Abstract
This essay explores the necessity of confronting the underlying issues of one's history in order to heal historic wounds, despite the difficulty and immediacy of one's current struggles. I examine how Pentecostalism functions as a touchstone to the past for John Grimes and his family in James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain, and eventually allows protagonist John to transcend the traditional forms of self-identification in order to create a new informed model of identity within the religion.
Recommended Citation
Jerome, Timothy J.
(2018)
"Engaging the Traumatic Past in an Apocalyptic Present,"
The Criterion: Vol. 2018, Article 2.
Available at:
https://crossworks.holycross.edu/criterion/vol2018/iss1/2
Included in
Comparative Literature Commons, Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons, Rhetoric and Composition Commons