"How I Got Over": An Analysis of James Baldwin's Portrayal of Conversion
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2010
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Haverford College. Department of Religion
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Thesis
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Award
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eng
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Haverford users only
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Abstract
This thesis considers James Baldwin’s novel Go Tell It On the Mountain to be the appropriate lens to examine the twentieth century black Pentecostal church. In an effort to understand the frequent propensity towards black self-hatred, it engages the phenomenon referred to as the white normative gaze. In Mountain, specific racial categories are introduced, applied and interrogated in an effort to demonstrate the complex wrestling between competing ideals and forms of existence. This thesis examines, through a logical progression of chapters leading up to an anticipated culmination of inner struggles, the conversion experience. Ultimately, this thesis not only addresses the problems that create a racially negative environment in the private black religious community, but it also suggests an alternative to the current practice of black Pentecostalism, one that Baldwin would appreciate and more than likely be an active participant.