84 pages 2 hours read

James Baldwin

Go Tell It on the Mountain

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1953

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Answer Key

Part 1

Reading Check

1. The “Power” and the “Shout” (Part 1)

2. Because “they were young, they did not know the pitfalls Satan laid for the unwary.” (Part 1)

3. Because he had sinned (Part 1)

4. “[B]ecause he loves [them]” (Part 1)

5. To see a film at a movie theater (Part 1)

6. Wrestling (Part 1)

Short Answer 

1. Elisha is the pastor’s nephew of John’s church. John notices his physical characteristics, as well as his voice. Before the service in Part 1, the two men exchange banter and wrestle. (Part 1)

2. John realizes that “he had in himself a power that other people lacked; that he could use this to save himself, to raise himself; and that, perhaps, with this power, he might one day win that love which he so longed for.” This realization comes to him after his school principal compliments him on his writing as a small child in school. (Part 1)

3. On the morning of his 14th birthday, John surveys the dirt of his house, noticing the “filth” he sees on the walls, windows, and crevices.