling. The yellow stain can have many different interpretations for example the stain could symbolize the tainting of John's soul by his sins. The stain could even represent that "he had sinned with his hands a sin that was hard to forgive" (11). Perhaps the stain could represent John's hardening of his heart against the Lord (14) or maybe it could represent the deep and profound dislike he has for his father.
ReplyDeleteJohn's mother told him to sweep the front room, which meant the huge rug that would never get clean no matter how long he would clean it. I believe the rug was symbolic of his sins in his life. No matter how long he leans it, it remains covered in dirt and is never fully clean. Just like in his life no matter how many times he asks for forgiveness and gets "cleansed", he continues to sin or get dirty again.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the first twenty-one pages of the book, I feel that some of the symbols mentioned foreshadows life-changing events that will occur in John's life. For instance, the yellow light in the kitchen showed another face of his mother, a face he some what feared. The yellow light could foresee that John will discover something about his parents that could possibly change his views on his parents. In the book, Baldwin describes his mother as someone who appears older, and filthy. When the rooms darkens, everything was back to normal. His mother's face was "younger and proud." In John's parents raised their children strictly within the church. They do not go out, nor do they have friends. It seems like the "holy ways" is something that he only knows how to live his life. To me, the Yellow Light symbolize a change, not only on his views of his family, but also about how he thinks about life in general.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel, “Go tell it on the Mountain,” by James Baldwin the main character, John, is asked to sweep the Oriental rug in the front room. For John, this rug symbolizes his walk with God, described as the former “glory” of the room, that is presently faded and altered from its former state, is parallel to his faith as an object that is “subject to death or alteration” (13). The dust represents his impure thoughts and the sin he feels could never be cleaned from his soul. Although Baldwin says “John’s heart was harden against the Lord,” (14) John still struggles with his faith and sin, but his determination fueled by his desire to be a good person, is mirrored in his ambitious task of sweeping the rug in attempt to rid the rug of some of its dust. “Yet for each dustpan he filled demons added to the rug twenty more” (20). And the action of sweeping the rug is kindred to going to church to repent his sins. John’s struggle with sin and his faith is portrayed by his perception of sweeping the rug as “his impossible, lifelong task” (20). He compares the charge of sweeping to a story of man doomed to repeat his actions without gaining any satisfaction: He was cursed “to push a boulder up a steep hill, only to have the giant who guarded the hill roll the boulder down again, throughout eternity… he nearly wept to think that so much labor brought so little reward” (20).
ReplyDeleteIn James Baldwin's novel "Go Tell It on the Mountain" the main character is John, the son of a deacon who is very harsh and demanding in the upbringing of his children and wants them to live a God fearing life. John is expected to be like his father, a destiny which seems to be inescapable. Everyone keeps telling him how he will be a great leader of his people, but around John's 14th birthday he realizes this is not the future he wants. His "destiny" is symbolized in the rug in the front room, that he has the chore of cleaning. The rug is purple, green, and red and once was the highlight of the room but now has just faded into one color and isn't very noticeable. Also the rug continuously collects dust so no matter how much John sweeps the rug it is still full of filth. The rug fading into one color could be symbolic of John be forgotten or going unnoticed in his home. Every time his mother had a new child she drifted father away and doesn't notice John as much. She doesn't even remember his birthday, so he is just mixed into the family and doesn't have a special place anymore, like the carpet has no distinct colors. The dust that the rug collects could be symbolic of the "filth" and sin that john is filled with that he seems not to be able to escape. Also his "destiny" to follow in his father's footsteps. He tries to escape this to, but then he is continuously told that he will be like his father and "a great leader of his people". Both John's "destiny" and sin is inescapable no matter how hard he tries o escape it or how much of a conflict it causes.
ReplyDelete"Go Tell It on the Mountain" by James Baldwin uses a few symbols throughout the opening to the novel. One of the symbols in the novel was the rug that John's mother asked him to sweep. The rug symbolizes John and the dust symbolizes the many sins committed that will stick with you for the rest of your life and consume you. John starts to sweep the rug (cleanse himself from sin) and "dust rose, clogging his nose and sticking to his sweaty skin, and he felt that should he sweep it forever, the clouds of dust would not diminish, the rug would not be clean" (Baldwin 20). The more John tries to hid his sin from others, the more his sin will consume him and this could be very important for the remainder of the novel. This could suggest that there is more sinning to come for John.
ReplyDeleteThe yellow stain on the ceiling in John's bedroom symbolizes his faults, sins and impurities. Just as John cannot escape his sins, he finds the stain very difficult to get away from. He has been pressured by his parents and all the people around him and has been coined to be the “good kid” compared to his brother, Roy. All the stress and strain from these expectations of him to do better than Roy has taken a toll on John. John starts to feel guilty about his sins because he is beginning to not feel a close connection with God and he does not want to turn his back on him and disappoint his father. Although John was raised up in the church and has always been around God and in religious atmospheres, both at home and at church, he has also been in the world and has begun to embrace the many sins within the world. Olivia Sherman: Week 2
ReplyDeleteIn James Baldwin’s “Go Tell It On The Mountain,” the main character John wakes up on the morning of his fourteenth birthday being overwhelmed with the guilt of being a “sinner” as he glares at a yellow stain on the ceiling. He begins to picture the yellow stain as a naked woman, which is symbol of his sins. The yellow stain is a representation of John’s flaw of being the golden child of the family. The stain is his impure thoughts in which he sees as sins. John is often the “good” son compared to his brother Roy. He believes that to be in God’s love he must be in his father’s love hence his submissiveness for his father.
ReplyDeleteWeek 2
ReplyDeleteIn "Go Tell It on the Mountain," John, the main character, wakes up every morning and does his chores. He constantly sweeps the rug to "purify" it. Unbeknownst to him, this rug would accurately portray his life. Even though he has imperfection throughout his life, he tries everyday to make himself better. Yes, he has committed sins and the "cloud of dust" would represent those sins. As he takes his time sweeping the rug, he cannot remove all the dust because it will come back everyday. Just like the sins that he has committed, they will never perish. It will be with him for the rest of his life.
In the novel “Go Tell It on the Mountains,” the yellow stain symbolizes John’s sins, expectations, and his yearn for acceptance. After he sinned, he notices the yellow stain on the ceiling. He notices that the stain turns into a naked woman. Like the yellow stain, his sins will always be there looking back at him. Growing up, John was expected to be a great preacher like his father. He was expected to be the better child between him and his brother Roy. He was expected to be all around a great person. With all these expectations on his shoulders, John felt very pressured to be great. When he sees the stain, he is reminded of his sins. He feels less connected with God and feels like he let his father down. John has always tried to be a good child to win his father’s acceptance. He wanted his father to act kinder towards him. To earn his father’s acceptance, he tries to be a great kid without any complaints.
ReplyDeleteIn this story "Go Tell it on the Mountain,"There is a rug that John sweep every Saturday that seems to never come clean from the dirt and dust.The rug symbolizes his imperfect life. John tried his best to make the rug come clean,no matter how hard or Long he sweep.just like in his life he try over and over to become prefect.but John feel has if he was stuck on a task that takes a lifetime to complete Just like his road to become prefect. Both of them seems impossible to complete.
ReplyDeleteIn the book, "Go Tell It On The Mountain" there is a main character named John that is known as the "good child". He feels as if he is always supposed to meet the expectations that his parents wants him to meet. As he matures and gets older he really isn't the "good child" anymore, he then begins to see yellow stains in certain places. Those yellow stains that he's been seeing in many places represents the sin that he has committed and his disconnection with the relationship that he has with God. Before he actually started seeing yellow stains, he begins to think sinfully. For instance, at church he begins to wonder about Elisha and Ella Mae's relationship with each other. He wants to know whether or not Elisha has ever sinned or been tempted and how him and Ella Mae acts towards each other when they are alone. When he actually sees the yellow stains, the sins that he has been thinking about or doing has to be sexual, according to page 11, "The yellow stain slowly transformed itself into a woman's nakedness."
ReplyDeleteIn Jame Baldwin's novel, "Go Tell It on the Mountains," the rug symbolizes a person's life full of sins. His description of sweeping makes me feel as though it's a burden type of chore. The rug used to be the house's "glory." However, as time passed by, it collected dust and lost its value. In another perspective, that rug can symbolize how a person's life is pure and new when that person is born into the world, but as time passes by, those dust are comparable to sins. It attaches to the person and dulls its character. I think it all falls into place because it was his birthday that morning also. No matter how much he tried to clean the rug, it would still be dirty. It's somewhat like saying no matter how much a person can go to confession and try to free themselves from sins, that person will always sin again. John's thoughts always takes over. He feels as though his expectations are more than what he can handle. He's way too hard on himself. He hates cleaning the rug because no matter how much he tries to clean it, it will always become dirty. That's like no matter how much he tries not to sin, he will end up sinning, perhaps not even on purpose.
ReplyDeleteIn "Go tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin, there are a lot of symbolic examples that represent John's life. For instance, one of John's many chores is to sweep the red, purple and green rug that is now worn out. Even though John spent a vast amount of time sweeping, it still remained dirty. In this comparison, the dust on the rug corresponds to John's sins. For so many years the church life was thrown in his face as well as simply just living in the world. He was starting to feel like it was entirely too late because every time he tried to change, Satan wouldn’t allow it. Sooner or later John will realize that sin is just a part of life.
ReplyDeleteIn James Baldwin’s “Go Tell It On The Mountain,” the main character John's sins are symbolized by the yellow stain that is on the ceiling. He was always a good kid and excelled at many things in his life, such as school and being in relation with god. In John's case, being the good child is a big burden on him as he has to meet the expectations of his family and his only sins will only feel greater because of that.
ReplyDeleteIn the book "Go Tell It On The Mountain" by James Baldwin the character comits a sin on his birthday. As he is growing in age, he is starting to question things and his life. When Roy interrogated their mother, it gave John a sense of peace because he asked all of his burning questions. After Roy's banter, John had to clean the rug. He said when he cleaned the rug it would get dirty again and the dust would get on his skin. This shows that however how much he sins, it will always come back to haunt him. In his father's eyes all things are unforgivable.
ReplyDeleteAn object as simple as a rug had become a symbol of inevitability in John’s life. James Baldwin brilliantly incorporated real internal emotional, psychological, and religious dilemmas into John’s life. Those inner struggles began to manifest during Johns chores. John had routinely swept the colorful rug without it presenting any significance to him. Although, once he realizes that “should he sweep it forever, the clouds of dust would not diminish, [and] the rug would not be clean”(Baldwin 19). John understood the dust represented the persistence of sin. He then realized the rug represented the flesh, the physical body susceptible to sin. Lastly, him swaying back and forth diligently sweeping the rug represented his lukewarm-ness as a Christian. John now knows that the flesh is always without sin, because sin is persistent and the flesh is weak to it. John also identifies how sin has begun "clogging his nose and sticking to his sweaty skin" (Baldwin 26), tormenting him through every Christian deed. John now has a greater insight into an inevitable truth. He now has to choose between either a life of the flesh or a life of the Christian.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel "Go Tell It on the Mountain," the main character, John, is given the task of sweeping the front room. The rug that takes up a majority of the space in the room symbolizes a big portion of John's life. As he would "sweep it forever, the clouds of dust would not diminish" causing the rug to remain dirty (Baldwin 19-20). The rug symbolizes his conscious as he tries to rid it from the sinful thoughts, or the dirt, by vigorously sweeping it. But his mind is unwilling to rid the evil thoughts as evidenced through the fact that "each dustpan he so laboriously filled at the doorsill demons added to the rug twenty more" (20). So far he struggles with his faith as he realizes that the impure thoughts his mind is conjuring up will only cause him to further ponder on his wrongdoings.
ReplyDeleteIn the James Baldwin novel, the carpet that John is sweeping represents so many aspects of his family. The former recognizable colors of the carpet are symbolic to what his family once was, “… to sweep the heavy red and green and purple Oriental-style carpet. The color red represents the emotion that was once present in his house, green representing how his family between being peaceful to being violent and purple represents the pain (Baldwin 19). The present rug that he was sweeping was now faded and frayed, which is symbolic of how his family is really dysfunctional and rough around the edges. When John was sweeping the carpet “the dust rose,.. and he felt that he should sweep it forever” because the dust was still present in the carpet (19). The dust is all the bad stuff that is family hides and every Saturday everything is brought out, for example his brother Roy asks many questions of his mother. And as he sweeps he still has not revealed all there is to see and hear.
ReplyDeleteThrough my interpretation of the portion read, the yellow stain on the ceiling represents the sins he has committed in his lifetime. This yellow stain reminds John of the secular thoughts he has. This is a challenge because he is surrounded by the yellow stains at all times. It’s an even greater challenge considering that he is from a church-going family. In which having secular thoughts are completely against his Christianity. Often times, it becomes a challenge to overcome the sins you commit especially when you are reminded of it on a daily basis. In order for John to overcome the sins he committed, he must find a way to escape the yellow stain. Simply because it is a constant reminder of his sins and wrong doing.
ReplyDeleteIn the story "Go Tell It on the Mountain”, by James Baldwin the yellow stain on the ceiling symbolizes sin of the main character John. In the beginning of the story we are vaguely introduced to the struggles that John faces being the son of a deacon. On the morning when he wakes and finds himself staring up at the yellow stain it defines a moment of realizing his “filth” or “impurity.” When describing that the stain transforms into what he imagined to be a naked woman this depicted that John is battling himself and his thoughts. The stain serves as a constant reminder of how he must learn to cope with his “dirty” thoughts and strive to overcome them to become a better person like everyone knows he can become. Once he has he can learn that the stain is just a stain and nothing more but a symbol of his past sin.
ReplyDeleteThe yellow light in kitchen represents how rotten his family really is. John mentions how this particular light illuminates all the dirt that is "in every cover, angle, and crevice..." (Baldwin 15). While the family portrays this righteous and pure life to their congregation they are really living in their own sin at home. Its ironic the dirt is found in the kitchen where the family has to come together to eat. Maybe this kitchen could symbolize the church as well. While people come together to worship God are they portraying God like behaviors but living in their own roach infested kitchens themselves?
ReplyDeleteThe yellow stain on the ceiling in the Johns bedroom symbolizes his sins, wrong doings, and his uncleanliness. John can’t not get away from his sins; he also finds it very hard to get away from the yellow stain also. His parents see him as the “good kid” who will go off to college and make a success of his life. John starts to feel all the pressure his parents are putting on him to be this godly child who doesn’t sin. The yellow stain is over John’s bed where he will be able to see remember of his sins. After a while John starts to picture the yellow stain as a naked women and those are his impure thoughts coming back into his head. He feels that if he goes against God he is going against his father. Hoping the stain will remind him of all his sins, so he can get back on the rite path to his success of his spiritual and mortal life.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel, Go Tell It On The Mountain, there are many things that have a symbolic meaning. One of these things that has symbolic meaning is a yellow stain on the ceiling. This was noticed once John awoke from his slumber on his fourteenth birthday and stared at the ceiling. The color yellow as learned in class, symbolizes violence and a stain represents something dirty and that isn’t pure anymore. Therefore this means that John has committed the act sin by using his hand to commit an evil act that goes against humanity because as he looks at the yellow stain he visualizes it being transformed formed into a naked women and thinks back to what he was doing in the boys’ latrine at school. Also, it is shown that he has committed a sin due to him coming from such a religious family.
ReplyDeleteIn the book, Go Tell It on the Mountain, John was a young boy trying to find himself. Surrounded by confusion of what a true christian maybe he was uncertain of the destiny the Lord had set for his life. He was aware it wouldn't be long before he would be living that holy life he had referred to and wasn't prepared for what was to happen on his fourteenth birthday.
ReplyDeleteAs John woke up the morning of his birthday he was struck with a erection. He looked to the ceiling where there was a yellow stain. The yellow stain had reappear in his mind as a naked woman where he was taken a back realizing that everyday it was his birthday. Following his realization he began to be consumed with guilt for his sin. The very sin his pastor preached about the sin of lust.John wanted much more out of life and had fear in his heart as he pondered the sinful thoughts. The yellow stain symbolizes the stain he placed on his innocence for he was no longer pure. The yellow stain embodied the tarnish of guilt and shame John felt.
In the novel "Go Tell It On The Mountain" written by James Baldwin, the yellow stain on the ceiling symbolizes John's struggle with sin. He is part of a very strict Christina family where sin is looked down upon. The yellow satin on the ceiling is a reminder to John of the sin that he has done." While the yellow stain on the ceiling slowly transformed into a women's nakedness."( Baldwin 12). The image reminds John of the sin that he has committed while he was at school one day. John knows that thinking about the naked lady goes against everything he believes in but can't seem to control himself from doing so. He has to choose either continue live life as a sinner and disappoint everyone that wants him to become a successful person or ask forgiveness and renew his faith.
ReplyDeleteWhen I see the yellow stain on the wall I think of his sin. He always see others being confronted on their sin and yet there is no way for his sin to be confronted. This yellow stain in the ceiling is a way to remind him that I sin and need to look at myself before I talk about anyone else
ReplyDeleteThe yellow stains that the main character Johns, in the story Go Tell it on the Mountain by author James Baldwin. Focus on every night can represent many different things. For one it makes John think about his sin of lust, which comes in the image of a naked woman to him at times. Since John was raised in the church as a child he knows first-hand from the incident with Elisha and Ella Mae that lust is a sin that is frowned upon. The yellow stain that is in the family house can also represent the family as one, and how sinfully they truly are. Even though the family my act like they have everything together at church it is total opposite when they are at home and in their own comfort zone. So that makes you then think of how other people that are in the church may act.
ReplyDeletePosted for Jasmine Francis
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of the novel we get a picture of the Grimes family as being a nearly perfect "sinless" family, as the narrator omnisciently describes John's thoughts as he views those on the street Sunday morning. Further into the story we get the image of the yellow light streaming through the kitchen on John's 14th birthday. This yellow light is a representation of all the impurities and realities unknown to John until this day. The kitchen he has known to be, literally, so clean is exposed for its underlying grime and filth. Even the mother when exposed to the light does not have such an innocent and goddess-like appearance, her face is of those who are exhausted, sad, overworked, and unwanted. As the light begins to fade his mother's face turns into the one in his dreams and all the imperfections of the kitchen seem to disappear.
Posted for R. Adams
ReplyDeleteThe yellow stain on the ceiling symbolizes John's struggle with his sins. The rug also plays a key role in the way John sees life and he expresses that when he provides details about the dust that keeps reappearing. While reading I noticed that his family had a hard time maintaing "the church role". The church played a huge part in the way they were raised even though Roy questioned the way there lives were. For John, he looked at things differently because he was struggling to find his own identity. He knows what he wants to do but may be having a hard time choosing between morals and his father. Behind closed doors John's family has all committed a sin but a stain is hard to get rid of.
Reply posted for Kai Williams January 27, 2013 at 7:40 PM
DeleteI like the way you said Jophn is have a hard time finding hisself. I agree he is trying to establish an identity and the more he trys to find who he is I think he will sin a little more and more. The thing I didn't not get in your blog was at the end when you said, "A stain is hard to get rid of", are you sugesting got won't forgive them for the families sins? If so I will have to disagress that stain will come out with a little bit of shout. lol Just repent and mean it and God will forgive you for all your sins no matter how small or big. Anyways I like you post good job R.Adams.
Posted for Kyazia Felder
ReplyDeleteThe Rug
I almost feel as if the rug is symbolic of two things, the inevitable struggle with fate John seems to face in his life and its connection to his self discovery process. John has allowed himself to become convinced that what other people have said and proclaimed on his life is the only way to see his future. Now that he is beginning to uncover what is his own will power, the internal struggle he faces can be reflected in his troubles with the carpet. It is like no matter how hard he fights, or how many efforts he makes, he will always be put back into his place by fate. Little does he know how many options at this pivotal stage in life he really owns as a human being. He is struggling between an absurd standard of expectation and basic human characteristics that he has convinced himself makes him lesser as a person. The rug will never be fully dust free and the boulder will never make it up the hill until John realizes his own potential.
Posted for Jordan Henderson
ReplyDeleteA Tale of Sinners
James Baldwin's Go Tell It On The Mountain begins with an introduction to John Grimes and the life he lives and is expected to live. John is an admitted sinner, his sin is homosexuality. He lusts after Elisha, a 17 year old pianists at his church, and the older boys in his school. John is not the only sinner in his church, Elisha and Ella Mae are guilty of almost sinning. They frequently take walks alone and hold hands, these actions are the gateway to an unforgivable sin, a sin that requires the pastor's early intervention to save them from eternal damnation. As John wakes up from his remembrance of these events he realizes today is his birthday and nobody remembered. Instead of receiving gifts and special treatment, he walks in on his mother and brother arguing and a grueling set of chores. His brother Roy seems destined to a life of sin unless the grace of God acts powerfully upon him. But these facts do not disturb John as much as the realization that his life is full of people that expect him to follow in his father's footsteps. Along with the realization that, because he is 14, this future is no longer as distant as he imagined, and is instead speeding closer every day.
Posted for Kaylen Temple
ReplyDeleteThe yellow stain on the ceiling is symbolic of John's sins and is there to keep John conscious of his wrong doings. I believe the yellow stain is also there to remind John that he is human just like everyone else and it should help him realize he has to grow with himself. John will eventually understand that he should accept himself and the family in which he was born into. Even though the pain from his father is a constant burden on his shoulder he will soon deepen himself and become more open to his flaws and accept his true self.
Posted for Troi Guilbeaux
ReplyDeleteJohn wakes up on his fourteenth birthday staring at the ceiling at a yellow stain. As he watches this stain slowly transform into a naked women, he sins. This stain on the ceiling is yellow, not white like the rest of the ceiling pointing out its dirtiness or "filthiness." This stain represents the sin in John's life and the world around him. This dirty stain that turns into a sinful image that John stares at while he commits sins shows us where John's head is at this point in his life. He is lost in between the life he was raised in which was with the church, and his feelings of unattachment to this life and his desire to do something different than follow in his father's footsteps.
In the novel “Go tell it on the mountain” I think that the yellow stain represents sin that John has committed in his life. The stain is seemingly permanent and it serves as a constant reminder of what John did in his past. The stain will not be removed until John has come to terms with his form of being “comfortable” in societies terms. The stain is on the ceiling so every time he lays down he looks up to this nasty yellow stain, maybe its James Baldwin’s idea to have this lingering over his head or to show John that he doesn’t have much to look up to at all in life if he doesn’t continue to live in sin because without it he will be alone. His sin keeps him pure with society but it doesn’t make him as a man better.
ReplyDeletePosted for Chris Jackson
ReplyDeleteThe yellow stain has a great symbolism that shows the struggle of life. John was raised as a strict christian but yet still had impure thoughts that he felt could be his ultimate downfall in life. The white part of the ceiling represents the innocence and purity that he once embraced.The yellow represents the lost of this innocence and the new the journey that he has to embrace as a person who is no longer innocent but experienced. The yellow stain also represents Johns realization that he is a sinner and the stain gives him an outlook on his soul which has been forever stained by his lust. John is truly torn between his love for God and his newly found love for the world.
Posted for Jecha Dangerfield
ReplyDeleteIn the novel, Go Tell It On The Mountain, John has just turned fourteen years old and its the morning of his birthday. No one seems to remember and John is made to being helping clean. His mother sends him to sweep the front room which included their rug. John described this chore of sweeping the rug as "his impossible, lifelong task, his hard trail" (Baldwin 20). He feels this way because no matter how hard and how much he sweeps the rug it just never seems to be clean. As John labors he gets nowhere, "for each dustpan he...filled at the doorsill demons added to the rug twenty more" (Baldwin 20). The rug in this part of the book could symbolize John's struggle with his sins and trying to get back to more Christian ways. John is constantly reminded of his sin and he feels like no matter how hard he tries to do right he continues in sin. He also feels that this is an impossible task just as cleaning the rug is. Just as he tries to rid the rug of debris he tries to rid his mind of impure thoughts. Baldwin uses the rug to help the reader better understand and relate to John's struggle with his sins.
Posted for David Elliot
ReplyDeleteIn the novel "Go Tell It On The Mountain" by James Baldwin, John is ordered by his mother to take the broom to sweep and clean a certain rug in the living room. Since it was John's birthday, the thought of cleaning the very oriental-style carpet that he hated so much on "his" special day angered John. This lead him into a deep-thinking frenzy about his future and his sins. As he was sweeping this rug, he thought about how it was such a prized possession in the family back in the past and how it is now dirty with filth that seemed as if it cannot be cleaned. The rug represents John himself, symbolizing him as once being the the prized possession that was highly and respectfully looked upon from the family back in past, but it is now so filthy with dirt that it will seem like an eternity to wipe it clean. The filth represents John's sins, as he feels like it would be a life-long task to sweep this certain filth away within himself. How he feels about sweeping away filth from the rug is the same way he feels about sweeping the filth away within his own heart... a consequence.
Posted for Kai Williams
ReplyDeleteIn reading the novel, "Go Tell It On The Mountain", by James Baldwin; I notice that everything unclean, whether its his thoughts or the room before him was seen by the color yellow. Prime example on the day of John's birthday he stares ate a yellow stain on the wall and his imagination turns it into a naked woman (10-11). Even though our flesh may make our mind see things such as naked woman on walls God wants us not to dwell on those thoughts. Even thinking dirty thought are unclean and are looked upon as a sin. Ironic enough later that day when John finally left out of the bed and went to where his family was he seen their figures and everything else in a "yellow light intensified" (14). He also states how he sees the room looking dirty and no matter if they were to clean it, it will never be clean.
I believe so far yellow symbolizes filthiness in this novel. John is so upset that his thought are turning unclean and he just looks at his family in a ungodly manner. I think John will invision more filthy thoughts throughout this novel and I am expecting them to be seen through a yellow light. John feels pressure to be such a good child or human being that he is starting to stray away from God and the future expected of him.
Posted for jaycee
ReplyDeleteWe know that the color yellow could mean a number of distasteful things but, in John's case the yellow light that is shown in the kitchen exposes all the dirt and filth within his family. Behind the light all the dirt and sin is hidden but when the yellow light is shown it reveals it all. John is certainly the stand out of the family because of his distant relationship and lack of respect for his dad and because of his lack of knowledge and interest in God. He is still trying to find his way but he knows he wants to go against the morals of his family. Therefore his sins are openly expressed but, his families sins are hidden by the fact that the highly believe in and follow God but they are all inevitable to the exposure of the yellow light.
Posted for Claire
ReplyDeleteIn the novel, “Go Tell It on the Mountain”, by James Baldwin, John Grimes wakes up to and is describes how he is now seeing the kitchen in this new light. The kitchen light is seen as symbolic because it demonstrates how John is now thinking of himself and the life that he may or may not live. The way that he describes the kitchen in an eerie light, his family is the color of an intense yellow, and that everything around him is dirty shows how he is viewing the life in a satanically way. Everything that is dirty to him is beneath him; they are not on as high on a pedestal he is. John’s “evil” side wants to live a life where things are good and he can enjoy the find things in life and live in a clean home. Then, there is how John views his family. Take for instance how he gives details of his mother sitting in the kitchen. “…the dark, hard lines running downward from her eyes, and the deep, perpetual scowl in her forehead, and the downturned, tightened mouth, and the strong, thin, brown, and bony hands…” (Baldwin 15). This description of his mother is depressing and sullen like there is no reward of following the Lord because he will end up looking as his mother does…over-worked and tired and not happy with her life. Lastly, there the whole light that the kitchen is in, the “the pale end-of-winter sunlight” is symbolic itself for death. Death is pale and usually symbolic for the color white and winter. This again demonstrates how John is seeing that following a life of servitude to the Lord would be deathly and choice that he seriously would have to think about in his future. John is at a “fork in the road” in life where one leads to good and the other evil. He wants to be a good person but he does not want that to cost him living a life he enjoys but from what his father has told him that life is nothing but work of Satan himself. Therefore, for a while he will going through a struggle within himself fighting an inner war between good and evil just as he sees the good and evil sides in life.
The color yellow seems to be a reoccurring image in this excerpt. It is a symbol of sin. The yellow stain to me represents John's past innocence. He realizes that he has sinned and it all came from a stain on a wall. The stain was just a stain up until his fourteenth birthday where he is going to see a change in his physical appearance and thoughts. From this moment on John would no longer be innocent. By seeing the naked woman he also realizes that he had sinned or that his innocence was no longer a part of him but something now in his past. Sin is like a stain that you can not get rid of and John is enlightened by this in the first couple of pages of the book.
ReplyDeleteThe color yellow is a representation of John's sin for example when John looked at the yellow stain on the ceiling he saw a naked women in its image. Since John felt as though he had to become a holy, non sinning preacher like his father he did everything he could to fulfill that goal. However, in attempting to become this person he faced many obstacles and the main obstacle that he came across was sin. This was symbolized by him constantly seeing the color yellow reminding him of all the sin surrounding him and preventing him from becoming like his father.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of the Go Tell It On The Mountain, there are many different symbols that represent different obstacles and problems faced by the James' family. John's mother asks him to sweep the front room and dust the furniture. For John, sweeping this rug wasn't just an ordinary chore, it brought back many different memories. "To sweep the front room meant, principally to sweep the heavy red and green and purple Oriental-style carpet that had once been the room's glory"(18). Over time, this rug had become very filthy and full of dust and made John feel as if he would be sweeping it forever. This rug is symbolic because it represents John's continuous struggle to prove himself to his family. No matter how many times he sweeps the rug, it is always full of dust that wouldn't diminish. Also, no matter how many times John tries to get past his many sins that he has committed, his parents still expect him to be the "best" and not fail. It's as if the task of sweeping the rug and John's struggle to get past his sins seem to be impossible tasks.
ReplyDeleteThe symbolism of the yellow stain on the ceiling is an interesting symbol Baldwin decides to write about. The color yellow, in literature, is symbolic for death of disease. The way the color is on the ceiling may allude to the growing stain on John’s home since there is a lingering question about John’s decision in the end. The fact that it is on the ceiling may symbolize how heaven, and more importantly John’s salvation, is the question hanging over his family’s household. The color may stand for the death of John’s former spirituality and birth of a new spirit if he accepts Christ, or even his growing questioning of which road he should take. The stain is an odd question that will linger on his mind as he continues on his journey.
ReplyDelete