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Stepping out on faith: representing spirituality in African American literature from the Harlem Renaissance to the Civil Rights Movement
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Stepping out on faith: representing spirituality in African American literature from the Harlem Renaissance to the Civil Rights Movement
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STEPPING OUT ON FAITH: REPRESENTING SPIRITUALITY IN AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE FROM THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE TO THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT by Anton Lowell Smith A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (AMERICAN STUDIES AND ETHNICITY) May 2010 Copyright 2010 Anton Lowell Smith ii Acknowledgments I can only begin to suggest the range of people, places, and institutions that helped me to realize this project. With apologies to the majority who go unnamed, I wish to thank the following. For institutional support - the University of Southern California College Office of Graduate Programs; the James Irvine Foundation Fellowship; the University Southern California Provost’s Fellowship; and the Wallis Annenberg Endowed Fellowship. For intellectual energy and guidance - my awesome dissertation committee: John Carlos Rowe, Macarena Gómez-Barris, and Michelle Y. Gordon; all my professors, classmates, and colleagues in the Departments of American Studies and Ethnicity, Anthropology, and History at the University of Southern California. For nourishing and enriching my spirit - Simon P. Raffel (my best friend in the whole wide world! You are simply a fabulous and amazing human being), Emily Raffel, Jim and Maria Raffel, Alex Ayala, Amber Rebecca Gartung, Jeff Greenberger, Lorene Custer, Noreen Le Cann, Reverend A. Charles Mc Elroy and the Friendship Baptist Church of Riverhead, New York, Paul Von Blum, Reggie Waddell, Donald Wasson, Jan Freeman, Derick Gabourel, Yvonne Jacobs, Dali Mc Mahon, Suzie Fisher, Omar Garcia, Jorge Salvador Seperak, Mike Ortega, Viet Le, Garland Francis, Jr., Derek Francis, Wesley Francis, Ashley Francis, UCLA’s Academic Advancement Program, the Interdepartmental Program in Afro-American Studies at UCLA, the Department of Folklore and Mythology at UCLA, College Bound, SGI-USA, L.A. Leggers, the Under the Big Tree Ministry on 86 th and Broadway in South (Central) Los Angeles. iii For wisdom, patience, love, and sweat - Mabel Clark, my beloved grandmother who passed away in September 2004. I miss you so very much, grandma! May you rest in peace and sleep with the angels! iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements ii Abstract vi Introduction: Setting the Stage for Ecstatic Activity and Charismatic Expression 1 Terms and Definitions for Framing African American Spirituality 5 African American Spirituality: A Review of the Literature 9 African American Religion as the Problem of Slavery 9 African American Religion and the Problem(s) of Emancipation 12 African American Religion, the City, and the Challenge to Racism 15 African American Religion and the Black Freedom Struggle 19 The Golden Age of African American Religious Studies 22 Secularization and African American Spirituality 25 African American Women and Spirituality 26 African American Spirituality and the African American Oral Tradition 30 The Methodological Framework for This Study 34 Chapter One: Faith, Anthropology, and Fiction: Testing the Limits of Black Spirituality in Mules and Men and Their Eyes Were Watching God 37 Souls and Soul-pieces and Ecstatic Behavior 40 The Preacher’s Craft and Charismatic Expression 42 From Anthropology to Fiction: Ecstasy and Charisma in Transition 48 Janie’s Horizons and African American Spirituality: A First Glance 49 Ecstasy in Bloom: Janie’s Pear Tree Confessionals 50 Logan Killicks and Nebulous Horizons 55 Nanny’s Prophesying and Janie’s Horizons 56 Joe Starks and Dual Horizons 66 Porch Politics, Silence, and Black Speech 68 Tea Cake and Janie’s Horizons 81 Faith on Trial: Janie’s Testimonial in Court 86 Phoeby and Charismatic Expression 90 Mrs. Turner as Janie’s Charismatic Foil 91 Janie’s Horizons Revisited 94 Chapter Two: From the Street to the Pulpit…and Back Again: African American Spirituality Ellison Style 98 Faith on the Lower Frequencies: African American Spirituality Meets Modernism 100 Homer Barbee, the Brotherhood and Charismatic Expression 100 v Public Speaking, Invisibility, and Charismatic Expression 102 The Emergence of Ellison’s God in Juneteenth 108 The Senate Floor as a Site for Charismatic Expression and Ecstatic Behavior 110 Sermonic Rhetoric, Church Revivalism, and Ecstatic Behavior (Part 1) 114 Sermonic Rhetoric, the Movies, and Charismatic Expression 118 Sermonic Rhetoric, Church Revivalism, and Ecstatic Behavior (Part II) 121 Epiphany, Charismatic Expression, and Ecstatic Behavior 122 The Way Forward for African American Spirituality in The Civil Rights Era and Beyond 149 Chapter Three: Saturday Night/Sunday Morning: James Baldwin and His Creative Pursuit of Spirituality and Democracy 152 Go Tell It on the Mountain: The Critical Reviews 153 Situating Baldwin’s Approach to Spirituality 162 The Street, the Altar, and the Storefront Church as for Spiritual Awakenings 166 The Movies, the City, and Ecstatic Behavior 172 The Sin of Our Fathers: Holiness and the Home 176 Wrestling with the Saints: Brotherly Love and the Homoerotic Gaze 177 Music, Salvation, and Redemption in the Lord’s House 179 The Fire Next Time and Ecstatic Behavior 185 Baldwin to Baldwin: The Past Speaks to the Present in “My Dungeon Shook” 186 Haunting Revelations: Paternal Shadows and Separatist Spirituality “Down at the Cross” 195 Ecstasy Rising: Baldwin’s Legacy in the Wake of the Civil Rights Movement 199 Conclusion: You Turn My Swag On: The Viability of African American Spirituality in the Age of Obama 201 Stepping Out on Faith: A Summary 208 Twentieth Century Modernism Meets Twenty-First Century Swagger 211 Hurston and female swagger 211 Ellison and the swagger of the Bacote Nigger 218 Baldwin and the blues swagger 220 Ecstasy, Charisma, and Swagger: A Last Stand 224 Endnotes 226 Bibliography 244 vi Abstract This dissertation examines how African American writers experience faith in a society that has historically devalued their humanity and intellectual abilities. It calls for a new understanding of the unique obstacles blacks face in expressing their spirituality in America and points to a variety of secular and sacred practices that can mitigate those challenges and promote creativity. Working within the interpretive lens of African American literary criticism and African American religious studies, the central question of my dissertation asks, what were the forces that shaped African American religiosity in the interwar period and beyond? I argue that phenomena such as ecstasy and charisma not only enable African Americans to express themselves as spiritual beings outside of the church but also provide them a space to assert their humanity and affirm their existence. This study traces the literary representation of spirituality in African American communities through the modernist works of Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, and James Baldwin. I show how black women in Hurston’s Mules and Men and Their Eyes Were Watching God use spaces such as the porch and the courtroom to fashion new spiritual constructs and alternative understandings of self and community through storytelling. I continue to explore ecstasy and charisma by arguing that the protagonists of Ellison’s Invisible Man and Juneteenth forged a reality and spiritual life that was not solely predicated on the existence of God. I argue that black oral traditions such as preaching and testifying contributed to charismatic fervor and ecstatic tendencies found among African Americans during the post-World War II period. From there, I position Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the vii Mountain and The Fire Next Time as texts that utilize the interiority of the storefront church and the chaos of the city streets and the built environment to highlight the dynamics of charismatic behavior and ecstatic expression. I conclude my study with a brief reflection about what African American spirituality means in the Age of Obama, examining how the literature of Hurston, Ellison and Baldwin may be read in the context 21 st century popular culture. 1 Introduction: Setting the Stage for Ecstatic Activity and Charismatic Expression The visibility of the blacks in American cultural expression at this time constitutes a mythology of memory – a cultural and religious attempt to rehearse as a total cultural reality the primordial depths and intention of American culture…This depth is often hidden (concealed), but when it manifests itself, it is a response to an evocation of exhaustion on the ordinary levels of cultural expression. Its appearance is synonymous with cultural crisis. i Charles H. Long, Significations: Signs, Symbols, and Images in the Interpretation of Religion Behind my pride there lives a me, that knows humility Inside my voice there is a soul, and in my soul there is a voice But I've been, too afraid to make a choice ‘Cause I'm scared of the things that I might be missing Running too fast to stop and listen It's time to step out on faith, I've gotta show my face It's been elusive for so long but freedom is mine today I've gotta step out on faith it's time to show my face Procrastination had me down but look what I have found, I found ii India.Arie, “Strength, Courage, and Wisdom” Grandmothers always know the right thing to say at the right time. Indeed, my grandmamma was no different. Whether walking down the street, eating at the dinner table, or sitting in a church pew, my grandmamma would find something witty, yet profound to say. As I write these words on the eve of my thirty-third birthday, I remember something that my beloved grandmamma said to me one day when I was thirteen years old waiting at the school bus stop, pitching pennies in the street. Rather than scold me for my misbehavior, my grandmamma she went on to tell me about how she and granddaddy use to spend all their money on wine and dancing when she was not 2 much older than me. Grandmamma and granddaddy love to let it all hang out and do some “high steppin” Saturday night, then “get happy” with the Lord on Sunday morning. She told me that they had lost so much money on some nights that they would end up walking home. Grandmamma then said they sometimes tried to hail a taxi to get home, but were told repeatedly by white drivers, “Sorry, we don’t take no coloreds.” Nevertheless, she said her and granddaddy prayed to God that they would get home safely and in one piece. Grandmamma said everything turned out alright because she and granddaddy got to know each other better from all that good timing and talking on the way home over the years. She said that eventually they settled down, got married and bought a house. When she had finished her story, grandmamma looked at me quite quizzically and said, “Do you think money grows on trees?” I replied, “No, grandmamma, I don’t.” With my head bowed in silence, I waited for what she was going to say next. Then she turned to me and said, “Sometimes, baby, you gotta take two steps back before you can take one step forward.” As I think about African American spirituality and its representations and possibilities, I start with my grandmother and granddaddy because they remind me that spirituality can happen at any place, space or time. While church may be one place where blacks can understand faith, it is by no means the only place. Also, my they show that spirituality among black folks can take shape in both sacred and secular contexts. The praying that my grandmother and granddaddy did as they tried to get home from a night of partying did not occur in a house of a house of worship. Additionally, they did not put all their faith in one person, (i.e., the white taxi driver) to transport them home and deal 3 with blatant racism. They had faith in God as well as in one another. Whether they prayed to the God above or to their personal God, I did not know nor did I ask my grandmamma. Nevertheless, the fact that my grandparents prayed and supported one another is indeed evidence that they did something spiritual, not necessarily religious, in those moments of doubt and uncertainty. Moreover, my grandmother and granddaddy were quite animated and outgoing folks who showed their spirit on the dance floor (“high steppin”) and in church (“gettin happy”). Such a story as the one told to me by grandmother suggests that African Americans experience their spirituality in varied, yet compelling ways. In order to make further sense of the images pertaining to the representation of African American spiritual habits, I will now address the two quotations at the beginning of this section. Defining the relationships among spirituality, representation, and African American identity is a daunting but necessary undertaking. Exploring such connections involves reconfiguring traditional boundaries, specifically those related to America’s reductive notions regarding the religious beliefs of African Americans. The epigraphs above exemplify two distinct approaches to interpreting spirituality among African Americans in the United States today. While Religious Studies scholar Charles H. Long observes that religious practices of African American communities is not always visible and only emerges in times of emergency or “crisis,” thus suggesting the space for imagining and interpreting black spirituality is practically exhausted, pop singer India.Arie offers a more optimistic, yet strident portrait of black spirituality routed in hope and possibility. She illustrates that it is difficult to imagine African American 4 spirituality, especially in the twenty first century, as detached from the dizzying array of media that amplify and circulate its ideas and practices. While Long and India.Arie reflect the tremendous range that exists in African American spirituality, such a continuum also persists in the realm of black modernist fiction. As African American modernist writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, and James Baldwin imaginatively incorporate spirituality into their work, they externalize those beliefs in the action of their fictional characters. Indeed, fictional characters behave according to the same psychological probabilities as real people. But the characters of fiction are found in dilemmas that real people hardly ever encounter. Consequently, fiction provides us with the opportunity to ponder how people react in uncommon situations, and to deduce moral lessons, psychological principles, and philosophical insights from their behavior. The function and significance of the church in the black community steadily declined between World War I and World War II, yet the spirituality of African Americans persisted well into the 1950s. With that said, what were the forces that shaped African American spirituality from the Harlem Renaissance to the Civil Rights Movement? How should black modernist writers represent spirituality in their work? How do space and place work to define these representations of black spirituality? What role, if any, should the church and the Gospel of Christ play in the articulation of black spirituality? Lastly, how is femininity and masculinity constituted within the spectacle of black spirituality (or more precisely, how are spiritual and devotional practices coded in gendered terms)? I will argue that phenomena such as ecstasy and charisma not only 5 enable African Americans to express themselves as spiritual beings outside of the church but also provide them a space to assert their humanity and affirm their existence. Such questions will contribute to existing scholarship on racial identity, gender, representation and spirituality in the United States. A purely descriptive approach to the spirituality of blacks would overlook the ways in which religion is involved in the pursuit of life’s values. There are some among the oppressed who used religion as a shield against the misfortunes of life, while others are armed with righteous anger. This study on the representations of spirituality in African American modernist fiction attempts to discover the conditions under which these various patterns occur. I am interested in finding out how ecstatic behavior and charismatic expression can be mobilized productively not only to understand the identity of African Americans but also show how African Americans used their spiritual inclinations to refute distorted imaging by mainstream society. Terms and Definitions for Framing African American Spirituality To gain a better appreciation for the fictional representation of spirituality in African American literature, there is a need for a new dialogue on the role of faith in black communities. Defined by the New Webster's Dictionary as “a state of intense overpowering emotion, a condition of exultation or mental rapture induced by beauty, music, artistic creation, or the contemplation of the divine,” ecstasy derives etymologically from the ancient Greek ekstasis, which means flight of the soul from the body. By outlining spirituality of African American fictional characters within the context of ecstasy, my work attempts to address the cultural meaning of “I am spiritual 6 but not religious” through the dimensions of the body, representation, and space. More precisely for this study, I define ecstasy as a search for a spiritual self by African Americans that releases the frustration and alienation caused by a racist and sexist society. Additionally, I define ecstasy as an open and direct expression of the human spirit by African Americans that is unfettered by doubt and uncertainty. The third edition of the American Heritage Dictionary defines charisma as “a rare personal quality attributed to leaders who arouse fervent popular devotion and enthusiasm.” Charisma also embodies “personal magnetism or charm.” Moreover, from a theological perspective, charisma encompasses “an extraordinary power, such as the ability to perform miracles, granted to a Christian by the Holy Spirit.” Also, the common Greek word for spiritual gift is charisma, with the plural charismata. Our contemporary terms “charismatic movement” or “charismatics” are derived from this Greek word. But there is something more to it, since charisma comes from the word charis, which in Greek means grace. For the purposes of this study, I define “charismatic” as not necessarily connected to spiritual gifts or seeing the world as evidence of God’s provincial hand. While most religious studies scholars view the “gift” element of charisma as a significant angle for inquiry, this project will not necessarily assume that there is a relationship between spiritual gifts and the grace of God. I regard charismatic expression as a dramatic subversion of the normal secular outlook with its presupposition that God does reveal himself. Charisma can be a radical break from the inherited cultural perception of reality. This implies that charismatic activity involves an attempt to tackle concrete problems of 7 politics and social morality while at the same time offering a creative, yet imaginative approach to combating racism and representing black spirituality in the United States. Put another way, I employ the term charisma to talk about the transformative experiences and possibilities of African Americans. Charisma recognizes the power of group solidarity and self-determination in the cultural construction of an African American spiritual identity. Ecstasy and charisma and ecstasy are important objects of study because they remind us that the struggle to portray the African American in literary art is not new. Africans, when entering America, did not do so culturally empty-handed. Their expressive culture developed in resistance to, and defiance of the social order. Moreover, previous scholarship on black theology reveals that the full assessment of the relationship between Afro-American religion and literature is incomplete. Religious studies scholar James H. Evans, Jr. writes “the religion and literature of Afro-Americans have – and still are – two chief means of resisting oppression and affirming self-worth.” He maintains “through their religion and their literature Afro-Americans have preserved and refined their collective identities, put into sharpest relief the distinctive sensibility which is the heritage of people of African descent, and given expression to the struggle for liberation which is the central feature of their experience.” I believe that the representation of spirituality in African American communities is not static, but fluid. As a scholar in American Studies and Ethnicity and a first generation college-bound student, I believe that we must step out on faith – to suspend our disbelief and doubt long enough to (re) imagine new conditions of possibility. 8 Exploring the crisis of religious authority in African American literature and culture is by no means an easy task. Any understanding of modern “spirituality” among African Americans has to come from combining an interpretation of the black religious tradition that is as wide as possible with a comprehension of the signs of our time. Scholars such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Albert Raboteau, James Cone, Dwight N. Hopkins and Kelly Brown Douglas have interpreted the religious activities of twentieth century African American in stark and traumatic terms. While these academics offer compelling stories of the ways in which black folk have turned to Christianity to describe their history and plight in America and to project their vision of redemption to the nation, my work on ecstasy and charisma contributes to the existing discussion regarding the crisis of religious authority by offering a compelling literary analysis of how motion and emotion shaped the contours of African American thought. While I do not believe that it is possible to quantify spirituality, I wish to suggest a vivid description of what the “spiritual” experience meant to black authors writing in the middle of the twentieth century. As such, I will employ the term “spirituality” in three major senses: spirituality as a set of disappearances and reappearances that reflects the discipline and comportment of the black body, spirituality as within the realm of the charismatic and ecstatic, where loss of orientation toward rational experience is not regulated by a singular moment or emotion but by a series of attenuated ruptures or lapses, and spirituality as a socio-spatial construction that changes over time. 9 African American Spirituality: A Review of the Literature The type of African spirituality that took root in North America emerged elements from many African cultures. Since slave masters intentionally mixed Africans from many tribal backgrounds, no “pure” African religion preserving one tradition emerged. Nevertheless, the longstanding scholarly controversy about the extent to which African traditions have been retained in African-based religions is gradually being resolved in favor of those who see extensive survivals. In addition to singing, church music, and preaching style – aspects where an African influence has greatly been conceded – scholars have made persuasive arguments for African survivals in family structure, funeral practices, church organization, and many other areas. The organization of this literature review is based partly on the historical periodization of African American Religious Studies suggested by Cornel West and Eddie S. Glaude Jr. in African American Religious Thought: An Anthology. West and Glaude frame African American religious life into five significant historical moments. What follows is a brief description of the scholarship that characterized each trend. African American Religion as the Problem of Slavery From the mid-eighteenth century to 1863, African Americans responded to the institution of slavery by making their religion more personalized. African conversion to Christianity gained considerable momentum in this period. African Americans were able to exert some control over their own salvation and were also encouraged to express their emotions. 10 In the 1730s and 1740s the northern colonies of the United States experienced a series of religious revivals known collectively as the Great Awakening. One of the most important aspects of the Great Awakening was the attempt by preachers, many of them laymen, to reach out and spread the gospel to those in the lower ranks of society. As the Great Awakening spread from the North to the South after the 1750s, this message of popular redemption was carried to the most oppressed peoples: slaves. In the beginning southern slaveholders welcomed the revivalists, seeing in the conservative aspects of Protestantism a means to augment their control over their slaves. But as many slave owners quickly learned, revivalism was a double-edged sword. While Protestantism could communicate a message of otherworldliness and reconciliation with one’s lot in life, it could also transmit a powerful message of redemption and deliverance from oppression. In spite of slaveholder attempts to suppress the redemptive side of Protestantism, many southern revivalist preached the full gospel to slaves, including in their sermons tales of Moses, Daniel, and other biblical leaders who sought the liberation of their people. As slaves listened to the sermons of these revivalists, they began to construct their own interpretation of Christian religion, drawing parallels between their plight and that of the Israelites whom Moses led out of their Egyptian captivity. By the nineteenth century, as Albert J. Raboteau points out, religion was a fundamental source of resistance, moral example, and psychological comfort for enslaved Americans. Salvation demanded these men and women to die in the Lord and be reborn. This is reminiscent of the spirit possession that was part of the West African culture. However, the bodies of these people were not possessed by the Gods, or infused with the 11 characteristics and the personalities of their ancestors. They were possessed by the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ that filled them with happiness and power that freed them to shout, sing and dance. “While the North American slaves danced under the impulse of the Spirit of a ‘new’ God, they danced in ways their fathers in Africa would have recognized.” iii This type of ecstatic behavior was not well received by Christian evangelists. Attempts were made to discourage shouting and ring dances. In 1878, Bishop Daniel Payne of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) made these comments. “I attended a ‘bush meet”.... After the sermon they formed a ring, and with coats off sung, clapped their hands and stamped their feet in a most ridiculous and heathenish way.” iv Other Christian evangelists also expressed their aversion to the growing influence of ecstatic behaviors. In 1819 Methodist evangelist John Watson wrote a book entitled, Methodist Error or Friendly Advice to Those Methodists Who Indulge in Extravagant Religious Emotions and Bodily Exercises. It was his belief that the Negro shouts, which consisted of singing for hours, wild body movements, thigh slapping, and foot stomping were beginning to infiltrate white religious worship. He wrote “… the evil is only occasionally condemned and the example has already visibly affected the religious manners of some whites.” v AME Bishop Payne lamented, “And what is more deplorable, some of our most popular and powerful preachers labor systematically to perpetuate this fanaticism. Such preachers never rest till they create an excitement that consists in shouting, jumping and dancing.” vi These evangelists were well aware that certain aspects of West African pagan culture were establishing a safe haven within the confines of 12 Christianity: “There are close parallels between the style of the dancing observed in African and Caribbean cult worship and the style of the American ‘ring shout.”” vii African American Religion and the Problem(s) of Emancipation The end of the Civil War in 1865 placed the freedman in an awkward position in American society. Now that they were no longer slaves, would black Americans be allowed the same rights as white citizens (e.g., to vote, serve on juries, hold office, own property, etc)? Should black males be allowed to vote? The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution provided one answer to these questions; they gave the freedman all the rights of American citizenship including the right to vote. However, constitutional principle was one thing and southern practice another. Through intimidation and violence, southern whites sought to maintain the old system of racial domination and white supremacy that had prevailed in the prewar South. Southern blacks were beaten for attempting to vote, black political leaders were assassinated, and the Ku Klux Klan was organized with the object of keeping blacks “in their place.” By the late 1860s it was clear that white southerners were determined to prevent any change in their system of racial privilege and power. Nevertheless, the history of Reconstruction was not only a story of black suppression and white domination. Individually and collectively, southern blacks challenged the power and racist assumptions of their white neighbors. Wherever they could, freedmen and freedwomen reestablished the family and kinship ties they had lost during slavery. Thousands of ex-slaves flocked to urban areas to find employment and establish their economic independence. Others purchased land, established communities, 13 and provided for their family’s well-being. The story of Reconstruction is one of courage and a single-minded search for freedom. Indeed, the black church facilitated the transition from slavery to freedom as well as led the struggle against the Southern white campaign of terror, lynching, and disfranchisement. After Emancipation, the church developed into the cornerstone of the black community. Despite the relative lack of an explicit protest theme in the churches of the small towns and rural South in the decades after the Civil War, there was nourished an ability to withstand great hardship. As the system of racial segregation took hold in the 1880s and 1890’s, black ministers coordinated a multi-pronged response. First, they challenged new segregation laws, engaging in civil disobedience and boycotts. Second, black ministers helped form a separate set of black institutions to serve African Americans. The Congregationists, Baptists, and Northern Methodists established schools in the South for African Americans during Reconstruction, but the African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, and Christian Methodist Episcopal bishops forged ahead with establishment of their own network of schools. The black denominations also built up their publishing houses, and the books and periodicals that they published were vital to the black community. Virtually every institution with ties to African American communities received some support from black churches. Third, some black ministers believed that the civil rights retreats of the late nineteenth century should encourage African Americans to leave the United States for a destination where their full civil rights would be respected. A “Back to Africa” movement grew to enable African 14 Americans to find a home where they can run governments, banks, and businesses without interference from whites. Scholars who write about religion regarding this period have pointed out the challenges of organizing around race and religion. Albert J. Raboteau observes, “Nineteenth-century blacks need to reclaim for themselves a civilized African past in order to refute the charge that they were inherently inferior, especially because they, by and large, assumed that modern Africans and African Americans were lest civilized than Anglo-Americans.” viii Raboteau notes that African Americans fashioned a theology of history and myth where they would be a strong, yet noble people, not victims of racism and violence. ix Consequently, most African Americans interpreted their destiny from Psalms 68:31: “Princes shall come out of Egypt and Ethiopia shall soon stretch forth her hands unto God.” However, Raboteau’s discussion does not address of a vision of freedom for black women. As Elsa Barkley Brown asserts in her work on post-Civil War era women in Richmond, Virginia, “Those who construct masculine notions of blackness and race progress… are claiming/remembering a particular history. The definitions and issues of political struggle which can come from that partial memory are limited.” x Notwithstanding, black women have assumed key leadership roles in this era. During the postbellum years, some black women sought and obtained formal ordination from their denominations. Sarah Ann Hughes, a successful North Carolina evangelist and pastor, was ordained by Bishop Henry McNeal Turner in 1885, but complaints from male pastors caused her ordination to be revokes two years later. Two women were ordained by African Methodist Episcopal Zion bishops not long thereafter – 15 Mary J. Small in 1895 as a deacon and 1898 as an elder, and Julia A.J. Foote in 1894 and 1900. Many women exercised their ministry through para-ecclesiastical structures, such as Anna Cooper and the African Methodist Episcopal Church’s Frances Jackson Coppin, became renowned educators. African American Religion, the City, and the Challenge to Racism Black religious life in the early twentieth century became more characterized by a far greater degree of diversity and pluralism. However, this variety in spiritual practices resulted from the forces of urbanization, the Great Migration, and the Harlem Renaissance. Indeed, it is in this environment where ecstatic behavior and charismatic expression truly flourished. W.E.B. Du Bois’s Souls of Black Folk provides a compelling vignette of black religious life at the beginning of the twentieth century. With “Of the Faith of Our Fathers,” Du Bois witnesses firsthand the kinetics of African American spirituality: And so most striking to me, as I approached the village and the little plain church perched aloft, was the air of intense excitement that possessed that mass of black folk. A sort of suppressed terror hung in the air and seemed to seize us, - a pythian madness, a demonic possession, that lent terrible reality to song and word. The black and massive form of the preacher swayed and quivered as the words crowded to his lips and flew at us in singular eloquence. The people moaned and fluttered, and then gaunt- cheeked brown woman beside me suddenly leaped straight into the air and shrieked like a lost soul, while round about came wail and groan and outcry, and a scene of human passion such as I had never conceived before. xi As a result of Du Bois’s work, scholars began to theorize about African American religion and regard it as an object of study. 16 Urbanization influenced the religious life of a majority of African Americans in the United States has in many ways, and their religious beliefs and practices affected the nature of their responses to life in the city. These were among the consequences: (1) Some have become “un-churched.” The city shattered their older beliefs, and they felt alienated from the existing churches – that some look upon as just another “racket.” (2) For a majority, however, the church remained an important force. It is the association to which they were most likely to belong and in which they actively participated. (3) The urban world furnished a wide variety of forms of belief and worship: small sects and cults like those in rural areas, denominations that were similar to the established churches of the white population, and dramatically new religious movements that depart widely – although not completely – from the Christian tradition. (4) In the city African Americans found the beginnings of a racially integrated church, in which lines of class, education, and residence determine membership more than race. The Great Migration resulted in a significant relocation of African Americans. In search of better jobs, educational opportunities, and an escape from racial problems, the African American population of Northern cities swelled. Mother Nature also played a role in the displacement of blacks, with the infestation of the boll weevil and the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 as the top weather-related culprits. Although demographic shifts and environmental catastrophes took place during the better part of the 1910s and 1920s, African Americans still took their habits of worship with them, adapting themselves to their new localities. During this period there was a spectacular rise of 17 Pentecostalism and storefront churches, some of which were led by flamboyant showmen such as Father Divine and “Sweet Daddy” Grace. Scholars have pointed to Father Divine and “Sweet Daddy” as figures that best embody ecstatic behavior and charismatic expression in this period. Grace Born George Baker, Father Divine was the founder of the Peach Mission, a non-ritualistic cult whose followers worshiped their leader as God incarnate on earth. Spiritually, Father Divine fostered what amounted to a massive cooperative agency, based on the communal spirit of the Last Supper. His movement practiced complete racial equality. Services included songs and impromptu sermons and were conducted without Scripture readings and the use of clergy. Born in the Cape Verde Islands, “Sweet Daddy” Grace was the founder of the United House of Prayer for All People. Grace had an ecstatic worship style that encouraged speaking in tongues. Grace claimed great powers, including the power of faith healing, and he stated that “Grace has given God a vacation, and since God is on His vacation don’t worry Him… If you sin against God, Grace can save you, but if you sin against grace, God cannot save you.” xii Pentecostalism, which burst on the American scene in 1906, became a religious force within the black community. The Church in God in Christ (COGIC), a Pentecostal denomination, became the largest black denomination in the United States. Meanwhile, the charismatic or Neo-Pentecostal movement revitalized many congregations within mainline black denominations. 18 The Pentecostal approach to religion supports the notion of “turning the world upside down.” Fundamentalists do not try to meet the world where it is but challenge the position of the world. They call upon the world to move out where it was and affirm very strongly that they would stand on the Rock of Jesus Christ whether the world came with them or not. They could do this, not because they had learned to communicate in contemporary terms but because they had experienced the grace, power, and presence of the Risen Christ. In Pentecostalism, the prophetess plays a pivotal role in the “turning the world upside down” approach of the Pentecostal faith. The prophetess never becomes a pastor and does not write books. She is a “sister” of the church, who expresses herself during periods of prayer by prophesies. She usually uttered no more than a few short sentences. She was not an exalted personality, but a modest woman who, when she was asked for advice by the ‘sisters,’ expressed herself very cautiously and hesitantly. This type of woman may include domineering figures, discontented with their marriage or with being spinsters. Often the prophetess has greater intellectual gifts than her husband, with his more spontaneous talents, and takes care of his correspondence, translates letters, reads books for him, goes to most of his services and listens to his sermons. From time to time she may criticize him. Some prophetesses have a dominating motherly personality and illustrate theatrical impulses and talents. They have a sense for the dramatic and does not let herself be ridiculed or mocked. African American literature in the United States reached an artistic pinnacle in the periods between the two world wars with the Harlem Renaissance. It began mostly as a 19 movement of African American artists and writers into Harlem from practically every state in the country. The conscious agenda of these mostly young figures was to define and celebrate black art and culture. Also, they wanted to change the preconceived and erroneous notions most Americans had of black life. To a certain extent, this included the representation of black church and African American spiritual practices as well. For example, Zora Neale Hurston in The Sanctified Church addresses how doubtful she was that writing about the black middle class would improve race relations. African American Religion and the Black Freedom Struggle The spiritual pursuits of African Americans reflected the increasing liberal trend in the Supreme Court. The legal and legislative victories in the 1950s and 1960s dramatically shaped the religiosity of blacks. From the Brown v. Board of Education decision to the 1969 publication of James Cone’s Black Theology and Black Power efforts were made by African Americans both to affiliate with and to separate from a broader American culture. Martin Luther King, Jr., with his policy of nonviolent protest grounded in the African American religious tradition, was the dominant force in the modern Civil Rights Movement. King drew his greatest support from the black churches of the South as he sought to assist other communities in the organization of protest campaigns against discrimination. Through sermonic rhetoric, marches, boycotts and sit-ins King and others agitated for the desegregation of buses and voter registration. In the North, however, King soon discovered that young and angry blacks cared little for his pulpit oratory and even less for his solemn pleas for peaceful protest. 20 The “Black Theology” movement, which grew rapidly after King’s assassination, attempted to fashion a critique of the prevalent Christian theology out of the materials that King and Malcolm X provided. For example, theologian Albert Cleage, pastor of the Shrine of the Black Madonna in Detroit, argued that Jesus is a black messiah and that his congregation should follow the teachings of Jehovah, a black god. Cleage was representative of black theologians in arguing that black liberation should be seen as situated at the core of the Christian gospels: When he came to Jerusalem, he had one simple task. He had twelve disciples who would follow him. He wanted them to understand what was happening and to be able to carry on after his crucifixion because for Jesus the crucifixion was not the end. For Jesus the Black Nation must last a thousand years, for ten thousand years, for a million years. A man might die for the nation, but the Nation must live. xiii Theologian James Cone provides a systematic exposition of the argument that since God, according to the Bible, is on the side of the poor and oppressed, God is siding with the black liberation struggle in the American context: The task of black theology, then, is to analyze the nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the light of oppressed blacks so they will see the gospel as inseparable from their humiliated condition, and as bestowing on them the necessary power to break the chains of oppression. This means, that it is a theology of and for the black community seeking to interpret the religious dimensions of the forces of liberation in that community. xiv Cones continues by saying that, We cannot describe God directly; we must use symbols that point to dimensions of reality that cannot be spoken of literally….The focus on blackness does not mean that only blacks suffer as victims is a racist society, but that blackness is an ontological symbol and a visible reality which best describes what oppression means in America. xv 21 However, more importantly for this study, Cone recognizes that black theology embraces ecstatic behavior: The black experience is catching the spirit of blackness and loving it. It is hearing black preachers speak of God’s love in spite of the filthy ghetto, and black congregations responding Amen, which means that they realize that ghetto existence is not the result of divine decree but of white inhumanity. xvi Most blacks interpreted Black Theology to mean at least two things: (1) as the “suffering servant,” blacks were the persecuted group chosen to bring a message to all mankind; (2) but as a group treated unjustly, blacks were destined to prevail. C. Eric Lincoln in The Black Church Since Frazier declared that the Negro church had died and been reborn as the black church, an instrument of freedom, not only a symbol of it. He gave expression to the rise of black liberation theology in the late 1960s and its critique of “white theology” for its failure to address the culpability of the white man in the oppression of blacks and for having encouraged the notion that black people were lesser beings in the eyes of God and therefore incapable of Christian witness. Ultimately, for scholars like Cone and Lincoln, Black Theology was the religious expression of black power. Howard Thurman, another leading theologian, opposed segregation and supported the freedom movements of the 1950s and 1960s. Thurman served as a pastor to a Baptist church in Ohio and, from 1944 to 1953, an interracial and interdenominational Fellowship Church he founded in San Francisco. Thurman in This Luminous Darkness adopts a different approach to black humanity and white supremacy: The burden of being black and the burden of being white is so heavy that it is rare in our society to experience oneself as a human being…Precisely what does it mean to experience oneself as a human being? In the first place, it means that the individual must have a sense of kinship to life that 22 transcends and goes beyond the immediate kinship of family or the organic kinship that binds him ethnically or “racially” or nationally. He has to feel that he belongs to his total environment. He has a sense of being an essential part of the structural relationship that exists between him and all other men, and between him, all other men, and the total external environment. As a human being, then, he belongs to life and the whole kingdom of life that includes all that lives and perhaps, also, all that has ever lived. In other words, he sees himself as part of a continuing, breathing, living existence. To be a human being, then, is to be essentially alive in a living world. xvii In his teachings, Thurman calls for a religious community that “would practice brotherhood without regard to race, color, and all the other barriers.” xviii Unlike Cone and Lincoln, who underscored separatism in their religious philosophies, Thurman clearly took a more humanistic outlook. The Golden Age of African American Religious Studies During this phase of African American Religious Studies, scholars offer reflections on key moments in the history of black spiritual thought. Academics revisit the concept of Black Theology and reevaluate its relevance in the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries. Moreover, theologians debate about essentialist notions of race and race politics. Additionally, gender and cultural studies emerge as major areas of inquiry within the field. Also, discussions regarding the salience of ecstatic behavior and charismatic expression continue to inspire scholarship. Spirituals remain an object of study for African American Religious Studies scholars. For example, James H. Cone argues that spirituals not only documented the struggle of black people as they responded to the hardships of life in the United States, but also chartered their psychological development: 23 They are historical songs that speak about the rupture of black lives; they tell us about a people in the land of bondage and what they did to hold themselves together and to fight back. We are told that the people of Israel could not sing the Lord’s song in a strange land. But, for blacks, their Being depended upon a song. Through song, they built new structures for existence in an alien land. The spirituals enabled blacks to retain a measure of African identity while living in the midst of American slavery, providing both the substance and the rhythm to cope with human servitude. xix From Cone’s point of view, spirituals were a form of resistance and affirmed black people of their humanity. Slaveholders may have controlled a slave’s body, but they did not control their minds. Spirituals reminded blacks whose they were as well as who they were. Cone adds: “The spirituals speak of God’s liberation of black people, His will to set right the oppression of black slaves despite the overwhelming power of white masters. For blacks believed that there is an omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient power at work in the world, and that he is on the side of the oppressed and downtrodden.” xx In other words, spirituals were an expression of Black Power. However, Howard Thurman in The Negro Speaks of Life and Death praised spirituals for their poetic and aesthetic value, regarding them as “the ebb and flow of tides that feed the rivers of man’s thinking and aspiring.” xxi Nevertheless, both theologians convey the transcendent nature associated with the performance of spirituals. There were also differing views on symbolism of Exodus and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. On the one hand, there were those scholars believed wholeheartedly that the struggle of African Americans paralleled the hardships of Christ. James Cone argues from this position, stating, “The death of Jesus meant that the savior died on the cross for black slaves. His death was a symbol of their suffering, their trials 24 and tribulation in an unfriendly world. When Jesus was nailed to the cross and the Romans pierced him in the side, he was not alone; blacks suffered and died with him.” xxii He adds, “Through the experience of being slaves, they encountered the theological significance of Jesus’ death. With the crucifixion, Jesus makes an unqualified identification with the poor and helpless and takes their pain upon himself. They were at the crucifixion because death was for them.” xxiii However, other scholars, like Dwight N. Hopkins, contend that the narrative portends the burdens side of freedom: “Positioning Jesus back with Moses did not mean that black folks made relative or negated the earth- shattering divide between the political power of Satan and that of Jesus realized by the latter’s earthly appearance (in the New Testament) …By stationing Jesus back with Moses, the entire Exodus event becomes a paradigmatic foreshadowing of the liberation consequences of Jesus’ death and resurrection – the universal poor’s grand exodus from poverty to freedom.” xxiv Hence, from Hopkins’s perspective black identification with the Christ story did not necessarily guarantee a release from the earthly suffering. As Hopkins suggests, stepping out on faith had real “consequences.” Kelly Brown Douglass makes a similar argument as she talks about the relationship between homosexuality and the biblical authority. Douglass observes, “…the events and heroes of the Exodus story remain as central to contemporary Black faith as they were to enslaved religion,” but add later, “In order to mitigate biblically based Black homophobia, a meaningful discussion of the Bible and sexuality, specifically homosexuality, will have to emerge from the Black community itself. It is a discussion that must take place within the wider context of Black people’s own struggle for life and wholeness.” xxv Once again, the notion of 25 stepping out on faith applies here as well because Douglass basically implies that if the black church wants to talks about liberation, it needs to be more universal in its vision and ministry. Secularization and African American Spirituality The idea of secularization has a long and distinguished history in the social sciences, with many seminal thinkers arguing that religiosity was declining throughout Western societies. The seminal social thinkers of the nineteenth century—Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud—all believed that religion would gradually fade in importance and cease to be significant with the advent of industrial society. They were far from alone; ever since the Age of the Enlightenment, leading figures in philosophy, anthropology, and psychology have postulated that theological superstitions, symbolic liturgical rituals, and sacred practices are the product of a past that will be outgrown in the modern era. The death of religion was the conventional wisdom in the social sciences during most of the twentieth century; indeed, it has been regarded as the master model of sociological inquiry, where secularization was ranked with bureaucratization, rationalization, and urbanization as the key historical revolutions transforming medieval agrarian societies into modern industrial nations. Secularization is particularly problematic for black people because the connection between culture and religion has deep historic roots in the African experience. The interwar period was a time of critically important change in African-American religion— change that was significantly related to the social transformation connected with the 26 Great Migration and importantly evidenced by the flourishing of both a more secular black elite and the so-called “sects and cults.” The reigning generalizations that have dominated the literature on this period are based primarily on a series of sociological studies undertaken in the 1920s and (especially) 1930s. These studies are very much rooted in their own time—both in the sense of their often displaying definite evaluative stances toward the contemporary black churches and in their reflecting a certain stage in the development of American social scientific theory about religion. Both a conviction that the black churches should restrain their “otherworldly” expressivity and devote themselves more energetically to instrumental “this-worldly” reform and a reliance on a very simple model of the secularizing effect of urbanization would appear to have played central roles in shaping what became the scholarly orthodoxy about black religious life during these years. In our view, neither these presuppositions nor the work that flowed from them is beyond challenge. African American Women and Spirituality The church in black America poignantly represents an institution that has served as a mediator in the personal trials and tribulations of generations of Afro-Americans. Both during and after slavery, many black Americans have turned to black churches for comfort and relief from racial hostility, oppression, and bigotry. I understand testifying as a sort of a signature or a mark that highlights the presence of black women. Then, how does testifying serve as an authenticating practice for black women? To what extent do religious testimonials validate or invalidate the presence of black women? Ultimately, to what extent does testifying and testimonials constitute “being there?” In particular, while 27 the church has certainly served historically as a source of strength for black women, as well as within the literature, it is a mixture of appreciation and accusation that many black writers treat characters grounded in that institution. Black women’s spirituality and the centrality of testifying as a form of resistance are not isolated phenomena. Refusing to be silent in the face of black men taking advantage of their male privilege in relation to black women, black women preachers vigorously critiqued America’s shortcomings and black theologies for the apparent lack of black women in a society that tends to devalue both blackness and womanhood. Sojourner Truth is a symbol of women’s strength and black women’s womanliness. As an itinerant preacher, abolitionist, and feminist, Truth attracted considerable attention and interest. Truth attended the 1851 Akron, Ohio convention on women’s rights in order to sell her book, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Bondswoman of Olden Time. The chair of that meeting, Frances Dana Gage, invented the phrase “ar’n’t I a woman?” a refrain that came from one of Truth’s speeches and defined Truth’s persona in the twentieth century. Barbra Hill Hudson describes how African American female writers portray African American female characters using language to reflect their membership in various speech communities. Hudson argues that African American women writers serve as “folklinguists” for African American speech communities that convey the “everyday social interactions” of black women. xxvi Hudson’s study considers the politics of representation in ethnographic fieldwork. Hudson’s work complements the research conducted by Zora Neale Hurston in Mules and Men and focuses on the value of folklore 28 in anthropological discourse, especially as it relate to the development of dialect. Both authors suggest that the sound and speech of Afro-American women have a profound effect on self-worth and self-definition. As I consider spirituality in the context of religious testimony, I am interested in how black women express themselves in the public arena. What is the relationship between dialect and expressive behavior and how are black women stigmatized by language? Claudia Mitchell Kernan examines the value of signifying and marking as communicative strategies, discussing the condition under which a speaker would rely on such indirect means of getting across a point rather than making it directly. With “Signifying and Marking: Two Afro-American Speech Acts,” Mitchell-Kernan illustrates that signifying refers to a way of encoding messages or meanings in natural conversation that involve an element of indirection. Furthermore, she shows that marking reflects a significant source of information about consciousness and unconscious attitudes toward language. Mitchell-Kernan’s work reinforces the research of Elinor Ochs and Lisa Capps that addresses the complexity of narrating the self. Narrative and the self are inextricably bound and are mutually constitutive because “personal narrative simultaneously is born out of experience and gives shape to experience.” xxvii With my research on the black church, I consider testifying as a communicative tactic that empowers black women and allow them to position themselves outside the reach of patriarchal structures of dominance. Marcyliena Morgan’s work on signifying is also instructive. With “Indirectness and Interpretation in African American Women’s Discourse,” Morgan analyzes the 29 speech patterns of three generations of African American women living in Chicago from the mid 1970s to early 1980s. She interrogates the metalinguistic devices employed in the African American community to represent its identity and social reality. Morgan’s exploration of counterlanguage, intentionality, and speaker responsibility offers a compelling perspective on language acquisition and cultural awareness. Morgan ultimately argues, “You are responsible for what you say as well as any consequences that may arise from saying it – whether you know it or not.” xxviii In the trajectory of my own work, Morgan’s notion of a counterlanguage helps me understand testifying as a form of counter-discourse that contests the sequence of conventional narrative. Since the language and speech patterns of black women reflect their reality and experience of oppression, sexism, etc., how does testifying serve as act of resistance? Morgan also discusses the communication practices of black women in the context of Black English. With “No Woman No Cry: The Linguistic Representation of African American Women,” Morgan considers the participation of Afro-American women in the development of language norms and refutes the notion that Black English Vernacular (BEV) as only a phenomenon among males and the poor. Morgan draws on Gwaltney’s concept of core black culture to illustrate that BEV is representative of “regular” speech and black women’s voices. Ultimately, Morgan argues that Afro- American women are not on the periphery of culture and communication and should refuse to accept marginality and mediocrity. In my own research on the black church and black female communication, I would like to investigate the impact of race, gender, and religion on black women. Is religious testifying an ethnography of performance or can it 30 represent a performance of ethnography? What is at stake for black women when testifying is cast in such a way? What does this inversion say about the saliency of a core black culture and the placement of women within it? In the Journal of Black Psychology, Jacqueline S. Mattis examines the meaning of spirituality among Afro-American women. In a study of 128 Afro-American women, based on written narratives, the author attempts to evaluate the concept of spirituality. She found that respondents categorized spirituality in at least thirteen different ways, describing it as a connection to or belief in a higher external power to an understanding, accepting, and being in touch with self to even vaguer terms as clarity, wisdom and focus. xxix Although this survey is small in terms of quantity of participants, the range in actual responses shows that spirituality is not concrete, but fluid and dynamic. African American Spirituality and the African American Oral Tradition The impulse to testify or bear witness has been a hallmark of the black church tradition. For the black community, testifying is not simply making a declaration of truth or fact under oath (as in a court of law), but involves expressing a strong belief based on personal knowledge. In the case of Afro-Americans, testifying serves as a means to shape a “public self” through language. xxx As an Afro-American form of expression, testifying is complex communication system that provides a unique pathway to examine African derived sensibilities. With respect to the spoken word, testifying is an opportunity for the entire church to offer assistance to a fellow worshiper of Christ. In the process, a testifier may interact with the rest of the congregation through a call/response pattern, where the speaker’s statements (“calls”) are punctuated by expressions (“responses”) from the 31 listener. xxxi As the black church “talks back” to the testifier, there is an ongoing dialogue that encourages (and sometimes demands) a degree of reciprocity. In other words, if you attest or share your heartache with the group, the group, in return, will offer positive feedback, in the form of an “A-men” or “hallelujah.” xxxii This African-based form of communication allows displaced blacks in the Americas to achieve or maintain inner as well as outer harmony that is crucial to the traditional African world-view. xxxiii However, what does it really mean to testify and what are the benefits of doing so? Consider two perspectives concerning the impact and modes of testifying, one from a black Mid- western clergyman and another from congregants in a black church in South Central Los Angeles currently. In Feeling the Spirit: Faith and Hope in an Evangelical Black Storefront Church, Reverend Thomas, the leader of First Corinthians Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago, characterizes testimony in the following manner: When a person testifies, he tells the disasters that come upon him and how God brought him out through miracle form. We call it being blessed by God that he enabled us to overcome some of the disasters. We believe in some ways that Satan, even though God does not turn us over to him, he still tries to take us in. Many times we get drafted into some kind of obstacles or some of the wrath of Satan, and God has to bring us out because we asked him to do so… You know, things just come up and we have to get ourselves out. And so we get up and tell one another how it’s done, what happens to us, and how God blessed…And sometimes we have everything our heart desires, and life is going on, our health is good, and we just proceed to live the way we want to. But then God has a way of cutting us off. And if you don’t have everything your heart desires, then you ask him why. xxxiv The preceding excerpt suggests that there is power in the spoken word. The clergyman believes testimony can reveal the ongoing battles taking place between human beings and the Devil. He describes bearing witness as a “coming forward” process where individuals 32 unload some of their emotional baggage and speak openly about their private troubles. In one sense, testifying before a church congregation is like making a public confession, with individuals acknowledging the omniscience and deliverance of God in their daily affairs. Also, consider the testimonials of members of the From Under the Big Tree Ministry: The next part of the service was devoted to personal testimonials. “Brother” Kenny began by saying that it was a pleasure for him to be in church and that the heavenly father saw it fit to pick him up and bring him to the Lord. He completed his testimony with a song entitled “The Heavenly Spirit Touched Me and Made Me Whole.” Next, “Sister” Vallencia talked about how she was laid off from her job three weeks ago. However, she went on to say that the good Lord “saw it fit” to bestow her with three new jobs: one at a doctor’s office and another working with senior citizens (I don’t remember the third). She finished her testimony by mentioning that God is in business and his spirit was alive. “Sister” Jeanette followed, in a cheerful and exciting voice, pronouncing that God gave her a washing machine since because “saw a need and filled it.” Finally, the first lady of the church (i.e. the pastor’s wife) stood up and blessed the Lord for healing her and taking away her sickness. She apologized to the congregation for missing Sunday services for the last couple of weeks and said that she would make an effort to be present in the future. Like Brother Kenny, she too completed her testimony with a song, humming the tune “You Can’t Make Me Doubt Him.” xxxv The preceding passage above illustrates that testifying can take on different forms. The impulse to testify involves telling a truth through story, revealing the power and goodness of God. xxxvi Testimonials may start out as an informal dialogue with the congregation, but the testifier could shift into a musical mode, where the spoken word becomes “songified.” In other cases, testimony may solely be songs and music, with no prologue. Testifying, as a mode of religious behavior, can serve as a cathartic exercise, cleansing the mind, body, and spirit of an individual. Moreover, testimony in the black church depends on the visitation of the Holy Spirit. xxxvii The entire congregation must participate 33 in the spiritual regeneration of the church. As far as the black church is concerned, there is neither a “wrong” nor “right” way to channel the Holy Spirit. The versatility of the black communication system allows Afro-Americans to access spirituality in a way that may be culturally relevant to their experience. For example, Afro-American music forms such as jazz and blues are highly improvisational, reflecting a blending of different harmonic compositions, where individuals must develop their own sound and approach to performance. xxxviii In a similar manner, Afro-American testimony in a black church reflects syncretism, weaving together story after story through the spoken word and song to convey the nuances of the black spiritual experience. As a black intellectual and public figure, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has been an outspoken critic of the Eurocentric literary canon and has instead insisted that black literature must be evaluated by the aesthetic criteria of its culture of origin, not criteria imported from Western or European cultural traditions that express a “tone deafness to the black cultural voice” and result in “intellectual racism.” Gates tried to articulate what might constitute a black cultural aesthetic in his major scholarly work The Signifying Monkey, the work extended the application of the concept of “signifyin(g)” to analysis of African-American works and thus rooted African-American literary criticism in the African-American vernacular tradition. While Gates has stressed the need for greater recognition of black literature and black culture, Gates does not, advocate a “separatist” black canon but, rather, a greater recognition of black works that would be integrated into a larger, pluralistic canon. He has affirmed the value of the Western tradition but envisions flexible cannon of diverse works integrated by common cultural connections. 34 The Methodological Framework for This Study Working within the interpretive lens of African American literary criticism and African American Religious Studies, this dissertation examines literary representations of ecstatic behavior and charismatic expression in black modernist literature. To explore the dynamics of ecstasy, charisma, and spirituality in African American communities, I use a case study approach involving three twentieth century African American modernist writers. While the study engenders theoretical conclusions for the present, the causes and possible solutions to this problem are recoverable from the historical period in question (i.e., from the Harlem Renaissance to the Civil Rights Movement). Each section will begin with an examination of religious and spiritual traditions that influenced the author’s representations of the spiritual development of the central character, and then proceed to an explication of the central text which will excavate and critique representations of spiritual development. Central images of blacks in literature will be recast in terms of their relationship to spirituality, and the evaluation of crucial issues such as race, class, sexuality, and the body will be highlighted as crucial to the representation of black spiritual development. In the remaining four linked but separate chapters, this dissertation examines how African American writers experience faith in a society that has historically devalued their humanity and intellectual abilities. These chapters call for a new understanding of the unique obstacles blacks face in expressing their spirituality in America and points to a variety of secular and sacred practices that can mitigate those challenges and promote creativity. In the second chapter, I argue that fictional African American face dilemmas, 35 founded in the experience of race and ethnicity in America, that make spiritual autonomy difficult, but achievable. This chapter discusses how black women in Zora Neale Hurston’s Mules and Men and Their Eyes Were Watching God black use spaces such as the porch and the courtroom to fashion new spiritual constructs and alternative understandings of self and community through storytelling. In the third chapter, I continue to frame charisma and ecstasy, by arguing that the protagonists of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and Juneteenth forged a reality and spiritual life that was not solely predicated on the existence of God. I argue that black oral traditions such as preaching and testifying contributed to charismatic fervor and ecstatic tendencies found among African Americans during the post-World War II period. With the fourth chapter, I position James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain and The Fire Next Time as texts that utilize the interiority of the storefront church and the chaos of the streets and the built environment to highlight the dynamics of charismatic behavior and ecstatic expression. In both works, family served as a springboard for self-expression, a place to leave in order not to be caught in the web of poverty or traditional values. The final chapter looks at what spirituality means in Age of Obama by considering three short stories by Hurston, Ellison, and Baldwin from the mid-twentieth century. I believe that one does not have to be an academic in an ivory or ebony tower to think about spirituality, religion and the destiny of humankind or about questions of right and wrong. In the briefest terms, those whose deprivation is so severe that even hopes and dreams for improvement of their earthly lot are denied them will be drawn to a spirituality that promises them a shield, and rewards in another life. Faith can break 36 through in the most discriminatory of circumstances, due to accidents of personal biography, crises, moments of struggle that shape the lives of some African Americans. 37 Chapter 1 Faith, Anthropology, and Fiction: Testing the Limits of Black Spirituality in Mules and Men and Their Eyes Were Watching God And when we (to use Alice Walker’s lovely phrase) go in search of our mothers’ gardens, it’s not really to learn who trampled on them or how or even why – we usually know that already. Rather, it’s to learn what our mothers planted there, that they thought as they sowed, and how they survived the blighting of so many fruits. Shirley Anne Williams, “Foreword” to Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God With the close of the twentieth century, the function and significance of the church in the black community has steadily declined. Everywhere African Americans were asking if the church has a future in the changing landscape of Western culture. Religious hypocrisy has taken on a different form and sophistication. To examine this assertion, let us consider how Zora Neale Hurston represents spirituality and the institutional church in her popular novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston’s protagonist, Janie Starks, challenges how black people think about their relationship with religion. Janie’s interaction with Nanny, Jody Starks, Mrs. Turner, Tea Cake, and Phoeby illustrates that both the individual’s and the community’s life does not necessarily turn upon the existence of a personal relationship with God. Janie overcomes the pressures that plague her as she attempts to fashion a reality and spiritual life that is not solely predicated on the existence of God. As a consequence, the church was not the primary place where all blacks made sense of white superiority and black inferiority. In particular, 38 Janie projects a charismatic worldview that departs from conventional spiritual expectations. Charisma allows African Americans to navigate through secular and sacred spheres. Charismatic activity reveals how the church had lost some of its cultural and moral authority in the African American community. Zora Neale Hurston shows that black women embraced charisma not only to express their own spirituality but also to gain attention and self respect. Charisma empowers black women by allowing them to position themselves outside the reach of patriarchal structures of dominance. An analysis of the speech patterns and bodily motions of black female characters reveals that the religious behavior in African American fictional communities is not homogeneous, but reflects an eclectic arrangement of voices and a more fluid conception of spirituality. Hurston’s use of vernacular dialect enhances our understanding of Janie and the other characters and their way of life by offering us valuable insights on the spiritual and religious practices of African Americans. Speech patterns reveal that African Americans led compelling, yet difficult lives since the Emancipation Proclamation and that these communities found creative ways to resist racial discrimination and hatred. In the novel, speech is used as a mechanism of control and liberation, especially as Janie struggles to find her voice. Indeed, how did African American women survive in the New World? As a beleaguered, scorned and scourged group, why did these women decide to survive? The charismatic behavior of black female characters offer some answers to these questions of black survival. Whether sitting under a pear tree or listening to the words of a 39 prophesying grandmother, black female characters draw comfort from the security which seemed to encircle their bodies. By writing a narrative about the achievements and lives of black women who had not been recognized in traditional histories, Hurston also provides a fruitful space for examining African American spirituality. Black women could no longer bear the injustice of being second-class citizens. While some modern African American women were quietly abandoning the black church, others were working within the church to right the wrongs of centuries and to enable women to worship God more fully. Once again, I return to the thoughts and reflections of Gloria Wade-Gayles: I thought people who believed in the working of something as invisible and undefinable as “the Spirit” were flirting with an illogic that, if they were not careful, could have dangerous consequences. They could become disconnected from the real world which, in my thinking then, meant the world we see and hear and move in as corporeal beings. My mother knew of my unbelief and knew also why, at the time, I chose it above her teaching example of spirituality. It was my way of demonstrating that I had become an intellectual, that coveted identity which gives a Black woman validation in white America, thought not, I should add, inclusion in the small circles reserved for those with power and influence. It was my way, I suppose, of demonstrating that I belonged, my way of assimilating of stepping back from “the folk” when the camera lens searched for a picture of Black people who pray and sing and get happy in their souls; who testify about a “way out of no way” and make that “way” with juju and voodoo and incantations to an unseen power; who speak with clarity and certainty, and in details, about departed loved ones who visit them from the “other side,” bringing advice which, when followed, removes stumbling blocks physical strength cannot budge; who read messages in dreams, in sudden changes in the direction of the wind, in the rhythm of a rainstorm, in a bird that suddenly appears and as suddenly disappears, in a full moon that seems within reach of their touch, in a star that is missing from a constellation, in strange happenings that have no earthly explanation; who know that an unseen power directs them to the bosom of the earth for herbs that cure as man-made medicines cannot and that this same power blesses them with songs that heal the soul as surely as herbs heal the body; who see the work of the divine in a patch of collard greens, 40 a bed of petunias, a child “spat out” by a mother, and in themselves; who sing they can’t “feel no ways tired” because always morning comes, and man “can’t make morning”; who believe in miracles, including themselves among them, which, like mornings, are the work of the force that governs the universe, which they sometimes call God, other times Jesus, and almost always the Unseen Spirit; who are certain deep down in their souls that this Spirit loves them, protects them, dwells with them, and gives them “blessed assurance” that when their bodies leave this world, their souls will live forever in a world that knows no boundaries of space or time. Which explains why they refuse to be diminished, and are not.” xxxix Wade-Gayles’s commentary is indeed quite illuminating because it forces us to examine both the historical and cultural relevance of spirituality and religion in the lives of African American women. Focusing on black women’s spirituality raises a series of intriguing questions that are salient not only to gender dynamics within the community of black folks but also speak to the power of race: To what extent are the experiences of black folk – and especially their interactions with whites, typically symbolizing the dominant (and oppressive) culture – important or significant enough to warrant their heavy-handed inclusion and/or subsequently dominant role in most twentieth century fictional depictions of black life? More precisely, to what extent is the black church representative of the “core” black experience and hence, more appropriate subject matter for artistic renderings by black writers? xl Souls and Soul-pieces and Ecstatic Behavior Mules and Men contributes to the discourse on the representation of African American spirituality with its emphasis on the wit, wisdom, and worldview of blacks. Hurston divides her work into two parts. The first section consists of folk tales that offer insights into why rural Southern blacks acted and behaved in specific ways. This section conveys the very distinct culture of black folks circa the Depression era. The second 41 section consists of the hoodoo practices that Hurston witnessed while she was working in the field as an anthropologist. She expressed her genius by combining her field notes with some autobiography and a vivid imagination to create some of the most exciting, authentic literature of the twentieth century. Hurston opens Mules and Men with a very insightful discussion on souls which contain elements of ecstatic expression. For Hurston, the soul represents an integral piece of humanity and governs human emotions. From Hurston’s point of view, souls did not exist in a vacuum; the soul regulates the relationship between God and man. Consider the following passage where Hurston addresses the creation of man: "Folks ain't ready for souls yet. De clay ain't dry. It's de strongest thing Ah ever made. Don't aim to waste none thru loose cracks. And then men got to grow strong enough to stand it. De way things is now, if Ah give it out it would tear them shackly bodies to pieces. Bimeby, Ah give it out." So folks went round thousands of years without no souls. All de time de soul piece, it was setting 'round covered up wid God's loose raiment. Every now and then de wind would blow and hist up de cover and then de elements would be full of lightning and de winds would talk. So people told one 'nother that God was talking in de mountains. De white man passed by it way off and he looked but he wouldn't go close enough to touch. De Indian and de Negro, they tipped by cautious too, and all 'em seen de light of diamonds when de winds shook de cover, and de wind that passed over it sung songs. De Jew come past and heard de song from de soul-piece then he kept on passin' and all of a sudden he grabbed up de soul-piece and hid it under his clothes, and run off down de road. It burnt him and tore him and throwed him down and lifted him up and toted him across de mountain and he tried to break loose but he couldn't do it. He kept on hollerin' for help but de rest of 'em run hid 'way from him. Way after while they come out of holes and corners and picked up little chips and pieces that fell back on de ground. So God mixed it up wid feelings and give it out to 'em. "way after while when He ketch that Jew. He's goin; to vide things up more ekal'. xli Hurston reveals that God directed human activity through the soul. However, she conveys that God was not in a hurry to distribute souls because he took pride in his creations. The 42 clay (i.e., the mould of a human being) had not hardened and was susceptible to the forces of nature (i.e., wind and lightning). The animating and vital parts of human beings could not be taken for granted. God did not “aim to waste none thru loose cracks.” Hurston shows that God was very deliberate in his actions and did not expend his energies on failed efforts. She suggests that “soul pieces” served as garments to human beings as they waited for God to assign the real souls. In the meantime, people speculated about the motivations of God, intimating that he was “talking in de mountains.” Hurston’s approach to fiction and spirituality advances racial equality and promotes tolerance. While Americans live in communities that are predominantly white, Hurston believed that they need to consider that they are also part of a larger human community which includes people from a large range of ethnic backgrounds. The rich diversity of God’s people serves as an indication that God loves men equally. For Hurston, the adoption of racial equality represents an opportunity for her to step out on faith. The lesson that Hurston imparts to her readers is that equality is indeed achievable, even in a climate of racial strife and discontent. The Preacher’s Craft and Charismatic Expression There are several scenes involving preaching, preachers, and the church in Mules and Men that offer unique venues for examining charismatic expression. According to M. Cooper Harris, Hurston “includes vital information for understanding the context of ‘story swapping’ and the conditions that may cause stories to arise, but reveals this information through narrative, telling the story of the telling of a story. As a result, Mules and Men serves less as an anthology and more as a ‘disclosed’ narrative.”Consider the 43 following section from “How the Brother Was Called to Preach” where a man believed that he was destined to spread God’s word: Ellis: These was two bothers and 'one of 'em was a big Preacher and had good collections every Sunday. He didn't pastor nothin' but big charges. De other brother decided he wanted to preach so he went way down in de swamp behind a big plantation to de place they call de prayin' ground, and got down on his knees. "O Lawd, Ah wants to preach. Ah feel lak Ah got a message.If you don called me to preach, gimme a sign." Just 'bout dat time he heard a voice, "Wanh, uh wanh! Go preach, go preach, go preach! He went and tol' everybody, but look lak he never could git no big charge. All he ever got called was on some saw mill, half-pint church or some turpentine still. He knocked around lak dat for ten years and then he seen his brother. De big preacher says, "Brother, you don't look like you gittin' holt of much." "You tellin' dat right, brother. Groceries is ain't dirtied a plate today." "Whut's de matter? Don't you git no support from your church?" "Yeah, Ah gits it such as it is, but Ah ain't never pastored no big church. Ah don get called to nothin' but sawmill camps and turpentine stills." De big preacher reared back and thought a while, then he ast de other one, "is you sure you was called to preach? Maybe you ain't cut out for no preacher." "Oh, yeah," he told him. "Ah know Ah been called to de ministry. A voice spoke and tol'me so." "Well, seem lak if God called you He is mighty slow in puttin' yo' foot on de ladder. If Ah was you Ah'd go back and ast 'im again. So de po' man went on back to de prayin' ground agin and got down on his knees. But there wasn't no big woods like it used to be. It has been all cleared off. He prayed and said, "Oh, Lawd, right here on dis spot ten years ago Ah ast you if Ah was called to preach and a voice tole me to go preach. Since dat time Ah been strugglin' in Yo' moral vineyard, but Ah ain't gathered no grapes. Now, if you really called me to preach Christ and Him crucified, please gimme another sign." Sho nuff, jus' as soon as he said dat, de voice said "Wanh-uh! Go preach! Go preach! Go preach!" De man jumped up and says, "Ah knowed Ah been called. Dat's de same voice. Dis time Ah'm goin ter ast Him where must Ah go preach." 44 By dat time de voice come agin and he looked 'way off and seen a mule in de plantation lot wid his head all stuck out to bray agin, and he said, "Unh hunh, youse de very son of a gun dat called me to preach befo'. " So he went on off and got a job plowin'. Dat's whut he was called to do in de first place. xlii Hurston shows that answering God’s call to preach requires tenacity and perseverance. To a certain extent, preachers believe that they have a special “message” to tell everyday people. In the preceding passage, the man who felt like he was called to preach displayed an awesome willingness to take up his work. After a decade on the job, however, he still did not save a single soul. Troubled, he returns to his praying ground to discover that what he thought was the voice of God’s calling had been, in fact, a braying mule. Hurston shows that preachers may “step out in faith” to follow their calling. Hearing and responding to imagined voices are a part of the “out of body” experience of getting in touch with God and the Holy Spirit. Along the way, Hurston draws upon the natural environment to describe the preacher’s struggle and frustration (“…Ah been strugglin' in Yo' moral vineyard, but Ah ain't gathered no grapes”). She uses the vineyard imagery to illustrate that while the preacher worked hard to cultivate a meaningful relationship with God, his efforts do not yield any tangible results. With the section “How the Preacher Made Them Bow Down,” Hurston continues to showcase the spirituality of black preachers, but the tone turns a bit more violent and coercive. While the mule regulated the interplay between the individual and the community in the previous encounter, the shot gun becomes the object of interest and fascination for Hurston as she once again addresses the pursuits of preachers. The story concerns an outstanding guest preacher at a “splitoff” church whose congregation is so 45 contrary that they refuse to bear him up in the proper sanctified style. Consider the following passage that describes the shotgun approach of a travelling preacher: De sexton brought him de key and he took his tex and went to preachin'. He preached and he reared and pitched but nobody said "Amen" and nobody bowed down. So 'way after while he stooped down and opened his suitsatchel and out wid his .44 Special. "Now," he said, "you rounders and brick-bats --yeah, you women, Ah'm talkin' you. If you ain't a whole brick, den you must be a bat and gamblers and 'leven-card layers. Ah done preached to you for two whole weeks and not one of you has said 'Amen,' and nobody has bowed down." He thowed de gun on 'em. "And now Ah say bow down!" And they beginned to bow all over dat church. De sexton looked at his wooden leg and figgered he couldn't bow because his leg was cut off above de knee. S ohe ast, "Me too, Elder?" "Yeah, you too, you peg-leg son of a gun. You bow down too. " Therefo' dat sexton bent dat wooden leg and bowed down. De preacher fired a couple of shots over they heads and stepped out de window and went on 'bout his busines But he skeered dem people so bad till they all rushed to one side of de church tryin' to git out and carried dat church buildin' twenty-eight miles befo' they thought to turn it loose. xliii The preacher here inspires fear and submission. The charisma that the itinerant preacher exudes in this particular scene embodies terror. Hurston reveals that the drama that unfolds in the pulpit is not always pretty. The congregation stares blankly at the preacher as he gave his sermon. At long last, when the congregation refuses to participate on the final night of his two-week stand, the evangelist has the sexton lock the door. He brandishes a “.44 Special” with explicit instructions: “Ah say bow down!” The congregation complies as the preacher fires shots over their heads and escapes through a window—proof indeed that there is more than one way to “exegete” a congregation. Indeed, this passage represents a darker side of charismatic expression. Hurston shows that the preachers sometimes took a “take no prisoners” approach to spirituality. 46 As Hurston moves from the second to the third story which also involves a preacher, she returns to a gentler, humorous tone. The oral performance of this preacher represents the energy and passion associated with “feeling the sprit” and “keeping the faith.” Consider the following excerpt from the section “Sermon by Travelling Preacher” where a stranger arrives in town with two women in tow: You all done been over in Pentecost (got to feeling spiritual by singing) and now we going to talk about de woman that was taken from man. I take my text from Genesis two and twenty-one (Gen. 2:21) Behold de Rib! Now, my beloved, Behold means to look and see. Look at dis woman God done made, But first thing, ah hah! Ah wants you to gaze upon God's previous works. Almighty and arisen God, hah! Peace-giving and prayer-hearing God, High-riding and strong armed God Walking acrost his globe creation, hah! Wid de blue elements for a helmet And a wall of fire round his feet He wakes de sun every morning from his fiery bed Wid de breath of his smile And commands de moon wid his eyes. And Oh Wid de eye of Faith I can see him Standing out on de eaves of ether Breathing clouds from out his nostrils, Blowing storms from 'tween his lips I can see! Him seize de mighty axe of his proving powre And smite the stubborn-standing space, And laid it wide open in a mighty gash-- Making a place to hold de world I can see him Molding de world out of thought and power And whirling it out on its eternal track, 47 Ah hah, my strong armded God! He set de blood red eye of de sun in de sky And told it, Wait, wait! Wait there till Shiloh come I can see! Him mold de mighty mountains And melting de skies into seas. Oh, Behold, and look and see! hah We see in de beginning He made de bestes every one after its kind, De birds that fly de trackless air, De fishes dat swim de mighty deep Male and fee-male, hah! Then he took of de dust of de earth And made man in his own image. And man was alone, Even de lion had a mate So God shook his head And a thousand million diamonds Flew out from his glittering crown And studded de evening sky and made de stars. So God put Adam into a deep sleep And took out a bone, ah hah! And it is said that it was a rib. Behold, de rib! A bone out of a man's side. He put de man to sleep and made wo-man, And men and women been sleeping together ever since. Behold de rib! Brothers, if God Had taken dat bone out of man's head He would have meant for woman to rule, hah If he had taken a bone out of his foot, He would have meant for us to dominize and rule. He could have made her out of back-bone And then she would have been behind us. But, no, God Amighty, he took de bone out of his side So dat places de woman beside us; Hah! God knowed his own mind. Behold de rib! And now I leave dis thought wid you, Let us all go marchin' up to de gates of Glory. Tramp! tramp! tramp! In step wid de host dat John saw. Male and female like God made us 48 Side by side. Oh, behold de rib! And less all set-down in Glory together Right round his glorified throne And praise his name forever. Amen. xliv In the preceding passage, the townspeople mistake the travelling preacher for a bootlegger and possibly a pimp. They begin shouting out liquor orders, to which the stranger responds by reaching into his bag and, with great suspense, drawing out not a bottle, but a Bible. He then preaches a sermon on “Adam’s rib,” “de woman that was taken from man [Genesis 2:21].” After one of the women sings a song, the trio takes up a collection and heads off—presumably to the next town. Hurston captures the fine line between religious ecstasy and public drunkenness. The lines “Peace-giving and prayer- hearing God/High-riding and strong armed God/Walking acrost his globe creation, hah!” portray the spiritual laughter of the travelling preacher, who presents the word of God seriously by invoking a Biblical reference, but in the same breath half mocks God’s power and awesomeness. Repeatedly, Hurston echoes “hah!” and “ah-hah!” as way of building up and sustaining the ecstasy and fervor of the enthusiastic storyteller. Moreover, with the lines “And Oh/Wid de eye of Faith/I can see him/Standing out on de eaves of ether/Breathing clouds from out his nostrils/Blowing storms from 'tween his lips I can see!” Hurston conveys through the preacher the power of God’s glory. From Anthropology to Fiction: Ecstasy and Charisma in Transition For Hurston, the transition from Mules and Men to Their Eyes Were Watching God was seamless. Hurston translates her anthropological knowledge into novel form. She draws upon her skills as a participant observer and uses it as way to frame the plot of 49 her fiction. With Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston not only demonstrates her command of anthropological discourse but also she creatively applies her expertise to the genre of fiction. Hurston uses the form of the novel to explore the sacred and secular dimensions of ecstasy and charisma. Hurston’s poignant experience as a field researcher and an interviewer contribute to the rich content and compelling narrative that would eventually become Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie’s Horizons and African American Spirituality: A First Glance Early in the novel, Hurston provides the reader with clue that spirituality and religion would have shape the structure of the novel. Although the reader has not yet been introduced to Janie or any of the other characters, Hurston uses maritime imagery and the concept of the horizon to set the tone for the narrative. On the surface, the horizon represents an intersection between the earth and sky as seen by an observer. However, the horizon may also refer to the range of one’s knowledge, experience, or interest. Consider the scene that opens the novel: Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men. Now women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly. xlv The novel’s first two paragraphs point to differences between the language of men and women. The differences in language reflect the two groups’ approaches to life, power, relationships, and self-realization. On the one hand, Hurston suggests that the aspirations and hopes of men seemed boundless, as evidenced by her reference of ships and the tide. 50 A ship not only represents a sailing vessel for deep water navigation but can also symbolize the fortune of men. Hurston implies that men have greater physical and social mobility in the world than women. She draws upon the popular expression “my ship is coming in” or “when my ship comes in,” which hails back to the days when merchants sent out sailing vessels laden with fine worsted cloth from Huddersfield, fine cutlery from Sheffield, and cheap tin trays from the Black Country. However, Hurston quickly recognizes that not all ships arriving from foreign parts bring good fortune. When she says some ships “sail forever on the horizon, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time,” Hurston suggests that God or a higher power can intervene, and drastically influence the course of human events. Keeping a lookout for a sail on the horizon can be treacherous business. In effect, Hurston shows that men need to have a clearer direction and be more grounded in their pursuits. While men may have the ability to embark upon a journey and dream big things, they also have just as much a chance to meet adversity, and even fail. Ecstasy in Bloom: Janie’s Pear Tree Confessionals Coming of age in the rural South was quite an invigorating, yet ambivalent time for Janie Starks. Through Janie, Hurston relates how the black self developed in the context of a dominant society that denies the validity of black identity. Along the way, she uses the floral landscape to express Janie’s nascent sexuality and emerging spirituality. Scholar Henry Louis Gates writes, “In Their Eyes, Janie uses the metaphor of the tree to define her own desires but also to mark the distance of those with whom she 51 lives from these desires. xlvi Consider the following passage that describes Janie’s first set of encounters with a pear tree: It was a spring afternoon in West Florida. Janie had spent most of the day under a blossoming pear tree in the back-yard. She had been spending every minute that she could steal from her chores under that tree for the last three days. That was to say, ever since the first tiny bloom had opened. It had called her to come and gaze on a mystery. From barren brown stems to glistening leaf-buds; from the leaf-buds to snowy virginity of bloom. It stirred her tremendously. It was like a flute song forgotten in another existence and remembered again. What? How? Why? This singing she heard that had nothing to do with her ears. The rose of the world was breathing out smell. It followed her through all her waking moments and caressed her in her sleep. It connected itself with other vaguely felt matters that had struck her outside observation and buried themselves in her flesh. Now they emerged and quested about her consciousness. xlvii For Janie, the pear tree comes to symbolize a place of freedom and psychological revitalization. The progression of strident adjectives (“bloom,” “barren,” and “brown”) and sonorous verbs (“blossoming,” “breathing out,” and “buried”) poignantly captures how Mother Nature’s transformation coincides with Janie’s own physical maturation. The euphonic “b” sounds suggests that Janie is restless and bouncing with excitement. Hurston extends Janie’s enthusiasm with a succession of “f’” sounding words (“from,” “first,” “flute,” “forgotten,” “followed,” and “flesh”) that simulate the motion of a plane perpetually taxiing down a runway and never taking off. The interlocked sequencing of interrogative words (“How?” “Why?” and “What?”) further underscores Janie’s heightened sense of self. With each visit to the pear tree, Janie experiences something new. As she witnesses nature’s grandeur, Janie’s mind and body would become very stimulated. Once 52 again, Hurston uses the senses to construct Janie’s emerging spirituality. Consider the following passage where Janie observes the pollination of the pear tree by the bees: She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her. She saw a dust- bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid. xlviii The “alto chant,” “panting breath,” and “inaudible voice” describe how Janie’s ears processed the changes brought about by nature. With her own eyes, Janie watched the bees transfer fine, powder-like grains from one part of the pear tree to the next. She believed that humans acted in the same manner as bees when it came to romantic unions. The mating ritual between bees and trees seemed effortless and joyous to Janie. Hurston’s employment of charismatic diction to express Janie’s fascination with her natural environment suggests that one does not need a church to undergo a spiritual awakening. While resting peacefully on her backside, Janie notes the “ecstatic shiver” of the pear tree and interprets it as a “revelation” of marriage. The lyricism of the preceding passage obscures some of the sexual imagery contained within it. Janie experiences her first orgasm while under the pear tree. In effect, Janie’s sexual awakening and spiritual awakening are one and the same. Nevertheless, scholar Mary Helen Washington has a contrary interpretation of this scene and Hurston’s approach to the novel: “To introduce such a sexual scene at the age when Janie is about to enter adulthood, to turn it into romantic fantasy, and to make it end in punishment certainly limits the possibility of any growth resulting from that experience.” xlix 53 Janie’s preoccupation with the pear persists. Hurston captures much of the teenage angst associated with the possibility of falling in love. The pear tree offers Janie an opportunity to confess her romantic yearnings. Janie’s response to the fertilizing bees signal an understanding of the implications associated with sex: Oh to be a pear tree – any tree in bloom! With kissing bees singing of the beginning of the world! She was sixteen. She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted struggle with life but it seemed to elude her. Where were the singing bees for her? Nothing on the place nor in her grandma’s house answered her. She searched as much of the world as she could from the top of the front of the steps and then went on down to the front gate and leaned over to gaze up and down the road. Looking, waiting, breathing short with impatience. Waiting for the world to be made. l Through free indirect discourse, Hurston expresses Janie’s longing for love. Critic Henry Louis Gates remarks that Hurston is able “to retain the narrator’s level of diction, her idiom, as if to emphasize on one hand that Janie represents the potentially lyrical self, but on the other hand that the narrator is interpreting Janie’s inarticulate thoughts to the reader on her behalf.” li Janie accepts sexuality as a natural part of life and attempts to embrace it as a significant part of her identity. lii By this point in the narrative, the bond that Janie forms with the pear tree is quite firm. She transfers most of her aspirations to this particular object. Her invocation to the pear tree symbolizes a spiritual affirmation. In effect, Janie “prays” to the tree, believing that it would validate her womanhood. Janie placed her faith in the pear tree when no one around her, including her nanny, refused to recognize the physical and psychological changes initiated by adolescence. With the first sequence of present active participles (“kissing,”“singing,” and “bursting”), Hurston expresses Janie’s boundless hope and optimism for the potential of a romantic 54 relationship. The motion of the bees generates a sort of excitement that compels Janie to expand her adolescent horizons. However, with the second sequence of present active participles (“looking,” “waiting,” and “breathing”), Hurston curbs Janie’s enthusiasm. These present active participles are not as encouraging as the first. The close repetition of the word “waiting” at the end of the paragraph suggests Janie’s initial “prayer” to the pear tree remains unanswered. With her first marriage approaching, the pear tree would again be the place where Janie finds solace and relief. She continues to sort through her emotions regarding love and marriage. As Janie prepares for her marriage Logan, she understands that she doesn’t love him but assumes that after marriage, love will come naturally, as Nanny has been telling her: In a few days to live before she went to Logan Killicks and his often- mentioned sixty acres, Janie asked inside of herself and out. She was back and forth to the pear tree continuously wondering and thinking. Finally out of Nanny’s talk and her own conjectures she made a sort of comfort for herself. Yes, she would love Logan after they were married. She would love Logan after they were married. She could see no way for it to come about, but Nanny and the old folks had said it, so it must be so. Husbands and wives always loved each other, and that was what marriage meant. It was just so. Janie felt glad of the thought, for then it wouldn’t seem so destructive and mouldy. She wouldn’t be lonely anymore. liii For Janie, the pear tree had become a site of realization and reflection. Here she expresses both her contentment and reservation. Janie’s pear tree meditations represent a form of spirituality that was not dependent upon the church or its bureaucratic structures. Her “back and forth” gestures embody charismatic behavior. The pear tree stimulated Janie’s mind and body; the “continuously wondering and thinking” Janie contemplated the potential outcomes of marriage, weighing how she and her community would react to her 55 decision. While Nanny and the old folks believed that love should come after marriage, Janie thought otherwise. Janie’s adolescent conception of marriage was predicated on the notion of instant gratification (i.e., the material satisfaction from Logan’s “sixty acres”) and divided sentiments (i.e., being “glad,” on the one hand, yet feeling “destructive” and “mouldy”). Janie also perceived marriage as a chance to escape isolation and solitude (“She wouldn’t be lonely”). However, Logan was not the most loving husband; he cared more about the business of his store than sustaining a romantic relationship with Janie. Consequently, Janie laments: “Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think. Ah…” liv By walking down the aisle with Logan Killicks, Janie found herself longing for the pear tree. If marriage could not rescue her from loneliness and unhappiness, the pear tree offered some salvation. Logan Killicks and Nebulous Horizons As a land owner and very successful farmer, Logan Killicks had comfortable life. Although he was many years older than Janie, Logan at first proved himself to be affable and responsible. However, as time passed in his marriage to Janie, he became quite bossy and overbearing. Logan treated Janie as if she were one of his mules on the farm, burdening her with physical tasks that tested the limits of her strength. While Janie was able to keep pace with Logan’s grueling workload for a while, she was emotionally drained and spiritually unsatisfied. Consider the following passage where Hurston describes Janie’s prospects with Logan: She knew the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether. She knew that God tore down the old world every evening and built a new one by sun-up. It was wonderful to see it take form with the sun and emerge from the gray dust of its making. The familiar people and things had failed 56 her so she hung over the gate and looked up the road towards way off. She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman. lv Hurston draws a compelling relationship between matrimony and womanhood here. While Hurston does not make a direct reference to the horizon here, she uses other scenes from nature (i.e., “the blue pasture of ether,” “sun-up,” “the sun,” and “the gray dust”) to describe Janie’s depressed spirits and morbid state of mind during the time of her marriage to Logan. Taken together, these images create a sense of impending gloom, doom, and hopelessness as Janie marked her transition from adolescence to adulthood. Moreover, the prepositional phrases “over the gate” and “towards way off” add to the pessimistic tone of the passage by delineating both Janie’s literal and figurative distance from her dream. Janie’s epiphany that “marriage did not make love” marks an important place in the text because it is the first time the reader gets a chance to witness the protagonist potential for liberation and self-reflection. Nanny’s Prophesying and Janie’s Horizons The word “prophecy” today usually means predicting the future. In the biblical sense, however, the word includes not only the future but also the present. The meaning of the Greek word is basically “to speak forth” or “to speak for another.” Those who have the gift of prophecy receive personal inspiration as to God’s purpose in a concrete situation. God speaks through the prophet. In an attempt to understand the growth of charismatic behavior among fictional black women, an investigation of Nanny’s prophetic-like utterances can function as an aid to mapping spirituality. Hurston utilizes and adapts traditional vernacular forms to give voice to black women. 57 Nanny Crawford, Janie’s grandmother, wants Janie to be the respectable wife of a man with property, and so she marries her off to a middle-aged farmer, Logan Killicks. Janie’s emerging sexuality greatly disturbs Nanny. As a former slave, Nanny has a world view that permits her to speak for Janie: …Honey, de white man is de ruler of everything as fur as Ah been able tuh find out. Maybe it’s some place way off in de ocean where de black man is in power, but we don’t know nothin’ but what we see. So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don’t tote it up. He hand it to his womenfolks. De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see. Ah been prayin’ fuh it tuh be different wid you. Lawd, Lawd, Lawd! lvi The preceding passage reflects a discussion on the relationship of blacks to work. Through Nanny, Hurston masterfully reconstructs the exploitation of black people’s work and retells the condition of black women during in America. With the statement “de white man is de ruler of everything as fur as Ah been able tuh find out,” Nanny becomes a skilled slave narrator. The American legacy of slavery and repression, of wars for freedom and wars for gain is imprinted most heavily on the black American memory. For despite the battle’s players, the locations of the arena, and the shifting fortunes of winners and losers, the slaves were not destined to be on the side of the triumphant. The chief occupation of the war-torn land to which the Confederate soldiers and freedmen returned after the Civil War was farming. Compared to the North, the South had few factories and cities. The most serious problem facing Southerners – white and black – was how to get the farms producing again. The Southern black was no longer a slave. The Southern white man was no longer a master. An important part of the problem was to develop a new relationship between the races. Before the Civil War, the slave 58 system provided most of the labor needed to farm the land and harvest the crops of the South. Now, a new solution had to be found. It was clear the solution would not be easy. The freedmen, or former slaves, were willing to work for wages. Indeed, if they were not to starve, they must work to support themselves. But the white Southern plantation owners had no money to hire workers. Furthermore, neither white nor black Southerners were used to the system of paying wages to workers, which was used in the North. After the Civil War, many freed blacks believed that the government would, indeed, give each black family 40 acres and a mule. However, they were very disappointed when this did not happen. A few large plantations were broken up and sold. But the freedmen had no money to buy the land. They had only their labor to offer. Consequently, this shows how the sharecropping had emerged where once again “de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up.” The problem of operating the farms in the South was solved by the sharecropping system. Under this plan, Southern freedmen and white men who owned no land agreed to farm the crops on small plots of land for the plantation owner. They planted, raised, and harvested the crops. They did not receive wages, but at harvest time they shared the crop with the owner of the land. However, this system turned out to have many flaws. Throughout the year, the sharecropper had no money, because he received no wages for his work. Therefore, he was forced to buy his supplies on credit from a local merchant, or store keeper. The sharecropper was supposed to pay the money he owed at harvest time. If the crop was good, he could sell his share, pay for everything he had bought during the year, and perhaps even have some money left over. But if he had bought too many things, 59 or if the crop was poor, or if crop prices were low, the sharecropper would not receive enough money to pay his bills. Many a Southern sharecropper found himself getting deeper and deeper into debt every year. It did not matter how hard he worked. The result was always the same. At each harvest, he had to agree to stay on the farm for another year, in order to pay off his debt. In this way, many sharecroppers became tied to the land they farmed, because they could never earn enough money to pay off their debts and to start their own farms. Through Nanny, Hurston attempts to recover the voice of all black people who were victims of slavery and Reconstruction. Scholar Susan Willis concludes, In writing, Hurston stakes a claim to time and place for her own sake and for the sake of all the woman and men whose stories will not reach our eyes and ears. Her efforts have far-reaching implications. For in claiming a right to time and place, she contests the essential nature of capitalist society, which inscribes time and place within property relationships. Those who won property and control the means of production control time and place as well (both in the home and the workplace). When black women write to reclaim time and place, they do so outside of property relationships. This is true of Hurston, whose folktales fill the interstices of her informants’ workdays and whose taletelling takes place in those areas, like the jooks and the front porches, that are not included in either system of industrial production or domestic labor. Taletelling, like tale gathering, is something you do on the “job” when there is job. lvii More specifically, Willis comments on the socio-economic ties that bound Janie to Logan, noting how Hurston skillfully merged literary stagecraft with real historical circumstances: Janie’s relationship to her first husband, Logan Killicks, suggests the system of sharecropping. Although Killicks does not himself work on shares, he allows us to perceive how society itself is locked into a system of debt peonage. Then, too, in what Killicks expects from his wife, he is really no different from the sharecroppers he has managed to rise above. Hurston shows a deft sense for the influence of the forces of history on 60 people’s lives in refusing to portray Killicks as a personally mean man. If he regards his young wife as a mule, it is because in this system of backbreaking rural labor, women were expected to bear the burdens of fieldwork as well as domestic toil… The brutality of this system is not necessarily related to physical violence and abuse. Killicks has never laid a hostile hand on Janie. Rather, it resides in the killing of dreams; the death of spirit; the denial of art, imagination and creativity lviii Nanny also configures the black woman as “the mule of the world.” This metaphor is based on a folktale which she tells Janie to convince her to marry Logan. The mule metaphor invokes sexist and racist image of black women. Indeed, throughout the last 500 years, many African Americans females have been victimized and traumatized by rape and sexual violence. African women transported to the New World were treated and defined as beasts of burden, even when they resisted such degradation. African American females were targets of the full force of a virulent white male patriarchy that has been institutionalized into much of the American culture and gradually absorbed by many black men in their quest to be acceptable as “males” on terms set down and defined both explicitly and implicitly by white male misogyny towards women. Cheryl A. Wall writes, “black men suppress black women, treating them as mules, while women respond by constantly negotiating spaces in which to assert their selfhood.” lix The idea that all women are property lies at the root of white male misogyny, which, since 1620, ahs defined and repressed black women as “common property” – as promiscuous, ugly, and undesirable. The idea that white women, on the one hand, are the mothers of white children is the basis for white female “worthiness” and redeems some of the “lost” value white male patriarchy has imposed on women. The idea that white women, on the other hand, are beautiful must begin by the acquisition of skin color privilege, then by 61 possession of sexuality that white males value for their sexual enjoyment. Consequently, Victorian ideologies of true womanhood (the belief that women are by divine design, moral, intuitive, spiritual, and nurturing) did not apply to black women. Moreover, no man, of whatever race or class, can speak definitively for the experience of black women’s pain and struggle, and only African American women have borne the children of their beloved and the children of their oppressors. The maternal bonds established during pregnancy and a child’s infancy were often disrupted by slave owners. Knowing that white settlers took advantage of enslaved African women’s labor in the fields and the children born from their wombs, most black women set about to define the nature of their emotional relationship with their children from as early in childhood as a child’s understanding would permit. Essentially, black children had to learn early on in their youth that they lived in two worlds. Living in a white world of oppression, often brutal and physically controlling at a personal level, and a black world of personal survival and collective group empowerment through self-determination and resistance to exploitation. While the responsibility to convey a folklore of resistance to their young rested with all members of enslaved black communities, the mother-child dyad let itself particularly well to black women. Hurston highlights the responsibility of black women to transmit important lessons about identity to their children. Nanny uses folklore as way to help Janie survive in a post-Emancipation society. Nanny reminds us that any society founded on the glaring contradictions of emotional love for personal freedom while maintaining a dehumanizing slave system must necessarily produce social conditions not easily penetrable or simply explained. She 62 abhorred the possibility of raising another black woman who would have to endure the same hardships as she “half sung, half sobbed a running chant-prayer” over Janie’s head. Nanny wanted to break cycle of oppression. Because experience has taught Nanny that “de nigger woman is de mule uh de world,” she forces Janie to marry for protection rather than love: ‘Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, it’s protection. Ah ain’t gittin’ole, honey. Ah’m done ole. One mornin’ soon, now, de angel wid de sword is gointuh stop by here. De day and de hour is hid from me, but it won’t be long. Ah ast de Lawd when you was uh infant in mah arms to let me stay here till you got grown. He done spared me to see de day. Mah daily prayer now is tuh let dese golden moments roll on a few days longer till Ah see you safe in life. lx Since Nanny was not able to protect herself and her daughter from sexual abuse, she believed that she could shield Janie. With a statement such as “One mornin’ soon, now, de angel wid de sword is gointuh stop by here,” Nanny implies that she comprehended the horrors that enslavement imposed on the majority of African Americans living in the United States, including herself. During slavery, the protection of marriage and property was denied to Nanny. She recalls: You know, honey, us colored folks is branches without roots and that makes things come round in queer ways. You in particular. Ah was born back due in slavery so it wasn’t for me to fulfill my dreams of whut a woman oughta be and to do. Dat’s one of de hold-backs of slavery. But nothing can’t stop you from wishin’. You can’t beat nobody down so low till you can rob ‘em of they will. Ah didn’t want to be used for a work-ox and a brood-sow and Ah didn’t want mah will for things to happen lak they did. Ah even hated de way you was born. But, all de same Ah said thank God, Ah got another chance. Ah wanted to preach a great sermon about colored women sittin on high, but they wasn’t no pulpit for me. Freedom found me wid a baby daughter in amh arms, so Ah said Ah’d take a broom and a cook-pot and throw up a highway through de wilderness for her. She would expound what Ah felt. But somehow she got lost offa de highway and next thing Ah knowed here you was in de 63 world. So whilst Ah was tendin you of nights Ah said Ah’d save de text for you. Ah been through ain’t too much if you just take a stand on high ground lak Ah dreamed.” lxi Enslaved African women were victimized culturally and sexually. Slavery meant the loss of personal and familial control over African female reproduction, and the significantly diminished capacity to influence key events in a child’s passage into young adulthood. Enslaved African women were forced to engage in sexual relations with men not of their own choosing, and hence to conceive and bear children at whim of white settlers. Consequently, Nanny felt “us colored folks is branches without roots and that makes things come round in queer ways.” Nevertheless, African American women did not come from a route-less void – from the cultures without values, belief system, institutions, obligations and commitments – doomed to live out the pitiful and degrading experience of enslavement. Nanny speaks passionately about the intensely physical, psychological, and spiritual effects of slavery. While the active tradition of protesting subjugation and exploitation and resisting injustice and inequality has factored significantly in the participation of African American women in the evolution of the black church, Nanny demonstrates otherwise. When Nanny mentions “Ah wanted to preach a great sermon about colored women sittin on high, but they wasn’t no pulpit for me,” she beautifully conveys the power of the pulpit without actually being in a church. Critic Henry Louis Gates, Jr. observes that Hurston believed in the idea of the articulating subject, one that has a voice that is “transcendent, strong, and self-reflexive.” lxii As a strong black woman whose escape from slavery informed her insistence to aid in the liberation of others, Nanny conveys the fears and aspirations of black women 64 living in Jim Crow’s shadow. Nanny’s rhetoric embodies a spiritual awareness that may be read as charismatic. Nanny desperately wants her granddaughter not to follow in her footsteps. She contends: And, Janie, maybe it wasn’t much, but Ah done de best Ah kin by you. Ah raked and scraped and bought dis lil piece uh land so you wouldn’t have to stay in de white folks’ yard and tuck yo’ head befo’ other chillum at school. Dat was all right when you was little. But when you got big enough to understand things, Ah wanted you to look upon yo’self. Ah don’t want yo’ feathers always crumpled by folks throwin’ up things in yo face. And Ah can’t die easy thinkin’ maybe de menfolks white or black is makin’ a spit cup outa you: Have some sympathy fuh me. Put me down easy, Janie, Ah’m cracked plate.” lxiii Slavery’s cruel domination prompted Nanny to steer Janie toward a better future. For Nanny, Janie’s marriage to Logan Killicks meant access to sixty acres and a mule and a chance for economic advancement, not emotional security. Clearly, enslaved African women had to conspire against oppression in order to do something good for themselves and others. Black women who displayed courage and risk-taking in challenging slavery and escaping enslavement and captivity were mentors. Nanny was no different as she sought to help Janie. On a spiritual level, Nanny had struggled to see herself as a worthy human being because violence hurt, injured, and belittled her life. With the statement “Put me down easy, Janie, Ah’m cracked plate,” Nanny beseeches Janie to follow her advice and marry Logan. The image of the cracked plate suggests that slavery was the kind of experience that practically fractured a woman’s body, mind, and soul. Consequently, Janie chooses not to undermine Nanny while she was still alive. Critic Mary Hellen Washington writes, With this expression, the grandmother confronts Janie with all the accumulated years of her domestic toil – both in her own home and in the 65 kitchen of her white employer. She demands that Janie experience guilt for her grandmother’s unfulfilled life and recognize her responsibility to care for her grandmother by respecting her decisions. The image evokes self- pity and domestic blackmail – perhaps the two most oppressive aspects of any mother-relationship. lxiv Hurston presents African American women as more than appendages of men in history. In a preacher-like manner, Nanny continues to convey to Janie the pitfalls of marrying for love. She uses folklore to explain why man and woman cause each other problems but cannot do without one another: …Lawd have mussy! Dat’s de very prong all us black women gits hung on. Dis love! Dat’s just whut’s got us uh pullin’ and uh haulin’ and sweatin’ and doin’ from can’t see in de morning’ till can’t see at night. Dat’s how come de ole folks say dat bein’ uh fool don’t kill nobody. It jus’ makes you sweat. Ah betcha you wants some dressed up dude dat got to look at de sole of his shoe everytime he cross de street tuh see whether he got enough leather dere tuh make it across. You can buy and sell such as dem wid what you got. In fact you can buy’em and give ‘em away.” lxv For Nanny, love blinds black women to sexual exploitation and oppression. She invokes the Lord’s name to dramatize the plight of African American females. Some historians describe African Americans as helpless figures, trembling unarmed in the path of history. As the cliché goes, “He who does not learn from history is doomed to repeat it.” Blacks are warned to be intimidated and threatened by their past; to be ashamed, bitter or so guilty as to be in bondage to the actions of their ancestors. Hence, some African Americans were so weighted by the burdens of the past that they were unable to quite bear the present and were totally incapable of moving into the future with even the semblance of hope or a shred of healthy prospect. Nanny Crawford was not one of those folks. 66 Joe Starks and Dual Horizons The horizon continues to serve as a projection for character’s wishes in the novel. The horizon represents the natural world and even the natural order of things, as they should be according to Janie. Hurston uses the horizon as a trope to reinforce gender differences: Men seem to think in abstract terms (i.e., “change” and “chance”) while women thought in more concrete terms (i.e., “sun-up,” “pollen,” and “blooming trees”). The horizon also measures Janie’s happiness and charts her progress toward independence. Janie’s chance for self actualization and personal fulfillment would take yet another detour with Joe (Jody) Starks. In some regards, Joe’s approach to success and life mirrored Logan’s. Like Logan, Joe had big aspirations and sought hard to achieve them, no matter the odds stacked against him. When he entered a relationship with Janie, Joe was so adamant about pursuing his goals that he sometimes neglected to think about what Janie would want out of the union. Consider the following passage where Hurston characterizes Joe’s prospects: Every day after that they managed to meet in the scrub oaks across the road and talk about when he would be a big ruler of things with her reaping the benefits. Janie pulled back a long time because he did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees, but spoke for far horizon. He spoke for change and chance. Still she hung back. The memory of Nanny was still powerful and strong. lxvi The narration suggests that Joe would share any good fortune he obtained with Janie. Hurston employs the image of the horizon here to illustrate how Joe was attempting to expand Janie’s horizons. By becoming a “big voice” in the Eatonville community, Joe 67 figures that he would enhance Janie’s status along the way. From Joe’s perspective, Janie could enjoy the prestige and respect as well as the material trappings that would come with being the wife of “the big ruler of things.” However, Joe’s horizons did not coincide necessarily with Janie’s (i.e., “he did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees). In fact, the narration implies that Joe’s prospects eclipsed Janie’s (i.e., he “spoke for far horizon”). While Janie could be “reaping the benefits” of Joe’s efforts, she would not be free to explore her own path and ambitions. At this point in the novel, she is more like an object (or as the narration suggests, a “thing”) that Joe would come to possess. Put another way, Janie was sort of like an object that a driver would see in the distance of a rear view mirror. But no one seemed to have told Joe that objects in the rearview mirror may appear larger than they are. As the narrative unfolds, Janie will begin to reject her status as object and move toward discovering her own voice. For now, Janie remained silent and capitulated to Joe’s notion of progress and success. Hurston’s utilization of the verbs “pulled back” and “hung back” serve as evidence of Janie’s resignation and hesitant state of mind. Additionally, such restrictive verbs remind the reader that Joe aspired to be “big ruler of things,” and wanted followers, not a partners. The epiphany that Janie has following the death of Joe Starks also coincides with an appearance or reference to the horizon or the sea. Janie’s self-awareness depends on her increased awareness of others. Consider the following passage where Janie once again reflects about her prospects in life: She hated her grandmother and had hidden it from herself all these years under a cloak of pity. She had been getting ready for her great journey to the horizons in search of people; it was important to all the world that she should find them and they find her. But she had been whipped like a cur 68 dog, and run off down a back road after things. It was all according to the way you see thing. Some people could look at a mud-puddle and see an ocean with ships. But Nanny belonged to that other kind that loved to deal in scraps. Here Nanny had taken the biggest thing God ever made, the horizon – for no matter how far a person can go the horizon is still way beyond you – and pinched it in to such a little bit of a thing that she could tie it about her grandmother’s neck tight enough to choke her. lxvii After Joe Starks’s funeral, Janie realizes that “She had been getting ready for her great journey to the horizons in search of people; it was important to all the world that she should find them and they find her.” This is indeed important “to all the world” because prior to this moment Janie had been following someone else’s path – whether it be one of her husbands or her grandmother’s. Porch Politics, Silence, and Black Speech For Hurston, the porch functioned as a stage on which individuals and groups adopted spontaneous and creative poses. She transforms the porch, allowing it to become a marketplace for ideas and social expression, not just a site for exchanging or purchasing goods. As a folklorist, Hurston wanted to examine the art of the people, which also included verbal performance. Through the character of Janie Starks, Hurston communicates the devastating effect of depriving an individual a chance to perform on a porch. She suggests that storytelling served as a form of social transaction where individuals have a chance to gain respect and recognition in the black community. Hurston uses storytelling as a way of informing the larger black community of the creative speaking abilities of black women. She shows that black women were also capable of verbal dexterity and manipulation. 69 With respect to understanding the spirituality of African Americans, the porch represents a compelling place to witness charismatic behavior. Hurston uses the porch as a place for advocating fundamental change in the status and treatment of African American women. Her uncompromising belief in women’s intellectual equality with men allows Hurston to create a space where Janie works through the silence imposed upon her by some of the males in the Eatonville community. While Hurston’s target is black sexism, she also criticizes white racism. Jody (Joe) Starks is Janie’s second husband whose goal is to become powerful and rich. Janie runs off with him because he promises her comfort and because he rinds her of rich white people. At his store, Jody is quickly named the new mayor of Eatonville, and for the occasion Tony Taylor asks Janie to give a short speech. Jody prevents her from doing so, saying that wives shouldn’t make speeches. His opinion angers Janie, but she remains silent: “Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no speech-makin’. Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home.” Janie made her face laugh after a short pause, but it wasn’t too easy. She had never thought of making a speech, and didn’t know if she cared to make one at all. It must have been the way Joe spoke out without giving her chance to say anything one way or another that took the bloom of things. But anyway, she went down the road behind him that night feeling cold. He strode along invested with his new dignity, thought and planned out loud, unconscious of her thoughts. lxviii Speaking in public did mean the same thing to Janie as it did to Jody. From Jody’s point of view, women did not have a voice in the public affairs; women should be seen, but not heard. Jody treats Janie like a trophy wife, showing her off as if she was one of his prized 70 possessions. He accepts the praise that Tony and the neighbors bestows upon Janie, but does so only as a way to bolster his own status in the community. With the phrase “mah wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no speech-makin,’” Jody derisively puts Janie in her place. He belittles Janie’s intellectual skills and promise and reinforces the erroneous perception that women did not have aspirations that extended beyond the domestic sphere (“Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home”). Jody assumes that Janie would not be interested in expressing her opinions regarding the activities of the community. He readily contests Janie’s knowledge of local politics. He naively believes that Janie had no desire to communicate her ideas about the future development on Eatonville. Janie, nevertheless, looks on with amused contempt (“Janie made her face laugh after a short pause, but it wasn’t too easy”) tolerant of Jody’s dismissive behavior. Hurston’s poetic prose captures the sense of unfairness that Janie experiences in Jody’ presence (“It must have been the way Joe spoke out without giving her chance to say anything one way or another that took the bloom of things”). While Jody may have temporarily robbed Janie of her “bloom,” the spirit that allows Janie to persevere in such circumstances does not fade. Janie’s ability to make herself laugh may be read as a form of charismatic expression. Janie’s laughter represents a creative expression of self that exists outside the realm of the church. Laughter allows Janie to process the abrasiveness of Jody’s comments in a nonchalant manner. By laughing at herself, Janie not recognizes the absurdity of her own situation but also sees the tragedy of Jody’s plight as well. Through laughter, Janie speaks of the indifference and the 71 disquietude imposed upon her by Jody. Although Janie does not utter a single word in response to Jody, she uses laughter to navigate through the uncomfortable silence. The porch was a space that Jody thought belonged exclusively to him. However, it is in this very arena where Jody’s power and status in the Eatonville community is contested by Janie and the town elders. The porch represents an interactive site where the citizens of Eatonville gathered for storytelling sessions. The drama that unfolds on the porch ultimately contributes to Janie’s spiritual growth and development. As an open gallery attached to the outside of Jody’s store, the porch also served as a platform where people gossiped about everyday happenings. At one point, Jody runs a man named Henry Pitts out of town when he catches Henry stealing some of his ribbon cane. On this occasion, the townspeople assembled on the store porch and wondered how Janie was able to put up with such a domineering man as Jody: As time went on and the benefits he had conferred upon the town receded in time they sat on his store porch while he was busy inside and discussed him. Like one day after he caught Henry Pitts and made him leave town. Some of them thought Starks ought not to have done that. He had so much cane and everything else. But they didn’t say that while Joe Starks was on the porch. When the mail came from Maitland and he went inside to sort it out everybody had their say. lxix For a long time, Jody believed that he was the “big voice” of Eatonville and that whatever he proclaimed was just and sound. From the locals’ point of view, the punishment most certainly did not fit the crime. The locals did not want to confront Jody directly for his exile of Pitts but wanted a place to vent their frustrations regarding his decision. In effect, the porch became a setting where people secretly articulated their disapproval and dissent. 72 Janie dislikes the business of running the store but loves that people sit on its porch and talk all day telling colorful, exaggerated stories: “The store itself was a pleasant place if only she didn’t have to sell things. When people sat around the porch and passed around the pictures of their thoughts for others to look at and see, it was nice. The fact the thought pictures were always crayon enlargements of life made it even nicer to listen to.” lxx Janie enjoys the camaraderie and the tall tale spinning of the townspeople and condemns Starks for his constant devotion to work. Indeed, the porch was a place where “words walked without masters” and the loose lips of locals came to represent both the wisdom and gossip of the community. Janie loved the conversation and sometimes she thought up good stories on the mule, but Joe had forbidden her to indulge. He didn’t want her talking after such trashy people. “You’se Mrs. Mayor Starks, Janie. I god, Ah can’t see what uh woman uh yo’ sability would want tuh be treasuring all dat gum-grease from folks dat don’t even own de house dey sleep in. ‘Tain’t no earthly use. They’s jus’ some puny human playin’ round de toes uh Time. lxxi As critic Patricia Sharpe contends, “Like Nanny and Killicks, Starks expects Janie to sit idly and to do what she is told: She is to preside over his store yet hold herself aloof from the customers; to bind her beautiful hair in a head rag so that the men she waits on cannot admire it.” lxxii At one point, Janie desperately wants to join in the mockery of the mule. However, Hurston’s third person narration reflects the stranglehold that Starks had over Janie as he curbs Janie’s enthusiasm and zest for storytelling. Consider the following passage: 73 She snatched her head away from the spectacle and began muttering to herself. “They oughta be shamed uh theyselves! Teasin’ dat poor brute beast lak they is! Done been worked tuh death; done had his disposition ruint wid mistreatment, and now they got tuh finish devilin’ ‘im tuh death. Wisht Ah had mah way wid’em all.” lxxiii The passage above illustrates Janie’s frustration as she wishes to join in the fun. Her muttering here represents a partially defeated, yet slightly emboldened spirit. Although Janie felt a bit crushed, she found a way to express her intent. While Janie only has herself an audience in this circumstance, she manages to vent her disquietude in a creative and imaginative manner. Janie does not allow her voicelessness to deprive her of passion and righteousness. Through Janie, Hurston articulates the ambivalent relationship between voice and spirituality. Janie’s speech celebrating her husband’s kindness towards the mule represents another possible scene for charismatic expression. Once again, Janie sees it as an opportunity to break out of her silence and to share her thoughts with the community: Janie stood still while they all made comments. When it was all done she stood in front of Joe and said, “Jody, dat wuz uh mighty fine thing fuh you tuh do. ‘Tain’t everybody would have thought of it, ‘cause it ain’t no everyday thought. Freein’ dat mule makes uh mighty big man outa you. Something like George Washington and Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln, he had de whole United States tuh rule so he freed de Negroes. You got uh town so you freed uh mule. You have tuh power tuh free things and dat makes you lak uh king uh something.” lxxiv Everyone considers Jody’s liberation of the mule very noble, comparing it to Abraham Lincoln’s emancipation of northern slaves. The animal becomes a source of pride for the town and the subject of even more tall tales. However, Jody feels that Janie’s participation in the life of the community was not befitting to a mayor’s wife. 74 Consequently, when the mule dies, Jody does not permit Janie to attend the festive funeral. While marriage to Joe Starks enables her to secure respect and protection, Janie finds that this was not enough to sustain her. The mule story contributes to the approaching climax of Janie’s relationship to Joe. However, there were also other signs that Hurston uses to reflect Janie’s disapproval of Joe’s treatment of her. Consider the scene where Janie reacts after she is slapped by Joe: So gradually, she pressed her teeth together and learned to hush. The spirit of the marriage left the bedroom and took to living in the parlor. It was there to shake hands whenever company came to visit, but it never went back inside the bedroom again. So she put something in there to represent the spirit like a Virgin Mary image in a church. The bed was no longer a daisy-field for her and Joe to play in. It was a place where she went and laid down when she was sleepy and tired. lxxv At this moment, Janie comes to realize that marriage to Joe is like living dead above ground. Joe treated Janie as if she were an impudent child, training her to be seen, but not heard. By now, Janie had learned how to discipline her mind, body, and heart in Joe’s presence and absence. Through clinched teeth and controlled hushes, Janie navigates through Joe’s indifference. With sentences like, “The spirit of the marriage left the bedroom and took to living in the parlor” and “It was there to shake hands whenever company came to visit, but it never went back inside the bedroom again,” Hurston shows that Janie recognizes the physical and psychological boundaries that encompass her relationship with Joe. Hurston masterfully uses the interior space of Janie and Joe’s home as a way to mark the decline of their marital bliss. While the stress and strain of marriage 75 to Joe had certainly drained Janie, it did not leave her completely empty. Hurston reasserts Janie’s spirituality and sense of self through the image of the Virgin Mary. Janie’s response to Starks was quite poignant. As she attempted to make sense of her situation, Janie came to realization that her life with Starks was indeed hollow and harsh. Literally and figuratively life was crashing around her. Nevertheless, Janie worked through her pain and disappointment: Janie stood where he left her for unmeasured time and thought. She stood here until something fell off the shelf inside her. Then she went inside to see what it was. It was her image of Jody tumbled down and shattered. But looking at it she saw that it never was the flesh and blood figure of her dreams. Just something she had grabbed up to drape her dreams over. In a way, she turned her back upon the image where it lay and looked further. She had no more blossomy openings dusting pollen over her man, neither any glistening young fruit where the petals used to be. She found that she had a host of thoughts she had never expressed to him, and numerous emotions she had never let Jody know about. Things packed up and put away in parts of her heart where he could never find them. She was saving up feelings for some man she had never seen. She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she know how not to mix them. lxxvi Once again, Hurston uses the Eden-like landscape to trace Janie’s psychological profile. The absence of “blossomy openings dusting pollen” and “glistening young fruit” suggest that Janie’s innocence is now gone and the zest for life she had earlier had faded away. Also, verbal phrases such as “packed up” and “put away” create a sense of remoteness and disconnectedness. To Janie, Jody had become a stranger (“She was saving up feelings for some man she had never seen”). However, in the process, Janie comes to the realization that loving Jody meant denying her own feelings and desires. As a consequence, Janie had learned how to tame her spirit and control her emotions (i.e., “She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she know how not to mix them”). 76 Janie’s recognition of her own “inside” and “outside” demonstrates an awareness of self that was crucial for her survival. The narration suggests that while Janie’s faith in romantic relationships was crumbling, Janie was able to persevere. In learning how not to mix the inside and outside, Janie carved out a path that allowed her to function separately from Jody. By turning her back on Jody, Janie steps out on her own and begins to search for personal fulfillment on her terms rather than on Jody’s. Janie soon turned her thoughts into action. She took the opportunity to exercise her newfound freedom. One day Janie finds Tony Robbins’s wife begging Jody for a little meat for her family. Jody gives her a small piece and adds the cost to Tony’s account. The men on the porch mutter that they would never allow their wives to embarrass them like that, especially since her husband had spent so much money on her. Janie finally cannot resist speaking up, scolding the men and saying that they don’t know as much about women as they think they do: Janie did what she had never done before, that is, thrust herself into the conversation. Sometimes God gits familiar wid us womenfolks too and talks His inside business. He told me how surprised He was ‘bout y’all turning out so smart after Him main’ yuk different; and how surprised y’all is goin tuh be if you ever find out you don’t know half as much ‘bout us as you think you do. It’s so easy to make yo’self out God Almighty when you ain’t got nothin’ tuh strain against but women and chickens. lxxvii Janie asserts that women know just as much about how the world works as men do. By maintaining that men would be surprised if they found out they didn’t know half as much about women as they think they do, Janie suggest that men know only the things that they want to know. In other words, men may be aware of gender differences but really do not 77 want to understand more. Janie implies men seem to think that God gave them the power to run everything on earth and that women were naturally inferior to men. However, she turns this notion on its head by indicating that the hold that men have over women and chickens is nothing because God “gits familiar” with women as well. By saying that God “gits familiar wid us womenfolks,” Janie not only speaks for herself but on behalf of all women. She shows that women are intelligent as group and as individuals. By reprimanding the men, Janie exhibits an amazing willingness to step out of the box that men attempt to keep her in and showcase her verbal talents. Janie also flexes her skills as a public speaker when she argues with Jody in the store. One day, Janie makes a clumsy mistake while cutting a plug of tobacco for a customer. Jody begins berating her in front of the store crowd, not only mocking her incompetence but also insulting her looks. Janie finally releases her pent-up aggression: “T’ain’t no use in gettin’ all mad, Janie, ‘cause Ah mention you ain’t no young gal no mo’. Nobody in heah ain’t lookin’ for no wife outa yuh. Old as you is.” “Naw, Ah ain’t no young gal no mo’ but den Ah ain’t no old woman neither. Ah reckon Ah looks mah age too. But Ah’m uh woman every inch of me, and Ah know it. Dat’s uh whole lot more’n you kin say. You big- bellies round here and put out a lot of brag, but ‘tain’t nothin’ to it but yo’ big voice. Humph! Talkin’ ‘bout me lookin’ old! When you pull down yo’ britches, you look lak de change uh life.” lxxviii The passage above highlights perilous nature of two forms of discrimination: ageism and sexism. By saying that Janie “aint no young gal no mo,” Jody attempts to make it painfully clear that Janie had lost some of her beauty and sexual appeal. The piling up of negative particles (i.e., the ain’t’s and the no’s) project the image of Janie as older and less attractive. Jody repeats this sequence with his next sentence by adding “nobody” to 78 the mix (“Nobody in heah ain’t lookin’ for no wife outa yuh”). The phrase “old as you is” punctuates Jody’s insult. In particular, Jody’s use of the word “you” takes on an indignant tone. Jody is no longer just putting down one woman (i.e., Janie) but denigrates an entire gender. However, Janie refuses to brush off Jody’s comments. She responds to Jody with a spirit and bravado that was not present in her earlier conflicts with him. Janie starts off by recognizing that there may be some truth to what Jody said about her age. When she says, “Ah ain’t no young gal no mo’ but den Ah ain’t no old woman neither,” Janie is admitting that while she may be no spring chicken she was certainly not a little old lady. Just as Jody piled up negatives in his previous remark to degrade Janie, Janie turns around and begins knocking down Jody’s erroneous assertion by using his rhetorical flourishes against him (ain’t…ain’t…neither). Janie continues to defend herself by boldly declaring “Ah looks mah age” and “Ah’m uh woman every inch of me, and Ah know it.” While she may not be in a church testifying before a pastor and a congregation, Janie uses the space of the store to fight sexism and ageism. The charisma that Janie expresses as she asserts womanhood comes across through her use of the first person. Janie’s not simply here: she’s here as a woman, from head to toe (i.e., “every inch of me”) and understands that womanhood was more than just image. By telling Jody that he was not such a “big voice” in town, Janie conveys in no uncertain terms that women too have a stake in the political and cultural development of Eatonville. In effect, Janie comes to know that her body was not just an object of male desire. Nevertheless, the ultimate rejection of Jody’s behavior in this scene occurred when Janie compared Jody to a menopausal woman. By calling Jody “de change uh life,” Janie not only challenges 79 Jody’s attitude about gerontology but also belittles his masculinity. This putdown marks Janie’s defiance of the sexual order and authority that existed in the Eatonville community. The death of Jody did not suppress Janie’s charismatic and ecstatic activity. As Janie mourned Jody’s passing, she continued to build her self esteem and to carve out her identity. Consider the scene where Janie disapproves of the behavior of Eatonville men as she moves about town after Jody’s funeral: Janie laughed at these well-wishers because she knew that they knew plenty of women alone; that she was not the first one they had ever seen. But most of the others were poor. Besides she liked being lonesome for a change. This freedom feeling was fine. These men didn’t represent a thing she wanted to know about. She had already experienced them through Logan and Joe. She felt like slapping some of them for sitting around grinning at her like a pack of chessy cats, trying to make out they looked like love. lxxix Janie’s laughter beautifully captures the carefree spirit of a woman who rarely found relief from tyrannical and abusive men. As a widow of a man who had a “big voice,” Janie expected that she would attract a bit of attention, with folks coming up to her to pay their respect for the dead and console her for her loss. However, some of the male mourners had less than genuine motives; instead, they were busy trying to woo and court Janie. Rather than taking the time to do some to reflection, some men were already thinking about taking Jody’s place at Janie’s side. Janie viewed such scrupulous males with both ridicule and scorn. The narration reveals that Janie did not need a church to tell her how trifling her suitors were. The sentence “These men didn’t represent a thing she wanted to know about” implies Janie sensed that some men were after her money and property and did not care or were trying to care about romantic love. Janie’s temptation to 80 slap these men for their callousness represents a new level of awareness and spiritedness. She refuses to allow herself to once again marry and become a trophy wife for yet another man. Put another way, the “faith” that Janie now has comes from a willingness to be alone. The narration suggests that Janie was prepared to use violence to protect her newfound independence and maintain her faith. While the suggestion of violence in the preceding passage might make Janie seem like less than a lady, such expression clearly marks Janie’s transition from sexual object to self-aware subject. Janie’s status as a widow and a mayor’s wife would preclude Janie from actually inflicting any sort of bodily injury upon the smiling men. While some Eatonville males were anxious to present themselves as Janie’s future husband, others gave Janie space to mourn in peace. Not all of the town’s men were opportunists during Janie’s time of grief. There were moments where some men actually responded in a dignified and tasteful manner to Janie’s loss. Consider another passage where Janie gracefully reacts to the gestures and pursuits of Eatonville’s male population: When Janie emerged into her mourning white, she had hosts of admirers in and out of town. Everything open and frank. Men of property too among the crowd, but nobody seemed to get any further than the store. She was always too busy to take them to the house to entertain. They were all so respectful and stiff with her, that she might have been the Empress of Japan. They felt that it was not fitting to mention desire to the widow of Joseph Starks. You spoke of honor and respect. And all that they said and did was refracted by her inattention and shot off towards the rim-bones of nothing…She was just basking freedom for the most part without the need for thought. lxxx Indeed, all men did not act like dogs. As a result, Janie was able to maintain a certain level of respectability and class as she publically mourned. Such phrases as “refracted by her inattention” and “shot off towards the rim-bones of nothing” show that Janie was 81 becoming more comfortable in her own skin. She begins to exude more confidence in herself and her ability to manage the advances of her suitors. Janie does not depending solely on the grace of God to deliver her from the trifles of male indifference and disrespect. In this scene, Janie does not look to divine intervention as a way to navigate through the trials and tribulations associated with an everyday living. The narration reflects Janie’s increasing willingness to persevere and to create a meaningful life for herself on her own terms, not someone else’s. Janie’s behavior in the wake of Jody’s provides yet another example of how secular spirituality shapes the mentality and demeanor of the black self. Tea Cake and Janie’s Horizons As Janie pursues yet a third man, the image of the pear tree returns. Once again the pear tree embodies Janie’s romantic aspirations. With Vergible “Tea Cake” Woods, however, the pear tree symbolizes more than idle fancy. Hurston poignantly choreographs the movements between Janie, Tea Cake, and God. Consider the following passage where Janie reflects on first encounter with Tea Cake: All the next day in the house and store she thought resisting thoughts about Tea Cake. She even ridiculed him in her mind and was a little ashamed of the association. But every hour or two the battle had to be fought all over again. She couldn’t make him look just like any other man to her. He looked like the love thoughts of women. He could be a bee to a blossom – a pear tree blossom in the spring. He seemed to be crushing scent out of the world with his footsteps. Crushing aromatic herbs with every step he took. Spices hung about him. He was a glance from God. lxxxi The thoughts that Janie had regarding Tea Cake had placed her in a frame of mind where she was not behaving normally. As she “thought resisting thoughts,” Janie wrestled with her passionate feelings toward Tea Cake. The narration suggests that she thoroughly 82 enjoys Tea Cake’s company. However, the narration also stages Tea Cake as a transformative figure that restores Janie’s faith in men and nature. With the sentence “She couldn’t make him look just like any other man to her,” Hurston not only sets up Tea Cake as an ideal romantic interest but also casts him as not like any man that Janie has married (i.e., Logan or Jody). By framing Tea Cake as a man unlike all others, Hurston attempts to place distance between Janie and her past. To describe Tea Cake as “the love thoughts of women” implies that Tea Cake’s potential attraction by women extended beyond Janie. Nevertheless, this allows Hurston to connect Janie to a pastoral landscape. By reuniting Janie with the image of the pear tree, Hurston allows Janie to experience adolescence for a second time. As “a pear tree blossom in the spring,” Janie has another shot at reclaiming the innocence of her youth. While Tea Cake seems like an overpowering masculine presence (“crushing scent out of the world with his footsteps” and “crushing aromatic herbs with every step he took”), he also commands a heavenly presence (“He was a glance from God”). By linking Tea Cake to the divine, Hurston makes Tea Cake’s movements on earth less threatening and foreboding. While Tea Cake’s steps seemed quite strident, fragrant and sweet-smelling, Hurston balanced them out with God’s gestures. Janie believes that God sanctions her courtship with Tea Cake. She steps out on faith that her relationship will work out. With a holy glance, Janie had the feeling that she was not alone and that God was much nearer than she ever imagined. As a result, the lyrical sequencing of the preceding passage implies that one does not necessarily need a church to feel the power of God’s grace. 83 As Janie comes to know Tea Cake, she appreciates him for his vitality and charm. Tea Cake teaches Janie how to play checkers, which only the men play in Eatonville. Also, he takes her fishing. Moreover, Tea Cake encourages her growth toward independence by teaching her skills and praising her talents. However, Janie fears his motives. At times, Tea Cake would leave days at a time without letting Janie know his whereabouts. During her angst, Janie would wish for his safe return to her. Consider the following passage where Janie virtually prays for Tea Cake as she laments how much his safety and protection means to her: But oh God, don’t let Tea Cake be off somewhere hurt and Ah not know nothing about it. And God, please suh, don’t let him love nobody else but me. Maybe Ah’m is uh fool, Lawd, lak dey say, but Lawd, Ah been so lonesome, and Ah been waitin’, Jesus. Ah done waited uh long time. lxxxii The narration suggests that Janie longs for Tea Cake’s companionship. This longing compels Janie to reach out to a higher power. Along the way, Janie exhibits a wide range of emotions that not only highlights her distress but also captures her resilience. By invoking God’s name twice (“oh God” and “God”), calling upon the Lord twice (“…Lawd….but Lawd”) and uttering his son’s name (“Jesus”), Janie declares her faith in a divine being and expresses her sincere wish that Tea Cake comes back unharmed. Janie’s plaintive decrees in the first person (“Ah not know nothing,” “Ah’m is uh fool,” and “Ah done waited uh long time”) heightens the drama surrounding Tea Cake’s disappearance and amounts to an admission of ignorance and desperation. Nevertheless, Janie remains patient. The agony and ecstasy that surrounds Janie’s quest for selfhood beautifully displays the depths of black female spirituality. 84 Janie realizes that Tea Cake does not care too much for security or wealth. However, Janie soon discovers that Tea Cake was not entirely virtuous or chivalrous. The narration reveals that Tea Cake was indeed caught up in some questionable activities such as drinking and gambling. Consider the following passage where Janie defends some of Tea Cake’s reckless pursuits: Tea Cake wasn’t doing a bit more harm trying to win hisself a little money than they was always doing with their lying tongues. Tea Cake had more good nature under his toe-nails than they had in their so-called Christian hearts. She better not hear none of them old backbiters talking about her husband! Please, Jesus, don’t let them nasty niggers hurt her boy. If they do, Master Jesus, grant her a good gun and a chance to shoot ‘em. Tea Cake had a knife it was true, but that was only to protect hisself. God knows, Tea Cake wouldn’t harm a fly. lxxxiii From Janie’s point of view, Tea Cake could do no wrong. However, this passage attests to Janie’s ability to recognize inconsistency, but also highlights Janie’s own spiritual ambivalence. On the one hand, Janie steps out on faith and presumes that Tea Cake would not intentionally injure another human being. Janie exhibits her ability to call upon heavenly entities during times of panic and distress. She criticizes the scandalous behavior of the muck dwellers (i.e., as “backbiters” and a folks with “lying tongues”) suggesting that Tea Cake had a better temperament as a vagabond and itinerant than most of the rabble that hung around the Florida Everglades. With the phrase “so-called Christian hearts,” Janie alludes to some of the hypocrisy that existed among the Eatonville citizenry. She suggests that there were probably Christians who go to church on Sunday morning, but may spend the rest of the week living in sin. Moreover, the narration adopts a tone one might find in a prayer or supplication. The successive references to divine figures (i.e., “Please, Jesus….Master Jesus….God knows…”) 85 conveys a sort of prayer formula. The only thing missing here is a reference to the Holy Ghost, which would have completed the holy trinity (i.e., the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost). On the other hand, Janie undercuts some of her own spiritual integrity by suggesting that the son of God assist her in retaliating against people who spoke ill of Tea Cake (i.e., “Master Jesus, grant her a good gun and a chance to shoot ‘em”). Such narration reveals that Janie herself was no angel and was capable of villainy and violence. In a sense, Janie engages in a sort of cowboy spiritual diplomacy where she shoots first and asks questions later. One may also view the image of a woman aiming a gun at Tea Cake as evidence of foreshadowing. At this point in the narrative, Janie could not imagine letting any harm come to Tea Cake. However, by the end of the novel, circumstances change and Janie indeed finds herself in a situation where she does fire a gun at Tea Cake because he became mentally imbalanced after he received a bite from a rabid dog while saving Janie’s life on the day of the approaching hurricane. For Janie, life on the muck was quite liberating. While travelling along the Florida Everglades, Janie becomes more trusting and adventurous. The muck marks Janie’s transition from casual observer to active participant. The charismatic behavior that Janie projects during this part of the narrative provides the reader with yet another opportunity to see how spirituality can operate outside the confines of a church. Consider the scene where Janie “tells lies” to some of the men on the muck: The men held big arguments here like they used to do on the store porch. Only here, she could listen and laugh and even talk some herself if she wanted to. She got so she could tell big stories herself from listening to the rest. Because she loved to hear it, and the men loved to hear themselves, they would “woof” and “boogerboo” around the games to the limit. No 86 matter how rough it was, people seldom got mad, because everything was done for a laugh. lxxxiv Clearly Janie is more comfortable here than she was on the porch of Jody’s store. The narration reveals that the faith Janie has in herself increases as she moves about with Tea Cake. The ease with which Janie was able to “listen….laugh….and …even talk” suggests greater self-confidence and self-esteem. The verbal triad of listening, laughing, and talking that takes place during a “lying” contest allowed Janie to get outside of herself and to reach out to others. In effect, “lying” lifted Janie’s spirits and motivated her to become more active in her new community (i.e., “She got so she could tell big stories herself from listening to the rest”). Additionally, terms such as “woof” and “boogerboo” indicate the degree to which Janie was down home with the folk. By placing such words in the narration, Hurston not only illustrates Janie’s autonomy but also her heightened awareness of black folklore and spirituality. Faith on Trial: Janie’s Testimonial in Court As Janie is placed on trial for Tea Cake’s murder, she finds herself in a setting where the secular and sacred spheres merge to create an amazing scene of human triumph. The courtroom represents an arena where Janie strikes a charismatic pose as she tells her version of the events that unfolded during the hurricane. The courtroom becomes the place where Janie not only proclaims her innocence but defends her love for Tea Cake. The movement, syntax, and punctuation that Hurston adopts as she narrates Janie’s trial compliment the charismatic tone that sustains the prior sections of the novel. Consider the moment when Janie finally takes the stand and testifies: 87 The white women made a little applause and Mr. Prescott glared at the back of the house and stepped down. Then the strange white man that was going to talk for her got up there. He whispered a little with the clerk and then called on Janie to take the stand and talk. After a few little questions he told her to tell just how it happened and to speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So help her God. They all leaned over to listen while she talked. First thing she had to remember was she was not at home. She was in the courthouse fighting something and it wasn’t death. It was worse than that. It was lying thoughts. She had to go way back to let them know how she and Tea Cake had been with one another so they could see she could never shoot Tea Cake out of malice. She tried to make them see how terrible it was that things were fixed so that Tea Cake couldn’t come back to himself until he had got rid of that mad dog that was in him and he couldn’t get rid of the dog and live. He had to die to get rid of the dog. But she hadn’t wanted to kill him. A man is up against a hard game when he must die to beat it. She made them see how she couldn’t ever want to be rid of him. She didn’t plead to anybody. She just sat there and told and when she was through she hushed. She had been through for some time before the judge and the lawyer and the rest seemed to know it. But she sat on in that trial chair until the lawyer told her she could come down. lxxxv The story that Janie tells the jury regarding her role in Tea Cake’s death is indeed very compelling. From beginning to end, the narration of Janie’s performance in court takes on a quasi-spiritual tone. By directing Janie to “speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” Hurston prepares the reader for a cathartic experience and suggests that part of Janie’s quest for independence also involves a quest for truth. For Janie, the swearing in represented something larger than an oath for a legal proceeding: it was a commitment to and fulfillment of her marital vows. The phrase “so help her God” may be read as plea for divine intervention rather than a declarative statement connected to a court oath. Also, it conveys the sense that God directs the steps of human activity. Hurston could have just as easily placed an exclamation point after “God” rather than a 88 period to ratchet up the reader’s response to the passage. Nevertheless, these words still capture the immediacy of the moment as well as poignantly punctuate Janie’s predicament. The narration reveals that the courthouse was not necessarily an inviting place for Janie. Hurston indicates that Janie was “not at home,” suggesting that the courthouse had become hostile territory for a black woman, especially one from the South. Janie faced an all white jury which, on the surface, suggested that she may not receive a fair hearing. Viewed from a spiritual perspective, being “down at home” means feeling comfortable with people who share your worldview. However, Hurston also implies that the gossip (i.e., “the lying thoughts”) of the townspeople would influence the trajectory of the events of the trial more than racism or death. Gossip was reinforcing the widely held view that Janie had shot Tea Cake because she was jealous or angry. Janie desperately wanted to refute this notion with her testimony. The syntax and punctuation that Hurston uses to relate Janie’s ordeal during the trial is also a testament to the power of black spirituality. The variation in sentence length and type dramatizes Janie’s tenacity and resilient spirit. The first sentence that begins the third paragraph of Janie’s testimony reads like a run-on sentence (i.e., “She tried to make them see…. and he couldn’t get rid of the dog and live”). This suggests that Janie may have been a bit overwhelmed at first by all the attention she was receiving in the courtroom. While the run-on sentence underscores the urgency of Janie’s situation, it may also slow the reader down and give the impression that Janie sounds immature or inarticulate. However, Hurston uses sentences of shorter length for the rest of the 89 paragraph not only to break up the monotony but also to highlight Janie’s faith in Tea Cake and herself. She shows that Janie did not allow fear and opposition control her fate and destiny (i.e., “She didn’t plead to anybody”). As a result, the short sentences that follow catch the reader’s attention and offset the choppiness of the first sentence. Indeed, Janie “steps out on faith” as she conveys her point of view of the events that took place before and after the hurricane. The significance of Janie’s testimony in court lies not only in what Janie was going to say but how she was going to say it. While the narration reflects a shift from black dialect to standardized English, this does not suggest that Janie becomes less believable as a heroine or agent for charismatic activity. Although Hurston does not quote Janie directly, she uses indirect speech to give the reader some sense of Janie’s state of mind as the trial unfolded. Janie’s fearless decision to describe Tea Cake’s struggle with the rabid dog stems from Janie’s belief that God was on her side. This reinforces the earlier notion that the oath that Janie took to tell the whole truth was more than a promise stipulated by the court. It is as if Janie is interpreting the oath on her own terms, not the court’s terms. Consequently, the phrase “So help me god” takes on a more spiritual meaning here, where Janie understands her connection and commitment to a higher, divine authority rather to the authority that encompasses human laws. The indirect speech shows that Janie is quickly moving from one thought to the next as she tries to convince the jury of her innocence. However, the shift from the conative verb form (i.e., “She tried to make them see”) to the more indicative form (i.e., “She made them see”) implies that Janie gained confidence in her ability to relate her 90 story. In a sense, indirect speech empowers Janie and highlights Janie’s courageous spirit as she follows the strength of her convictions. Phoeby and Charismatic Expression The imagery and tone of the last few pages of the novel connect with other moments in the novel. Phoeby Watson helps Janie finds her voice in the novel. Janie tells her story to Phoeby with the understanding that she would, in turn, share it with others. Consider the final scene of the novel where Janie tells Pheoby how she feels about her relationship to the rest of the Eatonville community after the trial: Now, Phoeby, don’t feel too mean wid de rest of ‘em ‘cause dey’s parched up from not knowin’ things. Dem meatskins is got tuh rattle tuh make out they’s alive. Let ‘em consulate theyselves wid talk. ‘Course, talkin’ don’t amount tuh uh hill uh beans when yuh can’t do nothin’ else. And listenin’ tuh dat kind uh talk is ju’ lak openin’ yo’ mouth and letting de moon shine down yo’ throat. It’s uh known fact, Phoeby, you got tuh go there tuk know there. Yo’ papa and yo’ mama and nobody else can’t tell yuh and show yuh. Two things everybody’s got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves. lxxxvi Janie suggests that talking is no substitute for experience. When Jane asserts “you got tuh go there tuk know there,” she implies that one does not necessarily have to share knowledge through speech. However, every human culture in the world has created stories as a way of making sense of the world. African Americans were no different. Orality and storytelling has several functions among African Americans. African Americans tell stories to express or communicate emotion, feelings, ideas, and information. African Americans also tell stories as a way of passing down tradition and culture. Moreover, African Americans tell stories as recreational drama for entertainment. 91 Additionally, orality and storytelling marks the absence and presence of God in African American culture. Janie makes this point rather clear in her epiphany after trial when she says, “Two things everybody’s got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves.” From this perspective, talking can count as experience because it can get at truth in a way that experience cannot. Speech can make the truth come alive. More precisely, one can conceive of talking as a form of charismatic expression that fosters healing, self-reflection, character building and developing new attitudes and behavior. Mrs. Turner as Janie’s Charismatic Foil Not all fictional characters of African descent experienced spiritual growth through charismatic expression in Hurston’s novel. Mrs. Turner represents one such character. If Janie represents all that is positive and hopeful within the realm of charismatic expression, then Mrs. Turner may represent a negative or sinister side of charismatic expression. While Mrs. Turner was a woman of mixed ancestry (i.e., she had a “milky” complexion, “slightly pointed” nose, thin lips, and a buttocks “in bas-relief”), she was not too terribly fond of African Americans, especially ones that were loud (i.e., “whooping” and “hollering”), had dark features and ones that came from low socio- economic backgrounds. Mrs. Turner took every opportunity she could to remind Janie how much she dislikes black folks. She scorns Janie for marrying a man as dark as Tea Cake. She even went as far as saying “Ah jus’ couldn’t see mahsself married to no black man. It’s too many black folks already. We oughta lighten up de race” and suggested that she should marry a man like her brother who was a few shades lighter. 92 Indeed, Mrs. Turner’s approach to God represents the dark side of “stepping out on faith.” Mrs. Turner perceives God in cruel and vengeful terms. Consider the scene where Hurston describes Mrs. Turner’s impressions of the divine: Once having set up her idols and built altars to them it was inevitable that she would worship there. It was inevitable that she should accept any inconsistency and cruelty from her deity as good worshippers do from theirs. All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshipped. Through indiscriminate suffering men fear and fear is the most divine emotion. It is the stones for altars and the beginning of wisdom. Half gods are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood. lxxxvii Having written extensively on the history of religion, John Renard observes “Charismatic ritual and spirituality give practitioners permission to feel their religious commitment by acknowledging that emotion is as important an ingredient as intellectual assent.” lxxxviii However, the emotions that fill Mrs. Turner as she shares her experiences with Janie are not as inspiring. For Mrs. Turner, gods who get special honor or respect shown publicly to them are quite wretched. Additionally, she implies that all gods are inherently vengeful (i.e., “All gods dispense suffering without reason”) and that it is natural for men to fear gods (i.e., “Through indiscriminate suffering men fear and fear is the most divine emotion”). The narration truly captures Mrs. Turner’s bitterness and ignorance regarding spirituality and organized religion, especially among African Americans. For Mrs. Turner to suggest that fear “is the stones for altars and the beginning of wisdom” ignores the fact that some black churches were formed as a result of white vigilantism and racism. The discrimination and hatred that plagued some mainstream churches compelled blacks to break away and form institutions that not only respected their culture and worldview but 93 also represented their wisdom and knowledge. Consequently, one could say that the black church was built in part by the fear of white violence. Although altars may serve as elevated places or structures before which religious ceremonies may be enacted or upon which sacrifices may be offered, Mrs. Turner’s hostile approach to altars reveals how African Americans may be misguided by their faith in God. Mrs. Turner extends her disquietude, disgust, and alienation regarding black aesthetics and applies it to the realm of religion. Consider the passage where Hurston continues to describe Mrs. Turner’s infatuation and obsession with white standards of beauty: Mrs. Turner, like all other believers had built an altar to the unattainable – Caucasian characteristics for all. Her god would smite her, would hurl from pinnacles and lose her in deserts. But she would not forsake his altars. Behind her crude words was a belief that somehow she and others through worship could attain her paradise – heaven of straight-haired, thin-lipped, high nose boned white seraphs. The physical impossibilities in no way injured faith. That was the mystery and mysteries are the chores of gods. Beyond her faith was a fascination to defend the altars of her god. It was distressing to emerge from her inner temple and find these black desecrators howling with laughter before the door. Oh, for an army, terrible with banners and swords! lxxxix Mrs. Turner appreciated Janie for the most part because she looked like white. She celebrated Janie’s Caucasian features, but denigrated her black ones. In effect, Mrs. Turner built a shrine to whiteness and rejected anything remotely connected to blackness. She had placed her faith in all things that were of European origin. Mrs. Turner’s prejudice against black folks and preference for white culture blinds her to the creative possibilities that come out of struggle. 94 Mrs. Turner and Janie obviously do not see God in the same manner. While Mrs. Turner perceives God as an angry and spiteful entity, Janie approaches God respectfully and tactfully. Janie understands God’s powerful presence and his unyielding commitment to show his children how to follow him in the good times, as well as the difficult times. On the contrary, Mrs. Turner characterizes God as inflexible and coarse. For Janie, stepping out on faith poses an opportunity to extend conditions of possibility whereas for Mrs. Turner such an endeavor signaled foreclosure and animus. Janie’s Horizons Revisited The concept of the horizon returns as Hurston’s narrative draws to close. Janie’s story ends in a mixture of despair and triumph. Janie tells Phoeby that “Ah been to the horizon and back and now Ah kin set heah in mah house and live by comparisons.” xc By the end of the novel, Janie returns to her home in West Florida recognizing how each of her previous mates have impacted her horizons. Some men expanded her knowledge of the world and respected her capabilities, while others discouraged or ignored Janie’s prospects altogether. Logan Killicks, Janie’s first husband, represents an ambitious black man who sought status and security for himself and Janie with his sixty acres and two mules. However, Logan quashes Janie’s horizons by trying to make her work as his servant, chopping wood and shoveling manure. Jody (a.k.a. Joe) Starks, Janie’s second partner, represents another ambitious African American male that had a social lifestyle and position that was attractive. Nevertheless, he too squelched Janie’s horizons by confining her to the store and by not recognizing her talent as a public speaker. Of all her husbands, Janie cherished Tea Cake the most because he not only taught her practical 95 skills (e.g. fishing and hunting) but he also showed her the value of play and gamesmanship. Through playing checkers and playing the dozens, Janie was willing to break out her comfort zone and try something new. In return, Tea Cake admired her spunk by treating her as an equal rather a subordinate. With Tea Cake’s passing, Janie refuses to live her life in misery and grief. Although the agony of losing Tea Cake was still fresh in her mind, Janie responds by putting forth a charismatic attitude. Consider the final passage in the novel where Janie reflects on the changes brought on by Tea Cake’s untimely departure: The day of the gun, and the bloody body, and the courthouse came and commenced to sing a sobbing sigh out of every corner in the room; out of each and every chair and thing. Commenced to sing, commenced to sob and sigh, singing and sobbing. Then Tea Cake came prancing around her where she was and the song of the sigh flew out of the window and lit in the top of the pine trees. Tea Cake, with the sun for a shawl. Of course he wasn’t dead. He could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking. The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in it its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see. xci While Janie ultimately acquires her own voice and the ability to shape her own life, she does so in a gory fashion. The concluding paragraph starts out with a gloomy summary of all the traumatic episodes that shaped Janie’s life after the hurricane. The gun, bloody body, and the courthouse are all objects that symbolize Janie’s tempestuous past and remind the reader of her sense of powerlessness and resignation. Furthermore, alliterative verse captures the despondency that initially surrounded Janie as she emerged from the trial. The close succession of b’s (“bloody body”), c’s (“courthouse came and commenced”) and s’s (“sing a sobbing sigh”) that populate the literary landscape 96 dramatize Janie’s depression of spirit. Additionally, the repetition of the verbs “commence,” “sob,” “sigh,” and “sing” further underscore the monotony that Janie felt as she faced judgment for the death of Tea Cake. The cacophonous c’s and s’s act as knives that cut into Janie and her emerging sense of self. However, the adjective “prancing” marks a significant shift in Janie’s outlook and sets tone for the rest of the paragraph. Tea Cake may no longer be walking the face of the earth, but his spirit and memory is alive and well in Janie. The narration reveals that in Janie’s mind Tea Cake will always and forever be a part of her life (“He could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking”). The intimacy between Janie and Tea Cake endures through a kiss – one that does not require the touch or caress of lips. With the bittersweet phrase “the kiss of his memory,” Hurston shows that Janie can once again step out on faith. In effect, Hurston suggests that with each recollection of Tea Cake Janie gets outside of herself and reaches out to others. Janie explicitly does this by telling her story to Phoeby. Hurston also acknowledges the limits of self-centered thinking. With the sentences “She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net” and “Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder,” Hurston shows that while Janie had to struggle with the expectations that were imposed upon her by others she also needed to nurture the spirit within her. Janie exhibits considerable independence from her past husbands and Nanny by carving out a destiny that comes from her own choosing. In this instance, the horizon symbolizes the abiding faith and confidence that Janie has as she sets out on her new path. Metaphorically, Janie stands on high ground, as her Nanny dreamed. As a woman 97 of status and wealth in her community, Janie ascends the stairs of her home and rejoices, leaving the sorrow of the trial behind her. Janie reminds the reader that the journey of the spirit is rarely a linear one, a straight line between two points. The road along which the spirit travels is contradictory, even circular: sometimes a step forward entails a step back, sometimes learning requires unlearning, remembering, and forgetting. Hurston’s narrative is composed in a ring composition where the end of the story takes us back to the beginning. Janie’s journey – from West Florida, to Eatonville, to the Everglades… and back again – reminds the reader of an important truth: that living is a process and that in every ending there is the promise of a new beginning. An examination of charismatic activity and ecstatic expression would not have been possible without Zora Neale Hurston. Her critical approach to spirituality opens up new ways of understanding African and African American living. Indeed, Hurston’s work played a large role in preserving the folk traditions and cultural heritage of African Americans. She expressed her genius by combining her field notes with some autobiography and a vivid imagination to create some of the most exciting, authentic literature of the twentieth century. 98 Chapter 2 From the Street to the Pulpit … and Back Again: African American Spirituality Ellison Style I am because we are and because we are therefore I am. African proverb Since the preacher is the one who must bring it all together – the story, the message, Scriptural clarity, and the Spirit – his imagination and communicative ability is taxed to the max. xcii Geneva Smitherman, Talkin That Talk: Language, Culture, and Education in African America As we interact with each other on a daily basis, we continuously express what we know, think, believe, and feel. We do so in a variety of readily distinguishable, often symbolic ways: by singing and making music, for example, or by uttering proverbial expressions, dancing, and creating objects. However, what did this precisely mean for people of the African disapora? Commenting on cultural development of Algerians, scholar and revolutionary Frantz Fanon remarked “To speak means to be in a position to use a certain syntax, to grasp the morphology of this or that language, but it means above all to assume a culture, to support the weight of civilization.” xciii Such an approach to culture not only celebrates and valorizes the power of the spoken word but also reflects the degree to which language humanizes black people. With respect to understanding charismatic expression and ecstatic activity among African Americans, sermons and speeches provide a unique insight into the how spirituality is understood and practiced. In African American culture, sermons were more than religious discourses delivered as part of a church service and speeches were more than an articulation of words. They were 99 exhortations that spoke to the social, political, and economic circumstances which encompassed the lives of black folks. No one understood this better than Ralph Ellison. The United States is a nation built, in part, on the promise of inclusion. The Founding Fathers, however, did not (and probably could not) imagine a day and a time when they would ever have to extend, let alone recognize the humanity of a group of people who were once considered no more than pieces of property. Indeed, equality for people of African descent was more an idea rather than a reality. Nevertheless, a literary figure such as Ralph Ellison believed that African Americans could persevere, even thrive in spite of racism and inequality. Ellison felt that blacks were more than the sum of their circumstances. From Ellison’s point of view, African Americans had a rich culture that deserved recognition, admiration, and above all, respect. With Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Juneteenth, I continue to trace the complex relationship between literature and religion. In these novels, Ellison uses the conventions of the historical novel to shed light upon the dynamics of the black-white encounter in the United States. While dipping into blues and jazz, street talk and rap, Ellison offers an extended commentary on slavery, Reconstruction, the Jazz Age, the Depression, and interwar Harlem, while providing provocative insights to the coming 1960s Civil Rights and Black Power movements. I maintain that the charismatic and ecstatic behavior of Ellison's central characters reflect the shortcomings and values of the black church in the modern era. While figures such as Homer Barbee and A.Z. Hickman struggle with the gospel of the black church, the biblical allusions, cadences and rhythms that are present in their folk preaching and speaking illustrate an immersion and 100 commitment to the spiritual impulse that allowed people of African descent to survive in the New World. Faith on the Lower Frequencies: African American Spirituality Meets Modernism The literary period following the Harlem Renaissance marked a transition from using literature for the purpose of social acceptance to not unconditionally embracing all things “folk.” In addition to experimentation with form, the incorporation of African American myth and ritual became important elements to the work of black authors from the modernist period. Black writers in this era continued to grapple with the effects of the Great Migration. Although the city took center stage in these works, vestiges of rural Southern life remained, often resulting in underlying tensions relating to class and culture. In Invisible Man, an unnamed black protagonist born, raised, and partially educated in the South, tracks his 20-year journey of social invisibility from the South to New York City, documenting his transformation from racial naiveté to enlightenment. He also documents his journey to subscribing to the belief that the American dream is a possibility for African Americans to the ultimate realization that that belie is untrue. In the North, he finds that, while the color line is not as firmly fixed as it is in the South, it still exists. Homer Barbee, the Brotherhood and Charismatic Expression Invisible Man draws from a broad historical context but does not reject the black folk past either. The presence of folk sermons will illuminate this point. When sermons have appeared in literature, they have been verbal events often merely tangential to the 101 main thrust of the narrative. However, when Ellison presents sermons in his work he is sensitive to the oratorical style of black preachers. Consider the appearance of Homer Barbee in Invisible Man and the following scene where Barbee channels the phenomena of charisma through his blindness: As he talked he made a cage of his hands by touching his fingertips, then with his small feet pressing together, he began a slow, rhythmic rocking; tilting forward on his toes until it seemed he would fall, then back on his heels, the lights catching his black-lensed glasses until it seemed head floated free of his body and was held close to it only by the white band of his collar. And as he tilted he talked until a rhythm was established. Then he was renewing the dream in our hearts: “…this barren land after Emancipation,” he intoned, “this land of darkness and sorrow, of ignorance and degradation, where the hand of brother had been turned against brother, father against son, and son against father; where master had turned against slave and slave against master; where all was strife and darkness, an aching land.” xciv Here Ellison truly captures the spontaneity of the black preacher. He incorporates the performed folk sermons of the American South to reveal the excitement and energy contained in the black spiritual community. The sermon form, orally composed and spontaneously performed, in the main chanted or sung, is found most commonly in the United States today in African-American churches. Many who have heard these sermons performed in their authentic settings feel their emotive strength, their potency; unknowingly, many urban white Americans have heard them, though in secular contexts and with social or political content, and so have not properly recognized them as sermons—or as being derived from them. 102 Some folks associate the sound of spirituals with the expression of spirituality. This indeed was the case with several of the members of the Brotherhood. Consider the scene where Brother Jack playfully mocks the narrator for not being able to sing: “How about a spiritual, Brother? Or one of those real good ole Negro songs? Like this: Ah went to Atlanta – nevah been there befo’,” he sang, his arms held out from his body like a penguin’s wings, glass in one hand, cigar in the other. “White man sleep in a feather bed, Nigguh sleep on the flo’… Ha! Ha! How about it, brother?” “The brother does not sing!” Brother Jack roared staccato. “Nonsense, all colored people sing.” “This is an outrageous example of unconscious racial chauvinism!” Jack said. “Nonsense, I like their singing,” the broad man said doggedly. “The brother does not sing!” Brother Jack cried, his face turning a deep purple. The broad man regarded him stubbornly. “Why don’t you let him say whether he can sing or not…? Come on, Brother, git hot! Go down, Moses,” he bellowed in a ragged baritone, putting down his cigar and snapping his fingers. “Way down in Egypt’s land. Tell dat ole Pharaoh to let ma colored folks sing! I’m for the rights of the colored brother to sing!” he shouted belligerently. xcv For the longest time African Americans have been stereotyped as “good” singers or capable of carrying a tune. While the natural musicality of blacks may suggest levity and entertainment on the one hand, it too may also convey docility and complacency. In amused contempt, Brother Jack dexterously moves from one extreme to another as he ribs the narrator for his lack of showmanship. Public Speaking, Invisibility, and Charismatic Expression In Ralph Ellison’s poignant novel, the narrator (or “I am”) tirelessly engages in a quest to define his identity and to establish a voice for his convictions. The protagonist attempts to utilize language as a means of expressing ideas, but commitments to the racial accommodationism of Booker T. Washington and involvement with the Brotherhood 103 consumed his individuality hampered his efforts. As a result of his inability to communicate, the protagonist fails to recognize the connection between spoken words and the action conveyed by them. The scene where the narrator accepts a scholarship from a benevolent white organization demonstrates the significant role that communication plays in human affairs. The speech that he gave to the audience was an embodiment of the Booker T. Washington philosophy of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Washington had received favorable notice on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line for his moderate, non-inflammatory public statements. In the spring of 1895, he was invited to appear before a Congressional committee along with white Southerners who were requesting federal financial assistance for the Atlanta Exposition. xcvi The biracial quality of the Exposition was to be emphasized by an Afro-American building, designed and constructed entirely by blacks and containing only exhibits relating to the progress of the race. xcvii To carry this theme further, the Exposition Board of directors decided to have a Negro participate in the opening ceremonies and selected Washington as the man who could best manifest the amicable relationships existing between white and black in the South. xcviii The narrator, in vain, attempts to draw upon Washington’s style of oratory by using elegant phrases such as “Cast down your bucket where you are” and “Water, water; we die of thirst!” to illustrate the belief that Southern whites had to be convinced that the education of blacks was in the true interest of the South. xcix Furthermore, he believed that there was a fundamental relationship between the white hierarchy and the success of 104 black within the Southern power system. However, about midway through his speech, he makes an embarrassing mistake in front of the white audience. Enthralled by a Negro’s use of eloquent polysyllabic words the crowd asks the narrator to repeat various phrases. Under severe pressure, the narrator mixes up the phrases “social responsibility” with “social equality” and questions the significance of his error: “…responsibility.” “More!” “Respon-” “Repeat!” “-sibility.” **************************** “Social…” “What?” they yelled. “…equality-” The laughter hung smokelike in sudden stillness. I opened my eyes, puzzled. Sounds of displeasure filled the room. The M.C. rushed forward. They shouted hostile phrases at me. But I did not understand. c The narrator exhibits his ignorance of the words of Washington by failing to examine their rhetorical context. First of all, he blatantly disregarded the different setting in which Washington spoke his powerful words. Washington was addressing his ideas in a political forum where prominent figures of both races were present. The narrator conducted a speech in distasteful atmosphere where only staunch white Southerners, who ignore him for the most part, congregated for merriment and debauchery. Also, consider the different tone evoked by each speaker. Washington engaged in an intelligent and emotional speaking style that sought to strengthen the pride of his race and promote economic progress for his people. The narrator, in contrast, was only concerned with memorizing and rendering the prose of an esteemed individual rather than engaging in 105 original thought of his own. In essence, Ellison identifies the tongue as the organ of the black male body that struggles to articulate black consciousness. Ellison suggests that speech had the power to free the black man, thus enabling him to communicate his intentions to the world and to understand his plight. He wanted white society to “do right” ci by the black man. But in fact, Ellison reveals that language has the potential to convey miscommunication between individuals. Another section of Invisible Man that illustrates the power of the body to entrap an individual is the scene where an old black couple is on the verge of being evicted. Upon arriving at the eviction scene, the Brotherhood, modeled after the Stalinist Communist Party of the 1930’s and 1940’s, took a genuine interest in recruiting the narrator for their organization because they viewed him as “someone who can articulate the grievances of the people” and could “answer the people’s appeal.” cii For a political entity such as the Brotherhood, success rested on the ability of its members to mindlessly perpetuate party dogma. While addressing the old black couple, the narrator, with the charisma of a strong leader, demonstrated his capacity to motivate the masses: “Let’s follow a leader, let’s organize. Organize. We need someone like that wise leader, you read about him, down in Alabama. He was strong enough to choose to do the right thing in spite of what he felt himself….” ciii However, as he encouraged the crowd to move the personal belongings of the couple, the narrator shouted out hyberbolic utterances that, on the outside, made a harsh assessment about the couple’s living conditions rather than invoking a sense of sympathetic urgency: “We’re dispossessed,” I sang at the top of my voice, “dispossessed and we want to pray. Let’s go in and pray. Let’s have a big prayer 106 meeting… Hide their shame…” civ In the preceding passage, Ellison illustrates the unpredictable nature of language. He shows that words can have the power to transform people and encourage positive agency. The narrator successfully roused the masses to action, but neglected to analyze the meaning of his words. Ellison proves that words are not independent of their environment. However, the narrator did not utilize the right words at the right time. For example, he continually underscored the phrase “we’re dispossessed.” For rhetorical purposes, the narrator harped upon the denotative definition of “dispossessed,” which is to deprive of homes or possessions, but refused to investigate the connotative meaning conveyed by the word. The term “dispossessed” can be used to describe an individual’s or group’s impoverished spiritual and cultural consciousness. Moreover, the link that the narrator makes between dispossession and prayer is quite problematic. Some blacks turned to the most powerful institution in the black world, the black church, to stimulate their pride and to preserve their self-respect. This scene suggests that the narrator is mocking the black church, using it as a place to “hide the shame” of poor black people rather than a place to make a reverent petition to God. In essence, when the narrator examined only the physical definition associated with “dispossessed,” he overlooked the emotional element that is also attached to the word. Contact with the Brotherhood clouded the judgment and discretion of the narrator. Once the narrator was indoctrinated into the Brotherhood, he found himself preaching the organization’s political philosophy. As an active spokesperson, he again utilized the word “dispossessed” without considering its dual context, only this time overemphasizing the spiritual aspect: “Dispossession! Dis-possession is the world! I went on. They’ve tried to 107 dispossess us of our manhood and womanhood! Of our childhood and adolescence… Why, theyeven tried to dispossess us of our dislike of being dispossessed!” cv Ellison shows that the agency of the narrator is ambiguous. On the one hand, the narrator appears to be rallying for all black people to come together and fight racial oppression. However, references to dispossession undercut the narrator’s cries for universal manhood and womanhood. The narrator’s close repetition and variation of the noun and verb forms of “possess” are artificial. In an attempt to gain and to hold the attention of his audience, the narrator relies too heavily on rhetorical devices and does not offer a meaningful discussion race and identity. Language can define the extent to which the black male body interacts with the black community. Ellison shows that the speech patterns of the black males can influence the actions and efforts of other black people. In each situation, the narrator believed that “there was a magic in spoken word” and sought desperately to unlock the hidden power associated with their use. cvi By alluding to the words of Booker T. Washington, he thought that he would be accommodating his own interests as well as the interests of white society. Through involvement in the Brotherhood, the narrator sought to climb a bureaucratic structure for power and prestige by impressing the black masses with his invigorating verbiage. Can the black male body survive without speech and language? In Talkin That Talk: Language, Culture and Education in African America, linguist Geneva Smitherman states “The oral tradition…is part of the cultural baggage the African brought to America. The pre-slavery background was one in which the concept of Nommo, the magic of the Word, was believed necessary to actualize life and give man mastery over things.” cvii Although, 108 Smitherman does not specifically address the black male body, she suggests that speech and language serve as conduits through which the black body may find meaning. Throughout his life, the narrator continued to allow others to define who he was and believed that he was what they told him to be. This led him to a life of unhappiness, futility, and exploitation. He was full of illusions because he refused to ask himself, “who am I and what do I want?” He claimed that he was invisible because others refused to see who he was; yet he was as guilty of not seeing himself. Only at the end of the novel, when he lived in his hole and reflected upon his life, did he realize that “I carried my sickness and though for a long time I tried to place it in the outside world, the attempt to write it down shows me that at least half of it lay within me.” cviii In effect, Ellison uses the narrator as an example of a black male who entangles himself in the complexities of black consciousness. For Ellison, the chance to speak meant the chance to see language in action. He suggests that language is as much about seeing and believing as it is about hearing and writing. Language is not simply an instrument for communication, but is a sign of identity. Through language, the black male body has the opportunity to escape invisibility. However, Ellison shows that as the black male body struggled to articulate its convictions through language, the threat of miscommunication served to entangle the black consciousness even further. The Emergence of Ellison’s God in Juneteenth In an age seldom moved by religious expression, and casual in its attitude toward religious forms, the sermon’s evocative power has been largely muted. Nevertheless, 109 Ellison includes a careful imitation of black oral preaching. He is particularly sensitive to the sermons and oratorical style of black preachers. The high expectations generated by the success of Invisible Man proved to be a heavy burden for Ellison. From 1955 to 1957, he was a fellow at the American Academy in Rome, and he taught at various colleges and universities after his return to the United States. Most of his writings during the period were essays and reviews, some of which were later collected in his highly regarded volume of cultural criticism Shadow and Act (1964). In 1958, Ellison finally began his second novel, then called And Hickman Arrives, in which a black evangelist, now an old man, recalls his childhood experiences in the South. Ellison published several chapters as stories, always identifying them as excerpts “from a novel in progress.” Embarrassed by his failure to complete the novel, Ellison claimed that the only copy of the manuscript, which was destroyed in a fire at his summer home in Massachusetts in 1967. In fact, he apparently lost only a small part of the ballooning manuscript, which had “become inordinately long… and complicated,” as he had told a friend in 1968. cix However, Ellison died in 1994 before he could finish his second novel. James Alan McPherson, writing in Speaking for You, says of this unpublished work that, though Ellison had written more than enough material for a novel, he was “worried about how the work [would] hold up as total structure.” cx McPherson maintains that Ellison achieved a unique style, one that combined elements from minstrelsy and the preaching of black Baptist ministers, yet had the timing of Count Basie. cxi Discussing Ellison’s intent on what would be published posthumously by John Callahan as Juneteenth, McPherson asserts, “Ellison was trying to solve the central 110 problem of American literature. He was trying to find forms invested with enough familiarity to reinvent a much broader and much more diverse world for those who take their provisional identities from groups.” cxii Juneteenth has played a prominent role in the writing of African American writers who grew up celebrating this southwestern freedom day. Ellison, an Oklahoma native, published a section of his second novel based on this momentous occasion. As an Emancipation celebration ritual, Juneteenth has origins which began on September 22, 1862 when President Abraham Lincoln issued his preliminary proclamation and ended in 1865 with the signing of the Thirteenth Amendment. The most culturally significant reading of the Emancipation Proclamation occurred in Texas, just over two months after the last battle of the Civil War. Accompanied by a regiment of Union army soldiers, General Gordon Granger landed at Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865 and read General Order Number 3 declaring freedom of all slaves in Texas. General Gordon’s reading left in its wake a series of regional emancipation celebrations in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. The Junteenth speaker always addressed the themes of a longing for Africa, the horrors of slavery, and the joyous hope of freedom. The Senate Floor as a Site for Charismatic Expression and Ecstatic Behavior The descriptions of several passages in Juneteenth rely heavily on sermonic language that magnificently conveys the complexities of race and religion as well as reveals the elite and mass attitudes toward civil rights. Indeed, race has been the central domestic issue of American politics over the long history of the nation. The protagonist Bliss (also known as Senator Sunraider, his older alter ego) struggles with his identity – 111 as a man caught between his African American and Caucasian background. The Senate floor and the (black) church serve as powerful places where Bliss sorts through dual upbringing. As a politician, Bliss skillfully uses the Senate floor as a pulpit to rouse the attention of his audience. The passion that moves Bliss allows him to be in touch with his quasi-spiritual impulses and inclinations. Consider the following passage where Bliss situates social justice and civility within the context of the nation’s forefathers: Where we have been we shall go. We move from the realm of dreams through the valley of the practical and back to the realm of rectified dreams. Yes, but how we arrive there is our decision, our challenge and our anguish. And in the going and in the arriving our task is to tirelessly transform the past and create and re-create the future. In this grand enterprise we dance to our inner music, we negotiate the unknown and untamed terrain by the soundings of our own inner ear. By the capacity of our inner eye for detecting subtleties of contour, landmark and underground treasure, we shape the land. Indeed, we shall reshape the universe – to the forms of our own inner vision. Let no scoffers demand of us, ‘How high the moon?’ for not only can we supply the answer, in time we shall indeed fly them there! We shall demonstrate once again that in this great, inventive land man’s idlest dreams are but the blueprints and mockups of emerging realities, technologies and poems. Here is the fashion of our pioneer forefathers, who confronted the mysteries of wilderness, mountain and prairie with crude tools and a self-generating imagination, we are committed to facing with courage the enormous task of imposing an ever more humane order upon this bewilderingly diversified and constantly changing society. Committed we are to maintaining its creative momentum. cxiii Sunraider’s use of the first person plural adds urgency and passion to his voice. The close succession of phrases such as we move, we arrive, we dance, we negotiate, we shape, we shall reshape, we shall demonstrate, and we are committed poignantly brings together both motion and emotion. The verbs cogently connect present action to future intent. 112 Sunraider manages to capture the transcendent possibilities associated with dreams and imaginatively reflect the pioneering ethos and spirit of the nation’s founders. For Sunraider, spirituality also rests in the signs and symbols that serve as the cornerstone of American democracy. The faith that Sunraider expresses is firmly rooted in the basic rights guaranteed to Americans in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Developing America’s value system was no easy task and coming together for a common cause required considerable effort. Having the feeling of belonging to a United States was not natural for most Americans. Consider the following passage where Sunraider offers insight on the Great Seal that adorns the Senate hall: “E pluribus unum!” the senator shouted, pointing toward the Great Seal attached to the wall of the gallery. “Observe there the message borne in the beak of the noble bird under whose aegis our nation thrives! Note the olive branch and arrows! Contemplate its prayer and promise – E PLURIBUS UNUM. Regard the barred shield that protects us, the stars of the state leaping high in the sunburst of national promise. Mark the olive branch extending peace and prosperity to all. Consider the historically established fact that its ready arrows are no mere boast of martial preparedness. They are symbolic of our aggressive determination to fulfill our obligations to humankind in whatever form they take or wherever they might arise. So let us take wing with our emblem. Let us flesh out its ideals. Let us unite like the flexing feathers that lift it aloft. Let us forge ahead in faith and in confidence - E PLURIBUS UNUM!” cxiv The preceding passage illustrates Sunraider’s commitment to upholding the rights and responsibilities of American citizens. The steps toward forming a stronger government were sometimes awkward and messy. Few people could think beyond the borders of their own state. Many, in fact, were only interested in what went on in their own local community. Sunraider show how hard it was for people after the Revolutionary War to 113 think of themselves as Americans. Nevertheless, he shows that strength comes from unity. On other occasions, Sunraider used the floor of the Senate as a place for stirring up race baiting and promoting religious indifference. Along the way, he also had the uncanny ability to infuse racial conflict with class struggle. Consider Sunraider’s speech regarding his encounter with African Americans in his home district: “We have reached a sad state of affairs, gentleman, wherein this fine product of American skills and initiative has become so common in Harlem that much of its initial value has been sorely compromised. Indeed, I am led to suggest, quite seriously, that legislation be drawn up to rename it the ‘Coon Cage Eight.’ And not at all because of its eight superefficient cylinders, nor because of its general outlines. Not at all, but because it has now become such a common sight to see eight or more of our darker brethren crowded together enjoying its power, its beauty, its neo-pagan comfort, while weaving recklessly through the streets of our great cities and along our superhighways. In fact, gentlemen, I was run off the road, forced into a ditch by such a power-drunk group just the other day.” cxv By referring to African Americans as “coons,” Sunraider not only reduces them to non- humans but also implies that blacks are prone to criminal behavior. “Coon” is known as a derogatory term for African Americans, and is similar to the n-word. Its origins are traced back to a shortened form of the word “raccoon,” used in reference to the animal. The black eye masks and nocturnal habits of the animal paralleled the characteristics of typical robbers and thieves. The stereotype was then applied to black people. It was used extensively in the South, but then followed blacks into the Northern urban areas where they settled. Sunraider complicates matters by linking black possession of Cadillacs to paganism. In Sunraider’s mind, the transition from racial prejudice to religious prejudice was not difficult. At a time when the religious view of life was extremely powerful, it 114 was easy to believe that a religiously different group was inferior. Sunraider exploited this notion as he insulted the black defendants for their racial background and erroneously mapped this contempt on to their religious beliefs. The assassination of Senator Sunraider further highlights the presence of spirituality in the life of people of African descent. An armed black man storms into the Senate chamber and shoots Sunraider, who cries out “Lord, LAWD, WHY HAST THOU…?” cxvi A fatal gunshot wound frames Sunraider as a product of both white and black religious culture. Sunraider’s shift from “Lord” to “Lawd” marks a sudden departure from European customs and signifies a return to African-inspired mores. Under ordinary circumstances such a shift in vocal register probably would not have attracted much attention. However, in this dramatic moment, Sunraider crosses a cultural bridge that he has not travelled for many years. Sunraider is not just calling out to a higher power for deliverance and seeking solace from his heavenly home, but he is also searching for salvation and comfort in his earthly home. Moreover, the shift in vernacular points to a shift in personal identification and recognition. Several pages later, Reverend Hickman stridently proclaims, “Bliss! You were our last hope, Bliss; now Lord have mercy in this dying land!” cxvii By referring to Sunraider as Bliss, Hickman reminds himself of the absolute joy and ecstasy that his adopted son brought him. Sermonic Rhetoric, Church Revivalism, and Ecstatic Behavior (Part I) Bliss developed his spiritual gifts under the most horrific and terrifying circumstances. As a young boy, he was brought into the church through coercive and 115 stressful conditions that would constitute child abuse and endangerment by modern day social service agencies. Bliss recalls his days as a child preacher: I use to lie within, trembling. Breathing through the tube, the hot air and hearing the hypnotic music, the steady moaning beneath the rhythmic clapping hands, trembling as the boys marched me down a thousand aisles on a thousand nights and days. In the dark, trembling in the dark. Lying in the dark. Lying in the dark while his words seemed to fall like drops of rain upon the resonant lid. Until each time just as the shapes seemed to close in upon me, Deacon Wilhite would raise the lid and I’d rise up slowly, as he taught me, with the white Bible between my palms, careful not to disturb my hair on the tufted pink lining. Trembling now, with the true hysteria in my cry: LORD, LORD, WHY HAST THOU….? cxviii The depth of Bliss’s suffering may not be equivalent to Christ’s, but will indeed offer some insight on spirituality and the nature of revelation. This passage is not merely about exposing darkness to light or about cursing the darkness. While Bliss suffered in the interior of a dark casket, he had an out of body experience. Six participles (breathing, hearing, moaning, clapping, lying, and trembling) compellingly illustrate the ecstatic impulses that Bliss felt as he participated in the reenactment of Christ’s resurrection. The belief that Jesus died on the cross and yet was alive after his death is the reason why the New Testament books were written and why Christianity exists. Jesus is most fully revealed on the cross. This suggests that he who is utterly abandoned by all his disciples and seemingly even by God, is truly the Son of God. Jesus’ death becomes the moment of revelation, when the hidden identity of Jesus is made fully known. Through the paradox of the cross the true disciple is able to understand the full meaning of Jesus’ messiahship. The cross not only reveals Jesus’ full identity, but it is also the test of true discipleship. Although Reverend Hickman exposes Bliss to terror in the name of divine glory, he does 116 not recognize the impact of his upbringing until he speaks to Bliss on his deathbed. At one point in his narrative, Hickman reveals that during his days as a blues musician that he not only prepared to abandon Bliss and his mother but he had also actually planned to kill them. By contrast, the suffering of Christ resulted in a sort of abandonment that was not based on fear. The Gospel of Mark anticipates the future as Jesus is confident the Father will raise him from death. Abandoned by his followers, Jesus knows that he will go again to Galilee to gather his scattered flock. There he will lead them in the way of discipleship as they anticipate his return to glory. The desertion of Bliss by Hickman seems cruel and vindictive and predicated upon personal discomfort, while Christ’s departure appears to be routed in faith and hope. In one of his Juneteenth Day deliriums induced by an assassin’s bullet, Bliss again remembers the horrors of ascending from a casket: I could hear the waves of Daddy Hickman’s voice rolling against the sides, then down and back, now to boom suddenly in my ears as I felt the weight of darkness leave my eyes, my face bursting with sweat as I felt the rust of bright air bringing the odor of flowers…I lay there breathing through my nose, deeply inhaling the flowers as I released Teddy’s paw and grasped my white Bible with both hands, feeling the chattering and the real terror beginning and an ache in my bladder….Always at the sound of Daddy Hickman’s voice I came floating up like corpse shaken loose from the bed of a river and the terror rising with me. cxix Most scholars concede that Christ’s resurrection was a positive event affirming that the spirit of Jesus was still alive. However, Bliss’s discomfort during his reenactment of Christ’s resurrection illustrates the darker side of spiritual renewal and ecstatic expression. Bliss utilizes four out of five of the human senses to convey his subjection and “suffering” in the box: the waves of Daddy Hickman’s voice booming (hearing), the 117 weight of darkness leaving his eyes (sight), the odor of flowers (smell), and grasping his white Bible with both hands (touch). Lastly, the simile “floating up like a corpse” punctuates the macabre setting that Bliss recalls. While Teddy the teddy bear and the fragrance of flowers were suppose to offset the booming sound of Hickman’s voice, the chattering, and the ache, Bliss still feels “terror.” The frenzied reaction to Hickman’s rendering of Mark’s account of the death of Jesus Christ illustrates how ecstasy can sweep through an entire congregation. The great cry of Jesus expresses his anguish (Mark 15:33, “Eloo, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). Jesus has been forsaken by all his followers, and now in his final hour he feels the depth of abandonment in even the absence of God. Judging by the response from Hickman’s flock, people were “gittin happy” and genuinely moved by the message: Bliss’s throat ached with the building excitement of it all. He could feel the Word working in the crowd now, boiling in the heat of the Word and the weather. Women were shouting and leaping up suddenly to collapse back into their chairs, and far back in the dark he could see someone dressed in white leaping into the air with outflung arms, going up then down – over backwards and up and down again, in a swooning motion which made her seem to float in the air stirred by the agitated movement of women’s palm-leaf fans. It was long past the time for him to preach Saint Mark, but each time he cried Lord, Lord, they shouted and screamed all the louder. Across the platform now he could see Deacon Wilhite lean against the lectern shaking his head, his lips pursed against his great emotion. While behind him, the great preachers in their high- backed chairs thundered out deep staccato amens, he tried to see the back of the tent, back where the seams in the ribbed white cloth curved down and were tied in a roll; past where the congregation strained forward or sat rigid in holy transfixion, seeing here and there the hard, bright disks of eyeglasses glittering in the hot, yellow light of lanterns and flares. The faces were rapt and owllike, gleaming with heat and Daddy Hickman’s hot interpretation of the Word… cxx 118 Sermonic Rhetoric, the Movies, and Charismatic Expression When Bliss left home and entered the film industry, he did not leave behind all of his church roots. Film is a unique form of mass communication with its own rules, a separate language, and a distinct set of artistic techniques. The magic of the silver screen always fascinated Bliss: “Then it happened, I went out of me, up and around like a butterfly in a curve of flight and there was moss in the trees and a single bird flipped its tail and flew up and away, and I was drawn through the wall and into the action…” cxxi The out of body experience associated with trips to the movies transformed Bliss’s spirit in a way that numerous reenactments of the resurrection of Jesus Christ did not. Ultimately, Bliss left Daddy Hickman and the world of the travelling church revivals and travelled to Hollywood. Nevertheless, the charisma and zeal that Bliss developed as a child preacher followed him in his pursuit as a filmmaker. Consider the following passage where Bliss directs one his protégés during a shoot: “Donelson, you can do anything that you really try. In the beginning is the image. Use your imagination, man. Imagine a nation. New. Look into the camera’s omniscient eye, there’s a magic in it… cxxii The speech that Bliss gives to Donelson suggests one can take the preacher out of the church but not the church out of the preacher. Of all the twentieth-century innovations in the communications media, none was more influential than the technological breakthrough that brought moving images to the silver screen. Before long, the entrepreneurs who had developed this new medium and the aggressive businessmen who saw the potential of the mass market found ways to tap the interests, hopes, and desires of first a working-class audience and then a broader middle-class clientele, both of whom 119 embraced the movies as the democratic art they became. The result was the motion picture industry’s emergence as the purveyor of a product that, like none other, touched the innermost thoughts and dreams of an immense moviegoing public. Here the book of Genesis informs and inspires Bliss’s response to Donelson. In Genesis 1:26 God says, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” Although men were created in the image of God, they do not possess any of God’s nontransferable or incommunicable attributes – such as self-existence, immutability, eternality, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, and absolute sovereignty. God is eternal (Psalm 90:2) but man was created at a point in time (Genesis 1:26-31; cf. Job 3; 38:4, 21) and has but a brief existence on earth (Job 7) cxxiii . God has life in Himself (John 5:26), but man is dependent on God to sustain (Acts 17:28). God is all-powerful (Job 42:2) cxxiv , but man is weak (1 Corinthians 1:25) cxxv . God is all-knowing (Isaiah 40:13, 14; Psalm 147:5), but man is limited in knowledge (Isaiah 55:8, 9). cxxvi God is everywhere present (Jeremiah 23:23, 24), cxxvii but humans are confined to a single space at a time (Psalm 139: 1-12). cxxviii Nevertheless, this does not prevent Bliss from thinking about new and creative ways about the process by which film is learned and understood. To a certain extent, Bliss suggests that filmmakers are God-like in their craft and creations. Just as creation in Genesis was based upon order and regularity under the sovereign power of God, Bliss maintains that the same power may be harnessed in the creation of art (i.e., film). The book of Genesis implies all things that exist or come into being do so as a consequence of God’s word and act. Humans are created “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27), which may mean “corresponding to God” or “in the shadow of God.” However, this scene shows how the 120 movie industry has undermined Bliss’s Christian upbringing and altered his view of the world. As a filmmaker, Bliss sidesteps his church revivalist training and embraces the magic of cinematography. Along the way, Bliss exchanges the truth and knowledge he received from the Bible for the technological wonderment and seduction of the camera. Consequently, Bliss conceives the relationship between nation, image, and imagination as predicated upon man’s interaction with film. Put more succinctly, for Bliss it is no longer one nation under God, but one nation under the camera. Hickman had warned Bliss about the corruption and seductive ruse of the movies and the entertainment industry: Too much looking at those pictures is going to have a lot of folks raising a crop of confusion….Because folks are getting themselves mixed up with those shadows spread out against the wall, with people that are no more than smoke drifting up from hell or pouring out of a bottle. So they lose touch with who they’re suppose to be, Bliss. They forget to be what the Book tells them they were meant to be – and that’s in God’s own image. The preacher’s job, his main job, Bliss, is to help folks find themselves and to keep reminding them to remember who they are. So you see, those pictures can go against our purpose. If they look at those shows too often they’ll get all mixed up with so many of those shadows that they’ll lose their way. They won’t know who they are is what I mean… cxxix Hickman believed that films were not always substantive reflections and were primarily illusions of human activity. From Hickman’s point of view, films separated man from God. As a clergyman, Hickman was not ready to surrender his will to “shadows spread out against the wall.” If people wanted to be “mixed up” with something, he believed it should be the Bible. In the Christian tradition, the Bible serves as the foundation for living a good life. From the first traditional stories of faith which tell what God did, to the towering words of the prophets which relate what God said, there is a recurring theme of God’s impelling and gracious initiative. Ultimately, Hickman understood his task as to 121 help people discover who they are and whose they are (i.e., enable them to see themselves as a reflection of God and to show them that Jesus Christ is the true source of eternal life). Sermonic Rhetoric, Church Revivalism, and Ecstatic Behavior (Part II) The theme regarding the relationship between the image of man and god re- emerges as Bliss preached in the manner of Reverend Eatmore, a fiery travelling preacher. Far from being a reproduction of God, humanity is more correctly portrayed as a reflection of God. Human beings created in God’s image simply means that they share, in a finite and imperfect way, the communicable attributes of God. Among these attributes are personality, spirituality (John 4:24), rationality, including knowledge and wisdom (Colossians 3:10), and morality, including goodness, holiness, righteousness, love, justice, and mercy (Ephesians 4:24). These attributes in turn give us the capacity to enjoy fellowship with God and to develop personal relationships with one another. They also equip us to “carry out God’s will…that man tend and rule the creation in such a way that it would come to realize its full potential.” cxxx Theologian Millard Erickson summed it up nicely when he wrote that “the image of God in humanity comprises those qualities of God which, reflected in man, make worship, personal interaction, and work possible.” cxxxi In the following passage, Bliss gives a sermon on the power of god’s images as it relates to the development of African American spiritual sensibilities: For although in his pride, Man had sacrificed whole generations of forests and beasts and birds, and though in the terror of his pride he had raised himself up a few inches higher than the animals, he was moved, despite himself he was moved a bit closer, I say to the image of what God intended him to be. Yes. And though no savior in heathen form had yet come to redeem him, God in His infinite mercy looked down upon His 122 handiwork, looked down at the clouds of smoke, looked down upon the charred vegetation, looked down at the fire-shrunk seas with all that broiled fish, looked down at the bleached bones piled past where Man had fled, looked down upon all that sizzling meat and natural gravy, parched barley, boiled roasting-ears and mustard greens…. Yes, He looked down and said, Even so, My work is good; man knows now that he can’t handle unleashed hell without suffering self-destruction! The time will come to pass when he shall forget it, but now I will give him a few billion years to grow, to shape his hand with toil and to discover a use of his marvelous thumb for other than pushing out the eyes of his fellow man. After all, I put a heap of work into that thumb of Man. And he’ll learn that his index and second fingers are meant for something other than playing the game of stink-finger and pulling his bow. I’ll give him time, time to surrender the ways of the beasts to the beasts, time to raise himself upright and arch his back and swing his legs. I shall give him time to learn to look straight forward and unblinking out of his eyes and to study the movement of the constellations without disrespecting. My essential mystery, My prerogatives, My decision. Yes, it will take him a few billion years before he’ll discover pork chops and perhaps two more for fried chicken. It will take him time and much effort to learn the taste of roast beef and baked yams and those apples he shall name Mack and Tosh. cxxxii The rhythm and structure of Bliss’s sermon reflects an African American interpretation of Genesis and God’s creation of the world. By referencing soul food (i.e., pork chops, fried chicken, roast beef, and yams), Bliss not only humanizes black people but also celebrates their sense of humor. Drawing upon the talent of Reverend Eatmore, an itinerant preacher who “was a joke to some but a smart wordsman just the same” and “knew the fundamental fact, that you must speak to the gut as well as to the heart and brain,” cxxxiii Bliss shows that people of African descent are indeed civilized and can think on their own and create amazing things. Epiphany, Charismatic Expression, and Ecstatic Behavior In conceptualizing African American spirituality, epiphany emerges as a useful term for mapping out charismatic and ecstatic expression. Epiphany literally means “a 123 manifestation.” Traditionally, Christianity used the word to signify a manifestation of God’s presence in the world. cxxxiv More generically, it is an instance or moment of revelation. cxxxv With respect to Juneteenth, the dramatic and startling moments which seemed to have heightened significance are connected to Bliss and Reverend Hickman struggling with the flesh and spirit. Consider the following scene where Bliss recalls one his resurrection performances: Maybe it was the weight of the darkness, the tomb in such close juxtaposition with the womb. I was so small that after preaching the sermons you taught me and feeling the yawning of that internal and mysterious power which I could release with my treble pantomime….Oh you were a wonder, if only in quantitative terms. All the thousands that you touched. Truly a wonder, yes. I guess it was just too much for me. I could set off all that wild exaltation, the rending of veils, the grown women thrown into trances; screaming, tearing their clothing. All that great inarticulate moaning and struggle against what they called the flesh as they walked the floor; up and down those aisles of straining bodies; flinging themselves upon the mourners’ bench, or rolling on the floor calling their God – didn’t you realize that afterwards when they surrounded and lifted me up, the heat was still in them? That I could smell the sweat of male and female mystery? cxxxvi The reenactment of Christ’s resurrection was indeed a dizzying experience. The womb/tomb dyad compellingly captures the intense ambivalence of a terrorized young man. As Bliss played the part of Jesus, rising from the dead, he became more aware of his dramatic impact on the congregation whose bodies were touched or possessed by the Holy Spirit. However, he did not quite understand everything that was going on around him. The wonder of it all seemed to be beyond Bliss’s comprehension, especially as he describes the moaning as “inarticulate.” Bliss was the source of ecstatic whimsy as he “set off all that wild exaltation.” While the experience left him with more questions than answers (“Didn’t you think of what might be happening to me? I was bewitched and 124 repelled by my own effects. I couldn’t understand my creation. Didn’t you realize that you’d trapped me in the dead-center between flesh and spirit, and that at my age they were both ridiculous…?” cxxxvii ), Bliss did begin to suspect that Hickman may be a charlatan and a hypocrite (“Oh you were a wonder, if only in quantitative terms”). The epiphany that Bliss has here is that Hickman was not only putting on a show for his flock but was also deceiving his own “son” about his birth. In other words, Bliss realized that Hickman did not practice what he preached. Hickman can preach about the wonder and glory of God’s creation. However, when it comes to taking responsibility for his own creation, Hickman falls a bit short. This could very well explain why “the sweat of male and female mystery” continues to elude Bliss until he spends the night with Sister Georgia: Then it was as though a hand had reached down and held him, forcing him to look at her once more, and before he realized it he was looking at the hem of her gown resting high across her round, wide-spread thighs. I’ve got to get out of here, he thought. I got to move. But suddenly he was caught between the movement of his body and the new idea welling swiftly in his mind, feeling his foot dangling over the side of the bed while in the dreamlike, underwater dimness of the light, he seemed to be looking across a narrow passage into a strange room where another, bolder Bliss was about to perform some frightful deed. No, he thought, no no! seeing his own hand reaching out like a small white paw to where the hem of her nightgown lay rumpled upon the sheet, and lifting it slowly back, stealthily, cunningly, as though he had done so many times before, lifting it up and back. He watched from far back in a corner of his mind, disbelieving even as he saw the gauzelike cloth lifted like a mosquito net above a baby’s crib – then he had crossed the passage and was there with the other Bliss, peering down at what he had uncovered, peering into the shadow of the mystery… cxxxviii By witnessing and exposing the nakedness of Sister Georgia, Bliss felt as if he had an out of body experience. Just as the reenactments of Christ’s resurrection had trapped Bliss 125 between flesh and spirit, sleeping with Sister Georgia had produced the same result. The italicized “I’ve got to get out of here,” “I got to move” and “No…no, no” captures Bliss’s conflict and dilemma. Just as Satan tempts Jesus three times (to turn stones into bread, to jump from the top of the Temple in Jerusalem, and to worship him instead of God), Sister Georgia tempts Bliss three times. While Jesus replies to each temptation with words quoted from the Bible, cxxxix proving his total devotion to God and his rejection of temptation, Bliss surrenders to his temptations. Here Ellison shows that intelligence and free will represent marks of dignity that distinguish man (i.e., mankind) from all other forms of creation. Intelligence enables man to know right from wrong, and free will makes it possible for him to choose between good and evil. However, Ellison may also be alluding to a second account of man’s creation that is given in Genesis 2:4b-3:24, an earlier story where man means the male, referring to Adam, and his wife, Eve. As the tale goes, Eve ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge because she was told that her eyes would be opened, to make her like God, knowing good and evil, and she gave the fruit to Adam. They saw they were naked and sewed fig leaves together to make loincloths. In Ellison’s narrative, Bliss adopts the role of Adam while Sister Georgia takes on the role of Eve. Bliss’s epiphany regarding his encounter with Sister Georgia emerges from the gospel of the Old Testament. Bliss seems to realize the depth of his sin by recalling an indiscretion of Noah: “… A naked, roaring drunk Noah stumbled up waving a jug of corn whiskey and cursing in vehement silence while two younger men fought with another trying to cover his head with a quilt of many colored cloth…” cxl While Noah is best 126 known as the survivor of the Flood and for his righteousness and obedience to God, he is also connected to drunkenness and nakedness. Once upon a time, an inexperienced Noah was found drunk in his tent by his son Ham, who then tells Noah’s other sons Shem and Japheth, who covered up Noah’s nakedness. Ham is cursed for seeing his father’s nakedness – the others are careful to walk into the tent backward. In the narrative, Ellison suggests that the price that Bliss pays for seeing Sister Georgia naked is that he is kept in the dark for most of his life about human sexuality and the true circumstances of his birth. At the end of this scene, Bliss pretends that Sister Georgia did not resolve his curiosity and playfully, yet plaintively asks Sister Georgia, “are you a lady or a girl?” cxli and she responds, “I’m a woman.” cxlii Bliss appears to feel sorry for what he did by saying, “maybe if you’re girl what I did isn’t so bad.” cxliii However, the first paragraph of the next chapter undercuts his sincerity and repentance: He looked at the cooking stove, dull black with shining nickel parts around the bottom made in the shape of scrolls. They’re the same shape as the scrolls on the lid of my coffin, he thought. Why do they put scrolls on everything? Sister Wilhite’s sewing machine has scrolls made into the iron part where her feet go to pedal and it has scrolls painted in gold in the long shining block that holds the shiny wheel and the needle. Scrolls on everything. People don’t have scrolls though. But maybe you just can’t see them. Sister Georgia….Scroll, Scroll Jellyroll…That’s a good rhyme – but sinful…Jellyroll. cxliv As a child raided in a predominantly Africans American environment, Bliss was learning to retain hope in the midst of hopelessness through humor. Whimsically, Bliss realizes that life may be bitter and sweet at the same time. As Bliss compares scrolls to everything around him, especially to the ones on his casket, he embodies the wit, spontaneity and improvisation of a bluesman. For twentieth-century bluesmen, a jelly roll was never just a 127 pastry. “Jelly Roll” was slang for the male sexual organ, and its use exemplified a singer’s promiscuity. Here Ellison draws upon the blues tradition of erotic play and naughty references not simply to allude to Bliss’s sexual prowess. By using the traditional signifying processes of the blues, Ellison recognizes Bliss’s sinful ways, yet provides comic relief in an otherwise tense situation. The sexually suggestive double- entendre of “jelly roll” firmly positions Bliss as a child who was deeply influenced by the blues lifestyle. Toward the end of the novel, Ellison uses Bliss’s reaction to a fallen pigeon as a way to comment on the pernicious nature of racism in post World War II America as well as to highlight Bliss’s ongoing epiphanies. Lapsing into and out of consciousness, Bliss experiences transcendence that does not occur within the confines of a church or revival meeting. Consider the scene where he witnesses a pigeon shoot in Oklahoma City. A fat man in a white deerstalker hat derisively refers to one of the escaping pigeons as, “A malicious nigger in the woodpile!” cxlv As the situation unfolds, Bliss closely identifies with the plight of the fleeing bird: Watching the pigeon’s progress, the Senator felt that he was suffocating. He felt responsible for the pigeon’s life but was unable to do a thing about it…. cxlvi Ellison takes this opportunity to remind the reader that the social and cultural destiny of the nation is inexplicably linked to the actions and motivations of Bliss. By identifying with the injured bird, Bliss not only affirms the humanity of African Americans in a society that has used and abused them for its own purposes while erasing them from its history, but he also recognizes his own diverse heritage. As Robert J. Butler writes, “In this epiphany Sunraider finally acknowledges his mixed racial origins – he too 128 has been a ‘nigger in the woodpile’ who has been flushed from his cover and ‘shot’ as he tries to fly away from his origins.” cxlvii Moreover, this scene reminds the reader of the moment that Bliss, who is presently known as Sunraider, was shot on the Senate floor: As the bird dropped from sight the Senator seemed to fall within himself as he struggled to keep his feet... cxlviii Hickman’s epiphanies are just as illuminating as Bliss’s, poignantly capturing the rich encounters of both the sacred and secular realms. Hickman revels in the perplexities of the relationship between the spirit and flesh, asserting that reconciliation of these two forces is possible. Consider the chiastic sequence of words that highlights Hickman’s commitment to Old Testament values: “The spirit is the flesh, Bliss, just as the flesh is the spirit under the right conditions. They are bound together. At least nobody has yet been able to get at one without the other…” cxlix Hickman’s belief in restoring the balance between flesh and spirit is firmly rooted in the book of Genesis. Genesis tells the story of creation and the derivation of all life from God. Human life begins in harmony with God, but relationships begin to break down. God regrets the creation but sets about the work of repair and healing. Ellison alludes to the book of Genesis to show that the relationship between Hickman and Bliss was just as chaotic and unbalanced as the creation of the world. At this point in the narrative, Hickman has not revealed explicitly how Bliss was born. However, through this biblical allusion, Ellison foreshadows the tangled set of circumstances that surrounded Bliss’s birth and upbringing. The book of Genesis presents the world as an arena of opportunity, where the chances of delight and goodness are matched by the choices that take humans far from God and from one another. When 129 Hickman utters, “Yes, but you gave me the pleasure, Bliss. You made me feel I wasn’t a fraud,” cl he confesses that raising Bliss as his own enabled him to feel that his transformation from a travelling bluesman to an itinerant preacher was real and had a purpose. Put another way, the epiphany that Hickman has here is that he is more than a showman and a performer. Creation in the Bible meant much more than bringing something into being. It also meant sustaining and caring for that which has been created. Hickman realizes that Bliss gave him a second chance at life. By taking care of Bliss, Hickman was able to end his rambling ways, settle down, and be a father. Bliss brought extreme happiness and joy to Hickman in that he reminded him of both his spiritual and moral obligations. This scene is also a commentary on the resurrection of Jesus Christ and Hickman’s search for salvation. On Easter Christians celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, an event that makes it possible for people to trust in who Jesus was, experience a new beginning, receive power for living, and look to the future with hope. The whole point of the resurrection is that God can resurrect anyone’s life. God can take one’s life, and no matter where one is or has been, he can give one a new beginning. The Bible says, “Just as Christ was raised from the dead…we too may have a new life” (Romans 6:4). The assumption here is that God wants to take past mistakes, past failures, even past sins, and give people a new beginning. The resurrection of Jesus Christ matters to Hickman because it offers him an opportunity to change - his life and Bliss’s – for the better. In effect, he was reminding himself and Bliss and destructive patterns of behavior can be overcome and parenting challenges can be met. 130 Ellison also utilizes sermonic dialogue not only to capture the universal mercy of God and illustrate the power of repentance but also to pass on information and lessons from one generation to the next. He employs sermons as to show that folklore represents a powerful way of conveying extremely profound beliefs about the nature of the world that human inhabit. Consider how Ellison uses Hickman and Bliss to reenact the tale of Jonah and the whale: Amen! Rev. Bliss, amen. God must have wept like Jesus. Poor Jonah went down into the belly of the whale, but compared to our journey his was like a trip to paradise on a silvery cloud. Worse than old Jonah, Rev. Hickman? Worse than Jonah slicked all over with whale puke and gasping in the shore. We went down into hell on those floating coffins and don’t you youngsters forget it! Mothers and babies, men and women, the living and the dead and the dying – all chained together. And yet, praise God, most of us arrived here in this land. The strongest came through. Thank God, and we arrived and that’s why we’re here today… cli The average person knows that, according to the story, Jonah was swallowed by a “whale” (the Bible speaks only of “a large fish” [Jonah 1:17], but popularly it has been called a whale), and that after three days he came forth from its stomach alive and unharmed. Individuals being swallowed by sea monsters and surviving are a common theme in folklore. However, such tales lead us to question the reasons why these people survived. Ellison shows that folklore may be of great value in preserving the truths and insights about people’s knowledge of God and of the world around them. Ellison draws upon the narrative of Jonah and the whale to remind blacks of the horrors and triumphs of the Middle Passage. Jonah’s trip into the whale and the journey of Africans to the New World while comparable in some ways were also significantly different in other ways. Jonah’s story concerns an unwilling prophet who runs from God and the miraculous 131 repentance of a whole city of foreigners. Jonah is told by God to prophesy against Nineveh, and he flees to Tarshish on a ship. While Jonah sleeps, a storm rages; the pagan sailors are afraid and pray unsuccessfully to their gods. The captain wakes Jonah and asks him to call upon his God to save them. The sailors cast lots to discover the cause of the evil, and the lot falls on Jonah, who admits his responsibility for the storm. Jonah suggests they throw him overboard; when they do, the sea is calmed and they are converted to Jonah’s God. God sends a fish to save Jonah by swallowing him whole, and he delivers to God a psalm of thanksgiving from the belly of the fish. At God’s word, the whale spews Jonah out onto dry land. God again instructs Jonah to proclaim the message to Nineveh, and he obeys. For people of African descent, the whale was in the form of “floating coffins,” referring to ships that carried black slaves to the Americas. Chained together by twos, hands and feet, slaves had no room to move about and no freedom to exercise their bodies even in the slightest. The “hell” that Hickman was addressing in his sermon with Bliss consisted of the filth and stench caused by close quarters. Crowded conditions on the vessels also greatly increased the incidence of disease and epidemics during the voyage to the Americas. If they did not die of disease or commit suicide by jumping overboard, some slaves were permanently disabled by the ravages of starvation and hunger. Nevertheless, through the protection and deliverance of God both Jonah and black slaves survived. The preaching that takes place between Hickman and Bliss also creates the impression that drums and drumming are important to African culture. Drums are 132 important to understanding ecstatic expression among people of African descent because they spiritual dialogue possible. Drummers talk with their drums – not only the well known “talking drums,” whose hourglass shape allows squeezing the cords between the heads for infinite pitch variation – but any drums. Drummers play greetings to the town square before a dance begins, greetings to the host of the dance, praise and thanks to prominent members of the community, praise for good dancing. These are not just signals, but replications on the drum rhythm and tonal patterns of the spoken phrases. Consider the section of the Juneteenth sermon where Bliss helps Hickman tells a crowd about the cultural significance and power of drums: …They took away our talking drums… …Drums that talked, Daddy Hickman? Tell us about those talking drums… Drums that talked like a telegraph Drums that could reach across the country like a church bell sound. Drums that told the news almost before it happened! Drums that spoke with big voices like big men! Drums like a conscience and a deep heartbeat that knew right from wrong. Drums that told glad tidings! Drums that sent the news of trouble speeding home! Drums that told us our time and told us where we were. Those were some drums, Rev. Hickman… …Yes, and they took those drums away... clii The call and response between Bliss and Hickman underscores ancestral roots and pathways of African spirituality. The sermon reveals that black people were superb drummers, and adept at extemporization, not just memorization. The back and forth between father and son in this sermon works in the same manner as a polyrhythm of a drum, intertwined to form a composite whole. The repetition of the word “drums” represents a type of time-keeping, marking the beats and pitches of actual drums. Hickman and Bliss’s voices acted as talking drums, summoning the past and present 133 history of black people’s agony and ecstasy. The question-answer sequence represents an extrovert and forceful exchange, with Bliss setting his adopted father up with a smooth, direct question and/or leading comment and Hickman coming back with an impassioned, yet measured remark for his adopted son. The choreography here is part planned, part rehearsed. Nonetheless, the performance seems not only seamless and effortless but also sonic and soulful as well. With a sentence such as “Drums that told us our time and told us where we were” Ellison punctuates sound and sense, capturing the faith and conviction of black folks, even in the face of struggle. When Africans arrived in the New World, they were deprived of their drums. Music scholar Eileen Southern observes, “Slaveholders were well aware of the African tradition of ‘talking instruments,’ and made every effort to eliminate that sources of secret communication among the slaves.” cliii The significance of Jerusalem went far beyond its geographical site. For Jews and Christians alike it symbolized a place of hope, where God and humanity would dwell together. Isaiah 2 promises a restoration of the city when the world will stream to Mount Zion – a reference to the hill south of the old city walls. Paul compares the earthly city with a heavenly Jerusalem representing those who are part of the Covenant that God makes with human through God’s son, Jesus Christ (cf. Hebrews 12:22 and Revelations 21). However, in African American folklore Jerusalem symbolizes faith for a better tomorrow as evidenced in the following back and forth exchange between Hickman and Bliss during the Juneteenth sermon: Shouting, Amen, Daddy Hickman, is this the way we walked? Oh we walked through Jerusalem, just like John – That’s it, Rev. Bliss, walk! Show them how we walked! Was this the way? 134 That’s the way. Now walk on back. Lift your knees! Swing your arms! Make your coattails fly! Walk! And him strutting me three times around the pulpit across the platform and back. Ah, yes! And then his voice deep and exultant: And if they ask you in the city why we praise the Lord with bass drums and bass trombones tell them we were rebirthed dancing, we were rebirthed crying affirmation of the Word, quickening our transcended flesh. Amen! Oh, Rev. Bliss, we stamped our feet at the trumpet’s sound and we clapped our hands, ah, in joy! And we moved, yes, together in a dance, amen! Because we had received a new song in a new land and had been resurrected by the Word and the Will of God! Amen! …We were rebirthed from the earth of this land and revivified by the Word. So now we had a new language and a brand-new song to put flesh on our bones… cliv The charismatic expression displayed by Hickman and Bliss reflects the readiness of blacks to enter metaphorically into a new Jerusalem referenced in the book of Revelation, in which the tables are suddenly turned, with those who have formerly been oppressed now occupying their rightful places in a world in which the have-nots are finally recognized as worthy of honor. With this passage, Ellison suggests that blacks were not cut off from the rich artistic heritage of Africa for too long. He implies that African Americans achieved a great deal in the face of numerous obstacles. Through the dialogue between Hickman and Bliss, Ellison conveys how black folks promoted ethnic awareness and pride in their movement and rhythm. The “rebirth” of African Americans took place not only through music and dance but also through religion and spiritual practice. When Hickman proclaims, “Because we had received a new song in a new land and had been resurrected by the Word and the Will of God!” he reminds Juneteenth observers that the first Africans who arrived on North American shores brought their own religious world views with them. A few pages later, Hickman picks up where he left off, emphasizing 135 how blacks in America should be proud of their past, persevere in the present, and welcome the future: We know where we are by the way we walk. We know where we are by the way we talk. We know where we are by the way we sing. We know where we are by the way we praise the Lord on high. We know where we are because we hear a different tune in our minds and in our hearts. We know who we are because when we make the beat of our rhythm to shape our day the whole land says Amen! It smiles, Rev. Bliss, and it moves to our time! Don’t be ashamed, my brothers! Don’t be cowed. Don’t throw what you have away! Continue! Remember! Believe! Trust the inner beat that tells us who we are. Trust God and trust life and trust this land that is you. clv Hickman’s use of the first personal plural suggests that group solidarity deeply shaped the consciousness of black people. The close succession and the repetition of “we know” create the sense that knowledge is not simply personal for African Americans but connects back to the group. African Americans know who they and whose they are by the way they walk, talk, and sing. Hickman clearly communicates that black folks have pride and self-respect for themselves. He believes that African Americans walk and talk with their heads held high because they have walked with their heads bowed too long and talked as if they were frightened by someone other than God. Moreover, Hickman suggests that blacks should reinforce one another’s values, as if they were testifying in church. He uses three negative imperatives (“Don’t be ashamed,” “Don’t be cowed” and “Don’t throw what you have away!”) to discourage African Americans from have low self-esteem and follows this with three positive imperatives (“Continue!” “Remember!” and “Believe!”) to build up the resolve of African Americans. Lastly Hickman exhorts the crowd to “Trust God and trust this land that is you,” suggesting that black people have faith and be true to the land that they helped to make. Through Hickman, Ellison 136 encourages African Americans to step out on faith – to be strident and unapologetic about who they are and whose they are. Hickman’s meditation on soul food and the survival of African American culture adds to the present discussion on charismatic expression. Soul food was not just food such as ham hocks and collard greens traditionally eaten by Southern American black people. Consider the following excerpt from Hickman’s Juneteenth sermon that situates soul food as an integral part of the religious experience of African Americans: …We learned that all blessings come mixed with sorrow and all hardships have a streak of laughter. Life is a streak-a-lean – a streak-a-fat. Ha, yes! We learned to bounce back and to disregard the prizes of fools. And we must keep on learning. Let them have their fun. Even let them eat hummingbirds’ wings and tell you it’s too good for you. –Grits and greens don’t turn to ashes in anybody’s mouth – how about it, Rev. Eatmore? Amen? Amen! Let everybody say amen. Grits and greens are humble but they make you strong and when the right folks get together to share they can taste like ambrosia. So draw, so let us draw our own wells of strength. clvi From Hickman’s perspective, soul food placed black people in touch with themselves and their culture. Hickman reminds his audience that African Americans struggled day to day to make it in the New World. Even food was not easy to secure. When Hickman says, “Life is a streak-a-lean, a streak-a-fat” and “We learned to bounce back and to disregard the prizes of fools,” he recreates through metaphor the cuisine developed by Africans, a cuisine fashioned from the meager ingredients available to the slave and sharecropper black families. The meat used was usually the least desirable cuts and the vegetables, some bordering on weeds, were all that was available for the black slaves to prepare nutritious meals for their families. From these meager ingredients evolved a cuisine that was simple yet hearty and delicious. Moreover, colorful phrases such as “sorrow and 137 hardship have a streak of laughter” and “Ha, yes!” poignantly capture the spiritual humor as well as signifies the resilience and strength of black folks. Grits and greens were humbling because such food may seem scant, but in fact these items kept the stomachs of blacks full so they would not starve and die. Furthermore, Hickman suggests grits and greens were not only sources of energy for the body but also fuel for regenerating and preserving black folks. Just as ambrosia conferred immortality to Greek and Roman gods, grits and greens conferred immortality to the black community of the United States. Hickman celebrates the faith of African Americans to take a bad situation and transform it into something positive and edifying. In a sense, Ellison implies that the consumption of grits by African Americans parallels the grit, or indomitable spirit of the black family. Although Reverend Eatmore does not speak directly to any character in the novel, his spiritual philosophy animates and informs Hickman’s approach to preaching the Word. From Hickman, the reader receives a very vivid picture of how Eatmore conducted himself in the pulpit: “…Eatmore was romping and rampaging and walking through Jerusalem just like John! …That mister was ten thousand misters and his voice was pure gold. …That Negro was always a master, but that evening he was an inspired master….” clvii As a revivalist preacher, Eatmore embodied the passion and charisma of a gifted public speaker who cared deeply about the word of God. A few pages later in the narrative, Hickman continued to express his zeal for soul food in a discussion regarding the festivities of the Juneteenth Day festival: Lord, we et up to fifteen hundred loaves of sandwich bread; five hundred pounds of catfish and snapper; fifteen gallons of hot sauce, Mr. Double- Jointed Jackson’s formula; nine hundred pounds of barbecue ribs; eighty- five hams, direct from Virginia; fifty pounds of potato salad and a whole 138 big cabbage patch of coleslaw. Yes, and enough frying-size chicken to feed the multitude! And let’s not mention the butter beans – naw! And don’t talk about the fresh young roasting-ears and the watermelons. Neither the fried pies, chocolate cakes and homemade ice cream… clviii Indeed, Hickman truly believed that there was an intimate relationship between soul food, the body, and the spirit as they relate to the well being of African Americans. This passage illustrates that the church was not the primary place that black people attend to nourish their spirit and reinvigorate their soul. While soul food serves as intricate part of the fellowship of some black parishes, its consumption outside of the black church was just as important and fulfilled the same function. Ellison shows that black people did not necessarily have to go to church to know their God and express their spirituality. The sharing of soul food demonstrates the resolution and fortitude of African Americans to forge communal ties…with or without the facilitation of the black church. In describing the communal aspect of soul food, Hickman states, “…I’m not just talking about eating. I mean the communion, the coming together - of which the eating was only a part; an outward manifestation, a symbol, like the Blood is signified by the wine, and the Flesh by the bread… Ah yes, boy, we filled their bellies, but we were really there to fill their souls and give them reassurance – and we filled them.” clix By extension, in biblical times, meals meant more than just eating food: they were important in Jewish life, and in Jesus’ ministry as a celebration of God’s sustenance and saving presence (Mark 2:18-20; 6:31- 44; 8:1-10; Luke 7:31-35). Meals were also seen as a tangible demonstration of God’s acceptance of and reconciliation with humankind, and they signified a foretaste of the abundant blessings that communion with God would one day yield. In particular, the Last Supper was as an occasion when the Christian church remembers how the risen Jesus 139 broke bread with his disciples (Luke 24:30-31), and how the Church “feeds” on him by faith and so has communion with Jesus. Preaching is no task for the timid or the faint of heart. Consider what a preacher affirms when he comes to his pulpit to preach. Preaching with all its variations ultimately rests upon the claim that preachers can know what God is and what a man or woman may become. The preacher claims to know the will and word of God and to proclaim it in relation to the options and situations of his time. The three passages taken from Junteenth will prove this point. The preached word is the heard word and each hears with his own experience. The preacher must take into account that he is engaged not in monologue but in a conversation. At points in his preaching his sermon needs to reflect the reaction of those to whom he is preaching. This is an important part of the sensitivity of the preacher. He must show that he knows the hearer and as well as the word. Not only must he be aware of God’s disclosure, but he must also be sensitive to the acceptances and resistances which are in the listener. So the worshiper must feel that in the preacher he (or she, as the first case indicates) too has a voice. He (or she) should feel an active part of the conversation, a subject acting, not an object acted upon. Consider the following incident that Hickman recalls from his days as an itinerant preacher: And lots of unbelievers were there too; there just to hear those big Negroes preach. Ha! Some of them thought they came out there to hear a preaching contest – which was all right because when the good ones at anything get together there is just naturally going to be battle. Men who love the Word are concerned with the way they preach it, that’s how the glory comes shining through…Oh, but we caught our share of those who thought we were nothing but entertainers. Reveren Eubanks got aroused there one evening and started to preaching up under some sinner women’s 140 clothes and brought ‘em in like fish in a net. One got so filled up with the spirit she started testifying to some things outrageous that I had to grab my trombone and drown her out. HA! HA!HA! Why she’d have taught them more sin in trying to be saved than they’d have blundered into a whole year of hot Novembers….Sho, I myself preached fifteen into the fold – big gold earrings, blood-red stockings, short skirts, patent-leather shoes and all. Preached them right out of the back of the crowd and down front to the mourners’ bench. Fifteen Magdalenes, Bliss. ‘Fancy who’s in fancy clothes.’ Yes, indeed. Brought them down humbled with hanging heads and steaming eyes and the paint on their faces running all red and pink with tears… clx It is not uncommon for some people to be moved (i.e., “filled up”) by the power and might of a preacher’s words. The maritime simile (“brought ‘em like fish in a net”) that Hickman uses to describe women’s reactions to Reverend Eubanks’s impassioned speaking (“roused” and “preaching up under some sinner women’s clothes”) serves as a wonderful example as to how both preacher and listener respond to one another when the energy is right. Smitherman writes, “Since the traditional black church service is an emotion-packed blend of sacred and secular concerns, informality is the order of the day. It is not a lax, anything-goes kinds of informality, though, for there are traditional rituals to be performed, and codes of proper social conduct must be observed. For instance, if the Spirit moves you, it’s acceptable to get up and testify even though that’s not on the church program.” clxi However, the “battle” was not always between the reverend and his flock. As an observer and participant in a preaching contest, Hickman thought things got a little out of hand in these competitions, even for an experienced clergyman like himself (“I had to grab my trombone and drown her out”). Those who recognize the importance of the intellectual ground of the gospel (i.e., “Men who love the Word” and “are concerned with the way they preach it”) look with great reservations upon preaching 141 which shows much emotion. This was a serious concern for some preachers because there were listeners who thought preachers “were nothing more than entertainers.” However, simply because emotion can become false, contrived, and artificial does not mean preachers should deny deep feeling. When used for its own sake, emotion becomes cheap and unhealthy. But when it comes as a sincere response to the meaning of the gospel, it is cleansing and lifting and a power for good. Preachers believe that our faith is historically grounded. Preachers possess it by going again and again to those special acts of God which are related and interpreted in the Biblical record. A preacher’s faith in God’s immediacy rests upon the recalling of these disclosures of God’s sufficiency. It reflects the confidence that God is acting because he knows that God has acted in the past. Preachers are lifted to a higher level because they have remembered and worshiped God. Consider the following passage where Hickman recalls the Lord speaking to him just before one of his Junteenth sermons: ...Hickman, He said, ‘Rise up on the Word and ride. All time is mine.’ Then He spoke to me low, in the idiom: He said, ‘You just be ready when the deal goes down. And have your people ready. Just be prepared. Now get up there and ride!’ And Bliss, I threw back my head and rode! It was like a riddle or a joke, but if so, it was the Lord’s joke and I was playing it straight. And maybe that’s what a preacher really is, he’s the Lord’s own straight man. clxii It is wondrous what a word can do, for good or for evil. Born in the heart of one man, it finds its place, when well spoken, in the heart of another. And from that seed can come remarkable fruits. A word can enlighten a mind that is darkened, strengthen a will that has grown weak, relive an experience already past, anticipate an experience yet to come. A word can make men hate, or it can awaken love. In short, a word is experience in 142 capsule form, reduced to its essence, imparted to another where it is restored as full experience. On this occasion, Hickman was struggling to find meaning in the experience of Juneteenth. Earlier he had pondered, “What does freedom, what does emancipation mean?” and imagined that the Lord responded, “…the Word has found its flesh and there’s salvation in the Word.” clxiii The dialogue that Hickman imagined he had with the Lord was in part derived from the book of Isaiah, specifically Chapter 60:1: “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.” Here an oracle personifies Jerusalem as a woman, inviting her to wake up, as a person does when the light of a dawning day wakes him or her up from sleep. In the light of the day that is dawning, the oracle invites the city to look into the distance where the darkness of night has not yet been dispelled. Turning its eyes from the distant darkness to the light that surrounds it, Jerusalem is invited to celebrate its salvation. Isaiah’s images present a challenge to the black church. Like Jerusalem, African Americans are called to wake up, to rise from their sleep and reflect the glory of the Lord to those who do not believe, to those who, as it were, live in darkness. Yet Smitherman contends, “The congregation of the sermon requires that Biblical persona be brought to life and the events recast into present-day context. Yet, no matter how contemporary the theme, the congregation expects the message of the sermon to be grounded in Biblical textual reference. At the same time, despite the narration of events far removed from their present world and experience, they expect the preacher to make them feel the spirit. (You ain done no preachin if don’t nobody shout!)” clxiv Nevertheless, the words a preacher uses mean more in the present than when they were first written. They take on meaning by the 143 accumulated experience of those who have lived by them. A part of a preacher’s function is to find words which will convey the essential truth to those who are outside looking in. In a sense the preacher is not unlike the translator who must take the original language and restate the truth in a way which will be understood by the people. Obviously, without words preachers would not be able to impart the Word of God and acknowledge his presence. However, can a preacher know the Word of God and be a funny man too? The preceding passage seems to suggest that this is indeed possible. Spiritual laughter enables people to experience the Word of God and have fun while doing it. Through Hickman and preachers like him, Ellison implies that a healthy part of stepping out on faith includes laughing out loud. The idea of “rising up” and “riding” on the Word of God may sound improbable or even seem awkward at first, but as Hickman takes the time to listen to the reasoning for such action, the notion becomes more understandable and relatable. For a black preacher to instruct his flock to “be ready,” represents an audacity of faith – a willingness to prepare for better and brighter days to come. Another sermon from Hickman on Juneteenth Day illustrates this same approach: I preached them down into silence that night. True, there was preacher pride in it, there always is. Because Eatmore had set such a pace that I had to accept his challenge, but there was more to it too. We had mourned and rejoiced and rejoiced and moaned and he had released the pure agony and raised it to the skies. So I had to give them transcendence. Wasn’t anything left to do but shift to a higher gear. I had to go beyond the singing and the shouting and reach into the territory of the pure unblemished Word. I had to climb up there where fire is so hot it’s ice, and ice so cold it burns like fire. Where the Word was so loud that it was silent, and so silent that it rang like a timeless gong. I had to reach the Word within the Word that was both song and scream and whisper. The Word that was beyond sense but leaping like a tree of flittering birds with its own dictionary of light and meaning.” clxv 144 While the spirit of competition can provide some motivation for animated preaching, it is not enough because the congregation will likely expect more than an entertainer. Sometimes a sermon ceases to be the conveying of a truth and becomes an end in itself. A preacher must have a profound respect for the words he uses. Yet paradoxically he must never come to value words for their own sake. Along the way, silence may make the difference between a preacher carrying his congregation and fostering hope for the future or breaking the momentum of his delivery. Linguist and educational activist Geneva Smitherman observes, “…When the preacher is ‘taking his text’ a hushed silence falls over the whole congregation, and it is most out of order to get up, move around in your seat, talk, or do anything until he finishes this brief ritual in the traditional structure of the sermon.” clxvi She notes that “taking a text” consists of (1) the act of citing the Scriptural reference from which the message of the sermon is to be taken, followed by (2) the reading of the passage, and concluding with (3) a usually cleverly worded statement articulating the “theme” (message) of the sermon. clxvii The term “transcendence” may also have some resonance in the realm of ecstatic expression. When Hickman talks about “transcendence,” he is describing a process by which he channels the Word of God and shares it with his flock. For Hickman, “transcendence” was more than just singing and shouting” and other emotional responses. Hickman draws upon chiastic structures to express the ecstatic state of his flock and convey his urgency to spread the Word of God to his congregation. By reversing mourned and rejoiced, as in “We had mourned and rejoiced and rejoiced and moaned” he captures the extreme, yet deep emotions shared by him and his parishioners. Hickman 145 truly bonds with his flock and expels their tensions as “he had released the pure agony and raised it to the skies.” Moreover, by repeating in reverse order fire and ice, as in “I had to climb up there where fire is so hot it’s ice, and ice so cold it burns like fire,” Hickman not only ratchets his rhetorical mastery but underscores his mission as a spiritual leader. He uses metaphor (“fire is so hot it’s ice”) and simile (“ice so cold it burns like fire”) to create a vivid impression of how daunting and extraordinary his task would be as a preacher. Under ordinary circumstances, ice does not burn and fire does not freeze. However, Hickman brings together extreme elements in nature to show that from chaos emerges order. Lastly, by repeating in reverse order loud and silent, as in “Where the Word was so loud that it was silent, and so silent that it rang like a timeless gong,” Hickman captures the impact of the Word of God by drawing upon the human sense of hearing. Once again he uses metaphor (“the Word was so loud it was silent”) and simile (“so silent that it rang like a timeless gong”) to make his point regarding the magnitude of his work. How can loudness be silent and silence be like a gong? These are not normal occurrences, so to speak. However, for a third time Hickman inverts the natural order of things to stress the power of transcendence. As Smitherman rightly points out, “The preacher knows that his congregation needs guidance in the conduct of daily affairs, as well as spiritual inspiration to keep on pushin. But the interactive communication process puts on him constraints and demands that he must fulfill.” clxviii For Hickman “transcendence” was linked to moving his congregation to a higher, spiritual place. But simply mentioning transcendence in a sermon was not going to suffice. Smitherman asserts, “The rendering of sermons in the traditional black church 146 nearly always involves extended narration as a device to convey the theme. Rarely will black preachers expound their message in the linear fashion of lecture. Rather, the thematic motif is dramatized with gestures, movement, plot, real-life characterization, and circumlocutory rhetorical flourishes. The preacher thus becomes an actor and story- teller in the best since of the word.” clxix In other words, Hickman had to combine dramatic flair with knowledge of God’s Word to create a didactic, lively environment for the delivery of his sermon. Smitherman implies that disengaged preaching which does not address a person in the living situation inevitably becomes dull because it is irrelevant, dealing with no living options. If the gospel is good news, then obviously it ought to be vibrant and pulsating instead deadly and dull. When a preacher makes it clear that a sermon is dealing with the living options which confront a person, the person becomes more invested in the performance. In general, “transcendence” suggests lying beyond the ordinary range of perception. Additionally, through Hickman Ellison seems to be channeling the German idealist philosopher Immanuel Kant. In Kant’s theory of knowledge, transcendence refers to being beyond the limits of experience and hence unknowable. Smitherman’s remarks on the relationship between drama and preaching frame a compelling pathway for understanding ecstatic expression. Indeed, drama can make a sermon interesting. This means in part that in the sermon, as in a drama, there must be a sense of identification felt by those who hear. Yet here emerges an important distinction. It appears that the identification of the listener to the sermon is almost opposite of that of the spectator of a drama. When a drama is effective there is an unmistakable 147 identification of those who view it. As the story unfolds the spectator finds himself, as it were, drawn in and wishes to go on stage to share in the action taking place before him. Unconsciously, if the drama is effective, he increasingly feels with its characters “I am that.” By a kind of empathy he is lifted into the drama to play another’s role for a little while. In a sense, he is lifted out of himself. But consider in contrast the identification in preaching. If a sermon is successful, the worshiper is not lifted out of himself or herself but rather comes into himself or herself. In a sense the identification moves in the reverse direction. Something moves out of the preached word to identify itself with the listener. Thus he is not called to play a role for the time being. He is led to set aside the false roles he has been playing and at last to become himself. He says as the gospel is preached, “That is I.” Drama can be an escape from reality, but preaching is the discovery of it and the return to it. The excitement of dynamic preaching is the awareness that this kind of identification is taking place. When that kind of identification - the gospel with the person and the person with gospel – is taking place, spirituality becomes not just more meaningful, but attractive and profound. Concern for structure, use of emotion, fondness for language, and employment of concrete illustrations all contribute to the art of giving a sermon. A structure that leads the audience effortlessly from one point to the next makes the experience of a sermon more enjoyable and understandable. A sermon that incorporates emotion responsibly enables the audience to feel invested in its outcome. If the language of a sermon is relevant and fresh, this increases the likelihood of an audience to remember its substance long after its 148 delivery. Lastly, illustrations which have integrity and simplicity give a picture by which a truth can be understood (e.g., the soul food references in Hickman’s Junteenth sermon). Also, illustrations offer a chance for peoples’ minds to catch up with the unfolding thought processes of the sermon, providing a helpful cadence in the development of a theme. As in any art, the secret seems to be a balance, a blending of all these into one totality. In effect, sermonizing is an art by which preachers find the form that releases the experience to those who hear. The scene where Hickman lashes out against Bliss’s white mother and conveys his plan for retribution in Biblical terms frames ecstatic expression in a bloody context. As Hickman approaches the white woman who supposedly had something to do with the lynching of his brother, Bob, sacred and secular realms intersect. The Bible takes seriously the behavior between humans, especially as it relates to crimes against human beings. A punitive measure such as the lex talionis, or the law of retaliation (as in Deuteronomy 19:21, “Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot”) may sound severe, but it was originally intended to set a limit on the revenge taken by the injured parties. Drawing upon the juridical precedent of the Old Testament, Hickman expresses his vindictiveness quite forcefully: “Those eyes for Bob’s eyes; that skin for Bob’s flayed skin….And remembering what they had done with their knives, I asked myself, But what can I take that can replace his wasted seed and all that’s now a barbaric souvenir floating in a fruit jar of alcohol and being shown off in their barbershops.” clxx At that moment, Hickman believed that taking justice into his own hands would be the most immediate way to release his anger and frustration. By referring 149 to the lex talionis in such a manner, Hickman was seeking both religious and personal justification for possibly taking the life (i.e., the blood) of another human being. However, Hickman’s desire for revenge quickly disappears with the approaching birth of Bliss, who represented “a chord of kinship stronger and deeper than blood, hate or heartbreak.” clxxi To Hickman, the unborn child represented a new lease on life. Hickman realizes that while he may have lost a brother, he was now gaining a son. Critic Robert J. Butler asserts, “When Hickman assumes responsibilities for raising Bliss, he undergoes a kind of a conversion from a free but morally limited life of picaresque wandering to a much more meaningful life as a public hero who can help others to achieve the same kind of liberating transformation.” clxxii In his own words, Hickman admits, “It was like the Lord had said, ‘Hickman, I’m starting you out right here – with the flesh and with Eden and Christmas squeezed together. Never mind the spirit and justice and right and wrong…because this is a beginning.’ He had called me…” clxxiii and “maybe the baby could redeem her and me … and help us all…” clxxiv Indeed, by rejecting the path of retaliation, Hickman chose to step out on faith - to lay aside his doubt, reservation, and vengefulness – and embrace hope. The Way Forward for African American Spirituality in the Civil Rights Era and Beyond In the modern era, America has not converted to a new religion, a religion in which humankind has promoted itself to godhood. Some may say that Americans are being constantly bombarded by the idea that “all is one, all is God, and man is God.” Jim Jones, a deluded cult leader who personally led almost a thousand men, women, and children to violent deaths, once screeched the following: “It is written that ye are gods. 150 I’m a god and you’re a god. And I’m a god, and I’m gonna stay a god until you recognize that you’re a god. And when you recognize that you’re a god, I shall go back into principle and will not appear as a personality. But until I see all of you knowing who you are, I’m gonna be very much what I am – God, almighty God.” clxxv Despite the rumblings of change during the Great Depression and in World War II, the United States since 1945 remained a country dominated by WASPs. In the South, African Americans rode in the back of the bus, most were disfranchised, and none went to school with whites. Apartheid prevailed in much of the North too. Places such as Topeka, Kansas segregated schoolchildren by race. The greatest democracy on earth recruited a Jim Crow army. As late as 1945 in the downtown section of the nation’s capital African Americans could not stay at a hotel, eats at a drugstore lunch counter, or attend a movie. These patterns of prejudice proved an intolerable burden for the United States in international affairs. World War II brought America face to face with the inconsistency between fighting a war for democracy against Hitler’s master race state and condoning discrimination at home. The campaign to give African Americans a central place in American society gained increased momentum in the postwar era as the NAACP, the organization of aspiring middle-class African Americans, carried its brilliant strategy of ending racial discrimination through litigation to its culmination. For a generation a battery of lawyers, black and white, had been adroitly chipping away at the “separate but equal” doctrine in education, not by assaulting separateness but by insisting on absolute equality. The 151 NAACP’s attorneys won a series of victories in higher education, sorely trying the ingenuity of the segregationists. Ellison’s novels are thus more than novels. Part song, part spiritual, part record of oral performances, part sermon, part street speech—they exceed all of these constituents. Blues, folk sermons, street jive - the salient events of contemporary history - are all media of serious expression for him, and all collaborate to produce dramatic effects. 152 Chapter 3 Saturday Night/Sunday Morning: James Baldwin and His Creative Pursuit of Spirituality and Democracy American theologians had no real interest in the concrete issues of the creation of a more just society. American theologians did not take as their point of departure the most significant social tension in American society – racial oppression. clxxvi James. H Evans, Black Theology: A Critical Assessment and Annotated Bibliography The intellectual geography of James A. Baldwin reveals that African American spirituality does not begin nor end in the church (or the altar or tabernacle) and that the heritage of suffering African Americans is rooted in a political call, in which the church gets subordinated to the larger spiritual purposes of forging African American community. As a modernist gay and a politically committed African American intellectual who was very much influenced by Marxism, Baldwin creatively and critically approach spirituality through imaginative projection. He examines the failure of the promise of American democracy, looks at the failure of the Christian church, and explores difficult family relationships. James Arthur Baldwin was born in Harlem, New York, on August 2, 1924. His mother, Emma Berdis Jones, gave birth to James while she single. When Baldwin was a toddler, Jones married David Baldwin, an itinerant preacher from Louisiana, who would prove to be the bane of young Jimmy’s existence. Not only did his stepfather assert that James was ugly and bore the mark of the devil, but he refused to recognize James native intelligence or his sanctioning by white teachers. clxxvii This painful autobiographical material would provide the substance of Baldwin’s first novel, Go Tell It on the 153 Mountain. John Grimes, the protagonist in that novel, is a precocious child applauded by white teachers and principals, but whose father cannot abide the fact that this “imposter,” this illegitimate son, is infinitely more obedient and “holy” than his legitimate son. clxxviii Go Tell It on the Mountain: The Critical Reviews Fifty five years have now passed since the first publication of James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain and more and more scholars continue to view this text and its author as worthy of academic consideration. In that time, critics continue to find new and exciting ways to engage the novel that placed Baldwin on the literary map. The traditional commentary that accompanies the treatment of Baldwin’s first novel focuses on the links among sexual awakening, crime, religion, racial discrimination, and self- realization. Contemporary reviews expand upon these perspectives by considering the personal and public implications of Baldwin’s art in the arena of Civil Rights politics. Michael F. Lynch, with his essay “A Glimpse of the Hidden God: Dialectical Vision in Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain,” examines the theology and Christianity that mold the trajectory of the novel. Lynch argues that the exploration of Baldwin’s first book should transcend the secular/sacred binary which “ignore, minimize, or deny Baldwin’s spirituality.” clxxix In part, he attributes this pattern of scholarship to Baldwin’s departure from the black Pentecostal church. Nevertheless, Lynch shows that an individual’s connection to God reflects a personal investment and a genuine belief that spirituality can be transformative. Lynch describes the protagonist’s struggle with the Christian faith: “John’s rebellion against his church’s hopeless theology bears fruit in his brief but ecstatic vision of the real God of love.” clxxx By extension, Lynch understands 154 Baldwin’s approach to spirituality as connected to the realm of the visible. He asserts that Baldwin’s faith in God was predicated on the capacity of human beings to love one another, selflessly and unconditionally. Lynch shows that Baldwin did not need the walls of the church to believe in humanity. Horace Porter, with his essay “The South in Go Tell It on the Mountain: Baldwin’s Personal Confrontation,” evaluates the impact of Southern culture on the development of Baldwin and his first novel. Through the centuries, through slavery and emancipation, an elaborate etiquette evolved to govern race relations. Porter recalls that African Americans were viewed as aliens whose ignorance, poverty, and racial inferiority were incompatible with logical processes of government. Southern whites viewed blacks as naturally shiftless and incapable of advancement. White supremacy required an abiding belief in racial inequality, reinforced by hatred born of bitter memories of the past. Whites solemnly resolved to keep the races completely separate, for there could be no normal relationships between them. The expense of maintaining a double system of schools and of other public institutions was high, but not too high for advocates of white supremacy, who kept the races apart in order to main things as they were. The law, the courts, the schools, and almost every institution in the South favored whites. Porter contends that lynching in the twentieth century was an important if illegal part of the system of punishment in the United States. Lynching was a violent manifestation of hostility toward African Americans in the South and the North. Many whites regarded lynching as an inherent part of the industrial imperialism to which America was committed. As an integral part of that imperialistic ideology, lynching 155 involved the subjugation of blacks to caste control and wage slavery. White citizens worked themselves into a frenzy of race hatred. In some cases, African Americans were dragged out and burned alive. Lynching signaled for wholesale terrorism against African Americans. Porter argues that the South haunts the characters of Go Tell It on the Mountain. For instance, he asserts that Gabriel Grimes “brought the emotional baggage of the South north with him” and that “It is this legacy that threatens to limit John’s possibilities.” clxxxi Obsessed with control, Gabriel clashes with his entire family, especially his stepson, John. The racial etiquette that rendered blacks invisible and whites unknowing exacted a heavy toll on both races and on the South. In a region where informal contact was a way of business and of life , where conversation and sociability softened the intruding edges of competition and anonymity, blacks and whites were cut adrift from each other’s fellowship, and they and the South were the poorer for it. Porter argues that Gabriel serves as a poignant example of how the struggles of black Southerners to lift the barriers that had historically separated them from their white counterparts still existed and did not result in the demise of white supremacy. Porter characterizes Gabriel’s relationship with the South, situating the region as “the scene of his personal fall from the glory of God as well as the space in which his embattled black manhood has been so ruthlessly socialized.” clxxxii The scene in “Gabriel’s Prayer” where Reverend Grimes worries about the safety of his son, Royal, after seeing the bloody image of a murdered and castrated black soldier highlights the violence and horror associated with lynching. The impression was widely held that most of the blacks lynched had been accused of raping white 156 women. While neither Gabriel nor Roy had raped or had been accused of rape, the sight of the disfigured black male body served as a cruel reminder of the reality of white racism. In effect, Porter believes that Baldwin’s visual representation of Southern power not only reflects part of the tragedy of the African American past but embodies a personal confrontation of that very past. Modeled after Baldwin’s own stepfather Gabriel Grimes futilely attempts to exorcise demons from his reckless Southern past. Bryan R. Washington, with his essay “Wrestling with ‘The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name’: John, Elisha, and the ‘Master,’” evaluates Go Tell It on the Mountain as a text that captures the dynamics of sexual identity. Washington criticizes gay theorists who use Baldwin’s novel to work out preconceived expectations for African American literature and who assert that Baldwin refuses to identify as a “gay writer.” He rejects the perspectives of gay scholars such as Claude J. Summers and Lee Edelman who portrayed gay black men as victims of white homosexuals or black disempowerment. Additionally, Washington uses the relationship between John and Elisha to examine the spiritual battle between self-love and devotion to God. He presents the adolescent homosexual yearnings of John and Elisha not only as evidence of repressed sexual desire and fractured black identity but also as part of an unspoken discourse on homophobia. The image of gay men in black writing is complicated by homophobic values in society that make homosexuality unspeakable and gays invisible. However, Baldwin depicted homosexuality as an exhilarating component of human nature. Baldwin made men’s sexuality a central issue in American literature and debunked homophobic images by ending the silence about homosexuality. Nevertheless, Csaba Csapo, another critic of 157 Baldwin’s work, observes “Bryan R. Washington says that the narrative Go Tell It on the Mountain is ambiguous concerning the homosexuality, as Baldwin does not allow himself to disclose this theme fully.” clxxxiii Shirley S. Allen, with her article “Religious Symbolism and Psychic Reality in Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain,” argues that many critics, while proclaiming Go Tell It on the Mountain to be Baldwin’s best novel, saw the novel merely as a discussion about black life and culture and compared it to Invisible Man and Native Son: “but the major conflict of this novel, unlike Invisible Man and Native Son, is not black against white, but the more universal problem of a youth achieving maturity, with literary parallels to David Copperfield, Great Expectations, The Brothers Karamazov and Hawthorne’s “My Kinsman, Major Molineux.” clxxxiv Allen observes that many critics were not as familiar with the Bible as Baldwin was; therefore, they did not recognize the universality of his novel: A contributing factor to the misinterpretation of the novel is Baldwin’s extensive use of Biblical allusion and Christian ritual for symbolic expression of the psychic realities he wishes the reader to experience. . . .Because the symbolism is essential to understanding Go Tell It on the Mountain, critics, missing the clues, have found fault with Baldwin’s art. . . Perhaps a better understanding of the symbolism would lead to critical re-evaluation, since Baldwin’s most serious ‘technical fault’ may be his assumption that most readers are as familiar with the Bible as the members of his childhood Harlem community were. clxxxv Here Allen implies that the religious symbolic references contained in Go Tell It on the Mountain provide a fruitful venue to link secular with the sacred. While prior knowledge of the Bible would be helpful in unlocking and understanding part of the novel’s spiritual tone, it is not absolutely necessary. The universalism that Baldwin espouses in the text 158 transcends the realm of the biblical. Ultimately, Allen situates religion in Baldwin’s text in a way that equates spirituality with psychology: “Through religious symbolism Baldwin suggests that the conversion which frees John from sin is also his psychological initiation into maturity, which frees him from the umbilical cord, and racial hatred.” clxxxvi Sondra A. O’Neale, with “Fathers, Gods, and Religion,” argues that Baldwin’s works addresses and responds to Christianity in unconventional ways, questioning God’s position in the world and highlighting flaws in the traditional black church, an institution that so many African-American writers before him had highly regarded. According to O’Neale, Baldwin frequently recognized the break between the Christian believer’s profession of faith and the believer’s demonstration of that faith. In trying to understand God, Baldwin questioned why God allowed so many troubles to befall the black race despite its consistently demonstrated faith in Him. O’Neale remarks that Baldwin’s observations and questionings served as evidence of his belief in God and his attempt to discover God’s identity and His relationships to black people: On the surface one cannot ascertain whether or not Baldwin is a ‘religious writer’ because his works do not reflect the traditional treatment of Christianity in black American literature. Instead, Baldwin examines the enigmas of human affections absent in Christian professors; the failure of the Christian God to thwart the persistent onslaught of His African children; and the insistence of those children to forge a ‘normal dependent interaction with that God. These witnesses are empirical evidence of God in Baldwin’s world, and he exploits them to excess so that he can mold a composite God, discover His personality, and fathom His intentions toward black people. clxxxvii According to O’Neale, Baldwin greatly changed African-American literature, not only as the last black writer in America to present a thorough discussion about African- 159 Americans and their relationship with Christianity, but also as one writer, among others within the black literary establishment, who did not exalt the black church. Fred Standley, with his essay “The Artist as Incorrigible Disturber,” argues that many had developed an improper assessment of Baldwin, seeing him more as a political figure than an artist, missing the fact that Baldwin’s struggle for the rights of blacks was linked to his vision regarding his role as an artist and his view of the world as grounded in Christian philosophy. According to Standley, Baldwin’s fight for the rights of black Americans was not an adjunct to his writing; rather, working for civil rights was integral to his being a writer: “This is not to deny that Baldwin has been an outspoken activist in the struggle for social, economic and political justice for the black minority in American society; rather it is to affirm that the exercise of such communal responsibility was consonant with Baldwin’s view of himself as a man of letters and not merely an adjunct to that vocation.” clxxxviii Csaba Csapo, with her essay “Race, Religion, and Sexuality in Go Tell It on the Mountain,” argues that Baldwin’s works “serve as a voice ahead of its time, one that explicitly...attempts to articulate a kind of gay ethic well before the categories of ‘gay,’ or later ‘queer’ entered widespread parlance in the literary discourse.” clxxxix Csapo regards Baldwin’s emergence in the 1950s as a leading writer as a watershed event for black gay writing. Prior to the growth of gay publishing houses and the creation of gay publishing houses, Baldwin was challenging and documenting homophobic images of gays in black literature, social theory, and popular culture. According to Csapo, “In Baldwin’s works, race and sexual orientation are closely related to each other, and testifies to the 160 difficulties of achieving a satisfying personal identity in a society which superimposes its conceptions of the ‘Negro’ or the ‘faggot’ upon individuals and which creates erroneous images of people only to prosecute them with those same images.” cxc For Csapo, Baldwin uses the religious conventions of the fundamental Christianity to not only counter such deplorable representations but also to develop a spiritual doctrine that allows all people to embrace and know God’ love. In effect, Csapo acknowledges that Baldwin took on the repressive politics of the black Pentecostal church to achieve his goal of universal love. Margo Natalie Crawford, with her essay “The Reclamation of the Homoerotic as Spiritual in Go Tell It on the Mountain” argues that “Baldwin reclaims the black body as a site of spirituality that challenges the internalization of American slavery’s fetishism with the black flesh as it simultaneously interrogates those notions of salvation and redemption upon which black religion is grounded.” cxci More precisely, Crawford asserts that “Baldwin locates a homoerotic spirituality that emerges as a liberation theology” whereby “homosexuality is rendered a sin.” cxcii This analysis of Baldwin’s first novel interrogates the relationship between self-hatred and homophobia, decriminalizing the homophobic explanations for the origins of homosexuality among black men. Brian J. Norman, with his essay “Duplicity, Purity, and Politicized Morality: Go Tell It on the Mountain and the Emergence of the Civil Rights Movement,” argues that “the critical tradition of Go Tell It rarely considers Baldwin’s status as an important political figure during and after the 1960s.” cxciii He uses the politics of the American Cold War as a framework to interpret Baldwin’s participation in the Civil Rights Movement. During the Cold War, in particular, the FBI targeted homosexuals as enemies of the state 161 and many were imprisoned, fired jobs, or forced to hide their identities. Norman contends that such a socio-cultural climate shaped Baldwin’s own politics and engagement with race and queer identity in that period. Frequently citizenship is used in a very broad sense to indicate a status that provides one with certain basic rights and responsibilities in an organized society. Citizenship is a crucial aspect of an individual’s identity. It helps answers the question “Who am I?” by establishing a clearly fixed social affiliation. Norman uses Baldwin’s first novel to show that the question of identity with which citizenship is related is central for everyone, but especially for groups like blacks whose complete and involuntary detachment from their homeland heightened their identity crisis. He advances this notion, suggesting that Baldwin complicates the narrative of black national belonging by sexualizing it. By analyzing John’s refusal to separate from strong women such as Elizabeth and his Aunt Florence, examining his rejection of Gabriel (and phallic masculinity) and exploring his acknowledgement of his desire for other boys, Norman illustrates Baldwin’s remarkable commitment to expanding the conditions of possibility for racial, sexual, and cultural inclusion. Babacar M’Baye, with his essay “African Retentions in Go Tell It on the Mountain, traces the Africanisms found in Baldwin’s first novel, arguing these cultural practices and values are rooted in West African traditions, specifically the Wolof people. M’Baye connects Baldwin’s work to the African continent, bringing together African American and African cultures. He examines the sermons, music, and spirituality of Go Tell It on the Mountain to challenge critics who believed that Baldwin misrepresented black culture. M’Baye validates Baldwin’s dedication to writing about African themed 162 issues by citing excerpts from reviewers that praise Baldwin for his treatment and assessment of the African heritage on both sides of the Atlantic. Jermaine Singleton, with his essay “Sacred and Silent (Man)ufacturing: Melancholy, Race, and the Gendered Politics of Testifying in James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain,” argues that melancholia and testifying are useful venues to explore the traumatic experiences of African Americans in the wake of Emancipation and Jim Crow. Singleton draws upon the discipline of psychoanalysis to unlock the legacy of racial, gender, and sexual subordination in Baldwin’s seminal novel. In particular, he employs the framework of black melancholy to comment on the cleaning rituals of the protagonist, John Grimes, to interpret the brotherly bond between John and Elisha, and to reflect upon Gabriel’s relationship with John, Elizabeth, and Florence. Situating Baldwin’s Approach to Spirituality Scholars of Afro-American religion explore the relationship between of knowledge and faith. Some understand spirituality as a dedication to the life of the mind. Albert J. Raboteau reflects on the role of education in the history of blacks in the United States, arguing that faith and academics liberate Afro-Americans from the oppressive legacy of slavery. With Slave Religion: The “Invisible Institution” in the Antebellum South, Raboteau interrogates the presence of Christianity in African religions and looks specifically at practices of conversion on U.S. slave quarters and plantations. Raboteau’s analysis of religious life in the slave community reveals that people of African descent were attempting to emphasize the humanity of their people and to criticize the Europeanized concept of the African as a subhuman species cursed by God. Raboteau 163 eloquently elucidates on this concept as he explores the relationship between faith and history in A Fire in the Bones. He maintains, “faith challenges history to take seriously the religious beliefs and practices in which people of the past gave meaning and value to their lives.” cxciv In essence, Raboteau offers a very compelling model and reading of history that underscores salvation and deliverance in documenting racial oppression. Moreover, in The Black Church in the U.S.: Its Origin, Growth, Contributions, and Outlook, William L. Banks shows that black religion strengthens the political resolve and self esteem of people of African descent. In the face of racial discrimination, the black church attempts to minimize racial strife and dispel ignorance. Additionally, many scholars have considered how the independent African American Protestant churches helped give voices to writers of African descent in America. The involvement of independent African American churches in the production and distribution of texts written by African Americans was widespread in many communities throughout this country during the early twentieth century. In 1903, W.E.B. Du Bois published The Souls of Black Folks, a text that does not explicitly claim the language of empowerment drawn from the critique of white Christian involvement in the slave institution. In this text Du Bois, who was initially a member of the Congressional Church, interweaves Christian language and symbolism with “sorrow songs,” which he defined as the utterances of people who were faced with hopelessness and therefore gained their collective voices through singing to God about their plight. According to Charles H. Long, a study of African American religion would be incomplete without at least some acknowledgement of ecstasy: “The though the worship 164 and religious life of blacks have often been referred to as forms of escapism, one must always remember that there has always been an integral relationship between the ‘hardness’ of life and the ecstasy of religious worship.” cxcv He recognizes the religious consciousness of black folks and believes that historical circumstances in the United States have compelled African Americans to develop distinct forms of expression that allow them to cope with discrimination and oppression. Indeed, ecstatic behavior provides a unique opportunity to explore the creative possibilities of the black community in America. Clarence E. Hardy III also recognize the role that ecstatic expression played as blacks made the transition from slavery to freedom: “…Ecstatic religious practice marked not only the possibility for escape from the physical world but also escape from the expectations of whites and the larger community - even if only for a moment.” cxcvi Hardy’s insights here are very accurate, for he shows in his work how black people find some comfort in religion, especially in hard times. The critical framework that I use to examine ecstatic behavior in Baldwin’s texts is strongly influenced by my reading of Anthony B. Pinn’s Terror in Triumph: The Nature of Black Religion approach to black theology. Pinn brilliantly analyzes the terror of human cruelty and the perseverance of African Americans since the Middle Passage. Pinn reminds his readers that the organized black church has not been free from oppressing its constituents. An exploration of the theme of ecstasy in Baldwin’s work reveals the racial, intellectual, and spiritual forces that shape identity formation. Drawing upon the narratives Go Tell It on the Mountain and The Fire Next Time, I argue that 165 Baldwin uses ecstatic behavior as a way to denounce the dehumanization of the black body. 166 The Street, the Altar, and the Storefront Church as Sites for Spiritual Awakenings Arguing that the street, the altar, and the storefront church are physical landscapes that “work” on black characters, I will explore the interplay between religion and literature through an exploration of the religious themes, images, and experiences expressed in James Baldwin’s signature novel Go Tell It on the Mountain. This chapter will investigate how Baldwin uses the street corner and the Pentecostal signs and symbols of the storefront church as sites to represent spirituality in the African American community. The chapter will also consider how Baldwin’s relationship with the black church has evolved since his first novel. Go Tell It on the Mountain serves as an instructive text, providing a new and imaginative arena to understand ho the representation of spaces gives insights into the ecstatic experiences of black characters. This work chronicles the African American spiritual journeys of its black fictional figures. By framing the discourse on the representation of spirituality in fictional African American communities within the context of “rites of passage,” one is able to get a better sense of how space works on the black body. Along the way, Baldwin’s work highlights the autobiographical impulse that drives black American religious discourse and tells how the black community “looks back and wonders how we got ovah.” The three-part novel innovatively tells the story of Harlem-based Grimes family. Told from John Grimes’s perspective, “The Seventh Day” establishes his social and familial marginalization; the section opens with the plaintive boy wondering who will remember his fourteenth birthday. Based on the young Baldwin, John is berated 167 constantly for his “ugliness,” unmanliness, and intellect. This section also addresses the family’s domestic strife: Gabriel Grimes, John’s stepfather, dominates his wife Elizabeth, John, and his siblings. The Pentecostal church provides the battlefield on which his hatred of Gabriel, his nascent homosexuality, and his estrangement. Consider the following passage where Baldwin describes life in his Harlem neighborhood: Every Sunday morning, then, since John could remember, they had taken to the streets, the Grimes family on their way to church. Sinners along the avenue watched them – men still wearing their Saturday-night clothes wrinkled and dusty now muddy-eyed and muddy-faced; and women with harsh voices and tight, bright dresses cigarettes between their fingers or held tightly in the corners of their mouths. They talked, and laughed, and fought together, and the women fought like the men. John and Roy, passing these men and women, looked at one another briefly, John embarrassed and Roy amused. Roy would be like them when he grew up, if the Lord did not change his heart. These men and women they passed on Sunday mornings had spent the night in bar, or in cat houses, or on the streets, or on rooftops, or under the stairs. They had been drinking. They had gone from cursing to laughter, to anger, to lust. Once he and Roy had watched a man and woman in the basement of a condemned house. They did it standing up. The woman had wanted fifty cents, and the man had flashed a razor. cxcvii The preceding passage suggests that the Harlem streets, especially on a Saturday night, are spaces of sin and reminders of debauchery, whoring, and bodily excess. Baldwin also uses the street to reveal class distinctions and to mark racial difference. The griminess of the streets represents a reference to the last name of the protagonist, in effect suggesting a poignant relationship between fictional naming and an embodiment of unfortunate circumstance. The filth of the physical landscape comes to represent the trails and tribulations of the protagonist and his family. Besides the street corner, the altar is also a space for religious awakening and spiritual recognition. For John Grimes, the altar is not only a space where he could 168 potentially offers his body to Christ but it is also happens to be a place where he says goodbye to his childhood. The altar represents a space where John can work through his adolescence and his faith. Consider the following passage: Around the time of his fourteenth birthday, with all the pressures of church and home uniting to drive him to the altar, he strove to appear more serious and therefore less conspicuous. But he was distracted by his new teacher, Elisha, who was the pastor’s nephew and who had but lately arrived from Georgia. He was not much older than John, only seventeen, and he was already saved and was a preacher. John stared at Elisha all during the lesson, admiring the timbre of Elisha’s voice, much deeper and manlier than his won, admiring the leanness, and grace, and strength, and darkness of Elisha in his Sunday suit, wondering if he would ever be holy as Elisha was holy. cxcviii However, Baldwin also suggests that the altar is a space for sacrifice, where John may surrender his boyhood temptations and replace these impulses with divine ones. In his discussion of the altar and the altar call, Baldwin also uses this space to display the doubt of John. One wonders if there is a difference between healthy skepticism and outright indifference as John resists the pressures of his Christian community. Consider the following passage that describes John’s reflections of the singing that accompanied his wonderment regarding the revelation of the Lord: They sang with all the strength that was in them, and clapped their hands for joy. There had never been a time when John had not sat watching the saints rejoice with terror in his heart, and wonder. Their singing caused him to believe in the presence of the Lord: indeed, it was no longer a question of belief, because they made that presence real. He did not feel it himself, the joy they felt, yet he could not doubt that it was, for them, the very bread of life – could not doubt it, that is until it was too late to doubt. Something happened to their faces and their voices, the rhythm of their bodies, and to the air they breathed; it was as though wherever they might be became the upper room, and the Holy Ghost were riding on the air. cxcix 169 Although most so-called doubters are careless triflers there are a few who are really serious, “honest” doubters. In a sense, the preceding passage outlines the possible boundaries for John’s skepticism. However, Baldwin suggests that knowledge of God through faith is as light in the darkness and the doubts vanishes away when the Holy Spirit arrives. Baldwin advances his discussion of the altar as a psychic and spiritual space by connecting the activities of the altar to the development of the church sermon. The altar call plays a very important role in the Pentecostal church service because this moment represents the degree by which the saints move and have been moved by a preacher’s sermon. Consider the bodily movement of Sister Mc Candless, a member of Temple of the Fire Baptized: There were times – whenever, in fact, the Lord had shown his favor by working through her – when whatever Sister Mc Candless said sounded like a threat. Tonight she was still very much under the influence of the sermon she had preached the night before. She was an enormous woman, one of the biggest and blackest God had ever made, and He had blessed her with a mighty voice with which to sing and preach, and she was going out soon into the field. For many years the Lord had pressed Sister Mc Candless to get up, as she said, and move; but she had been of timid disposition and feared to set herself above others. Not until He laid her low, before this very altar, had she dared to rise and preach the gospel. But now she had buckled on her travelling shoes. She would cry aloud and spare not, and lift up her voice like a trumpet in Zion. cc Baldwin conveys the ambivalent religiosity of Sister Mc Candless by bestowing upon her a name that implies her struggle with her faith. Here there is a disconnection between body and voice. Indeed, Sister Mc Candless has a passion for serving the Lord, but has trouble with finding the courage to articulate her convictions. With the preceding passage, Baldwin uses the altar to signify the presence of spirituality and faith in the 170 fictional community of African Americans. In effect, the space of the altar provides a training ground for Sister Mc Candleless to experiment with her spirituality. Through singing and preaching at the altar, Sister Mc Candless steps out of her comfort zone and boldly declares her faith and devotion to the Lord. Ultimately for Sister Candleless, the altar represents a space where she can step out on her faith, and demonstrate her commitment to the teachings of Jesus Christ. The holiness of a figure such as Sister Mc Candleless also underscores the role of black women in the pursuit of racial uplift. Religious scholar Clarence E. Hardy III writes, “Women Pentecostal leaders in particular gave rhetorical and institutional substance to [these] hopes for a ‘communion of the Holy Ghost’ that bridged regions, race, and nation as both migrating pilgrims and heathens began to imagine their identities as black and religious from a broader perspective that was not as tied to white Americans or even to their own status as Americans.” cci Moreover, Baldwin’s depiction of the Temple of the Fire Baptized as a tabernacle represents a moment for ecstatic activity. For John, tabernacle was a space of resentment, yet spiritual reflection. Consider the scene where John was sweeping the floors of his childhood religious space: And the darkness of John’s sin was like the darkness of the church on Saturday evenings; like the silence of the church while he was there alone, sweeping, and running water into the great bucket, and overturning chairs, long before the saints arrived. It was like his thoughts as he moved about the tabernacle in which his life had been spent; the tabernacle that he hated, yet loved and feared. It was like Roy’s curses, like the echoes these curses raised in John: he remembered Roy, on some rare Saturday when he head come to help John clean the church, cursing in the house of God, and making obscene gestures before the eyes of Jesus. It was like all this, it was like the walls that witnessed and the placards on the walls which testified that the wages of sin was death. ccii 171 With the preceding passage, Baldwin draws upon several religious usage of a tabernacle. In one sense, a tabernacle represents a tent or temporary building in which Israelites performed religious exercises in the wilderness. Another aspect of the tabernacle relates to its development as a portable sanctuary. A final point to consider is the role of the tabernacle as an ordinary place of worship. The reference of tabernacle would prove pivotal in John’s expression of his hatred for his father. The tabernacle represents the space where John recognizes his ultimate disdain for his father. Consider the following passage where John reveals his disavowal of his earthly father and his ambivalent faith in his heavenly father: He lived for the day when his father would be dying and he, John, would curse him on his death-bed. And this was why, though he had been born in the faith and had been surrounded all his life by the saints and by their prayers and their rejoicing, and though the tabernacle in which they worshipped was more completely real to him than the several precarious homes in which he and his family had lived, John's heart was hardened against the Lord. His father was God's minister, the ambassador of the King of Heaven, and John could not bow before the throne of grace without first kneeling to his father. cciii The preceding passage suggests that the death of John’s father would potentially bring peace to John. The tabernacle represents absolute wretchedness for John because it is the site where he experienced most of the wrath of his father. In effect, the tabernacle embodies the space of John’s suffering on earth. Ironically, however, the passage above also reveals that the tabernacle may very well be a space for liberation because if John’s father were to die, John would finally escape the maliciousness of his father. 172 The Movies, the City, and Ecstatic Behavior Movie houses also served as unique spaces to examine transformative activity. From the outside, movie houses can attract their audiences with huge colorful and bright displays. The black lettering with a white background grabs the attention of potential moviegoers. Consider the scene where John observes the people filing into the movie theaters along Broadway: And certainly perdition sucked at the feet of the people who walked there; and cried in the lights, in the gigantic towers; the marks of Satan could be found in the faces of the people who waited at the doors of movie houses; his words were printed on the great movie posters that invited people to sin. It was the roar of the damned that filled Broadway, where motor cars and buses and the hurrying people disputed every inch with death. Broadway: the way that led to death was broad, and many could be found thereon; but narrow was the way that led to life eternal, and few there were who found it. But he did not long for the narrow way, where all his people walked; where the houses did not rise, piercing as it seemed, the unchanging clouds, but huddled, flat, ignoble, close to the filthy ground, where the streets and hallways and the rooms were dark, and where the unconquerable odor was of dust, and sweat, and urine, and homemade gin. cciv Movie houses are spaces through which people can experiences their hopes and dreams as well as to escape the toils of everyday life. Through a sequence of photographs projected onto a screen with sufficient rapidity as to create the illusion of motion and continuity, people have a chance to see themselves through the eyes of others and to imagine themselves in another time and place. However, Baldwin reconfigures the space of the movie theater, imagining it as a battleground for fighting sin and evil. Baldwin’s description of Broadway suggests the movie houses are possible pathways to sin, evil, and licentiousness. Baldwin’s commentary on Broadway also calls attention to the 173 economic plight of black people living urban decay. While a trip to the movies may not bring an eternal and everlasting spiritual life, Baldwin implies that such a venture would temporarily release blacks from the hardships of city living and allow black people to imagine a better day when they would not have to live in squalor or abject poverty. With the preceding passage, Baldwin uses the movie theaters that align the landscape of Broadway to question the cultivation of spirituality through the space of the movie theater rather than through the narrow lens of black church life. Baldwin continues to address this theme as he move toward Sixth Avenue. What separates this episode with the one discussed in the last excerpt is that Baldwin provides a closer examination of race and gender. Consider the following passage where John observes a poster with a blond man and woman: Beyond Sixth Avenue the movie houses began, and now he studied the stills carefully, trying to decide which of all these theaters he should enter. He stopped at last before the gigantic, colored poster that represented a wicked woman, half undressed, leaning in a doorway, apparently quarreling with a blond man who stared wretchedly into the street. The legend above their heads was: “There’s a fool like him in every family – and a woman next door to take him over!” He decided to see this, for he felt identified with the blond young man, the fool of his family, and he wishes to know more about his so blatantly unkind fate. ccv John’s ability to identify with the blond young man represents an attempt to make sense of whiteness. The placement of the white figures on the movie poster outside of the theater provides John with an opportunity to understand where he belonged in the larger society. The foolishness that John recognizes in the poster was not a universal understanding, but was culturally specific. The placement of this poster outside the space of the movie theater speaks to the visibility of blackness as well as whiteness. John 174 becomes aware of his gender and racial difference at the moment he identifies with the young man’s blondness. ccvi John’s trek through New York City and the surrounding areas represent a search for personal freedom and opportunity for ecstatic expression. The scene where John arrives at Central Park and climbs to the top of a hill not only reveals his joy but also shoes how fantasy leads to an aggressive vision of conquest and cruelty. The protagonist reacts as follows: He did not why, but there arose in him an exultation and a sense of power, and he ran up the hill like an engine, or a madman, willing to throw himself headlong into the city that glowed before him. But when he reached the summit he paused; he stood on the crest of the hill, hands clasped beneath his chin, looking down. Then he, John, felt like a giant who might crumble this city with his anger; he felt like a tyrant who might crush this city beneath his heel: he felt like a long-awaited conqueror at whose feet flowers would be strewn, and before whom multitudes cried, Hosanna! He would be, of all, the mightiest, the most beloved, the Lord’s anointed; and he would live in this shining city which his ancestors had seen with longing from far away. For it was his; the inhabitants of the city had told him it was his; he had but to run down, crying, and they would take him to their hearts and show him wonders his eyes had never see. ccvii The preceding passage illustrates the protagonist’s sense of autonomy and revelry. The release that came from John’s body was very intense. When Baldwin compares John to a “madman” and an “engine,” he suggests that John’s newfound freedom lifted him to awesome heights. Horace Porter observes, “John’s adolescent fantasy is symptomatic of his struggle with ‘the darkness of his father’s house’ and ‘Jesus in the darkness of his father’s church’ but it also represents Baldwin’s early and figurative meditation on his complex and bewildering fate as an artist.” ccviii Moreover, for John to imagine himself as 175 a “giant” or a “tyrant” in Central Park allows him to build up his self-confidence and resolve. Additionally, by referring to John as a “conqueror,” Baldwin frames John’s euphoria in epic terms, subtly linking him to an Odysseus or Aeneas who had returned home from a long battle or war. Nevertheless, Baldwin adds a Biblical dimension to this scene. “Hosanna,” Hebrew for “Save, we pray,” is the cry of the multitudes as they thronged in the Lord’s triumphal procession into Jerusalem. According to Matthew 21:9, there was revelry on the day that Jesus arrived in the ancient city of Jerusalem because people were celebrating the possibility of regime change. On a much smaller scale, John feels the same way - overjoyed and jubilant as he towers over New York City. John’s sojourn to the New York City Public Library represents yet another ecstatic moment. As John moves along 42 nd Street, he expresses his admiration and wonder for this urban structure. To John, the public library was not simply a place in which literary and artistic materials such as books, periodicals, and newspapers are kept for reading, reference, or lending: But he had never gone in because the building was so big that it must be full of corridors and marble steps, in the maze of which he would be lost and never find the book he wanted. And then everyone, all the white people inside, would know that he was not used to great buildings, or to many books, and they would look at him with pity. He would enter on another day, when he had read all the books uptown, an achievement that would, he felt, lend him the poise to enter any building in the world. ccix The passage above illustrates John’s reservations about entering the halls of the New York City Public Library. Baldwin uses the world of books to balance John’s sense of “lost” with “poise.” For John, literature facilitated a pathway to personal discovery as well as helped him to feel less lost in the modern world. The corridors, the marble, and 176 the maze-like texture of the library can be quite dehumanizing and unwelcoming. However, it is in this environment where John has an epiphany about race relations in the city of New York. Accustomed to visiting the Harlem branch of the city library system, John felt out of place when he came to the uptown branch. Nevertheless, this displacement helped John to negotiate the socioeconomic and psychological barriers that separated blacks from whites. The Sins of Our Fathers: Holiness and the Home John’s home life provides a fruitful setting for exploring ecstatic activity. The relationship between John and Gabriel is quite volatile. The body language of stepson and stepson conveys unresolved tension and hostility. John cannot escape Gabriel’s wrath and icy reception: More than his words, his face caused John to stiffen instantly with malice and fear. His father’s face was terrible and anger, but now there was more than anger in it. John saw now what he had never seen there before, except in his own vindictive fantasies: a kind of wild, weeping terror that made the face seem younger, and yet at the same time unutterably older and more cruel. And John knew, in the moment his father’s eyes swept over him, that he hated John because John was not lying on the sofa where Roy lay. John could scarcely meet his father’s eye, and yet, briefly, he did, saying nothing, feeling in his heart an odd sensation of triumph, and hoping in his heart that Roy, to bring his father low, would die. ccx The passage above represents the building battle in the Grimes household. John’s lovelessness for his brother Roy and stepfather materialize through “vindictive fantasies.” These bodily articulations communicate the bitterness and frustration of an adolescent boy who is looking for acceptance and respect at home. John views the death of his older brother, Roy, as a possible escape from the tyranny of Gabriel. By killing Roy, John believed that he would be less vulnerable to Gabriel’s physical and mental abuse. In 177 effect, Baldwin shows that liberation from domestic terror comes at a high cost. The “odd sensation of triumph” that John would experience upon Roy’s death indicates John’s uneasy satisfaction with exercising violence. Baldwin illustrates that no fantasy is perfect and that the relief from oppression comes from changing someone’s heart and mind. Wrestling With the Saints: Brotherly Love and the Homoerotic Gaze The relationship between John and Elisha also shed some light on ecstatic expression. John’s unspoken attraction for Elisha during a Pentecostal church service provides further evidence of the seductive power of ecstatic behavior. Baldwin shows that reconciling faith and (homo) erotic desire is no easy task. Consider the following passage where John’s gazes at Elisha’s longingly body: At one moment, head thrown back, eyes closed, sweat standing on his brow, he sat at the piano, singing and playing; and then, like a great black cat in trouble in the jungle, he stiffened and trembled, and cried out. Jesus, Jesus, oh Lord Jesus! He struck on the piano one last, wild note, and threw up his hands, palms upward, stretched wide apart. The tambourines raced to fill the vacuum left by his silent piano, and his cry drew answering cries. Then he was on his feet, turning, blind, his face congested, contorted with this rage, and the muscles leaping and swelling in his long, dark neck. It seemed that he could not breathe, that his body could not contain this passion, that he would be, before their eyes, dispersed into the waiting air. His hands, rigid to the very fingertips, moved outward and back against his hips, his sightless eyes looked upward, and he began to dance. Then he closed his fists, and his head snapped downward, his sweat loosening the grease that slicked down his hair; and the rhythm of all the others quickened to match Elisha’s rhythm; his thighs moved terrible against the cloth of his suit, his heels beat on the floor, and his fists moved beside his body as though he were beating his own drum. ccxi The excerpt above suggests that Elisha’s body becomes the site for exploring spirituality and sexuality. For John to notice how Elisha “stiffened” and “trembled” calls attention to 178 the reaction a male may have prior to an orgasm. Muscles “leaping and swelling” and “rigid” hands add to the sexually climatic atmosphere. Moreover, Elisha’s breathing, rhythm, and beating body all serve to excite John and keep him interested in more than God and the Holy Spirit. Baldwin uses Elisha’s seizure by the spirit to portray how holiness and sin work very closely together. E. Patrick Johnson observes, “Ultimately, Baldwin challenges the split between the spirit and the flesh, between spirituality and sexuality, especially given that our sexuality is preached as something ‘God given’ and integral to our humanity.” ccxii Such an insight underscores ecstasy’s presence in African American theology and literature. The scene where John wrestles with Elisha in the tabernacle offers yet another arena to observe ecstatic behavior in Baldwin’s work. Once again John watches Elisha’s body with pleasure and amazement during the wrestling match. Baldwin uses John’s voyeurism as a way to address (homo) erotic desire and to look at the formation of modern male sexual identities: Usually such a battle was soon over, since Elisha was so much bigger and stronger and as a wrestler so much more skilled; but tonight John was filled with determination not to be conquered, or at least to make the conquest dear. With all the strength that was in him he fought against Elisha, and he was filled with a strength that was almost hatred. …[T]he odor of Elisha’s sweat was heavy in John’s nostrils. He saw the veins rise on Elisha’s forehead and in his neck; his breath became jagged and harsh, and the grimace on his face became more cruel; and John, watching these manifestations of his power, was filled with a wild delight. ccxiii Male-to-male contact occurs along a continuum that includes looking, talking, shaking hands, embracing, wrestling, and increasingly intimate physical contact, up to and including sexual intercourse. There is no obvious line to demarcate socially acceptable 179 intimacy from that which invites homophobia. By imbuing certain types of make intimacy with negative overtones, homophobia delineates and enforces the boundary between acceptable and unacceptable contact. The potential for homoerotism in sports allows men to explore their masculinity harmlessly. Baldwin illustrates how sports mediate men’s relationship by permitting powerful bonds and increasing intimate contact. Literary critic Bryan R. Washington observes that wrestling represents, “John’s first opportunity to prove his manhood by overpowering the older Elisha, by beating him at his own game.” ccxiv However, Washington goes one step further, characterizing that the tussle on the church floor as “a sexual encounter” where John and Elisha were able to wrestle with their homosexual urges. Washington’s perspective is insightful here because it suggests that wrestling may serve as release for sexual tensions. Consequently, efforts to regulate male intimacy only encourage ecstatic behavior. Music, Salvation, and Redemption in the Lord’s House An analysis of the space of the storefront church is also a poignant opportunity to examine the representation of spirituality in African American fictional communities. Storefront churches are a source of spiritual and social support. Additionally, they provide a much needed space for community participation. Consider the following scene that describes the interior of the Temple of the Fire Baptized, the storefront church where John worships: In the air of the church hung, perpetually, the odor of dust and sweat; for, like the carpet in his mother’s living-room, the dust of this church was invincible; and when the saints were praying or rejoicing, their bodies gave off an acrid, steamy smell, a smell, a marriage of odors of dripping bodies and soaking, starched white linen. It was a storefront church and had stood, for John’s lifetime, on the corner of this sinful avenue, facing 180 the hospital to which criminal wounded and dying were carried almost every night. The saints, arriving, had rented this abandoned store and taken out the fixtures; had painted the walls and built a pulpit, moved in a piano and camp chairs, and bought the biggest Bible they could find. They put white curtains in the show window, and painted across this window TEMPLE OF THE FIRE BAPTIZED. Then they were ready to do the Lord’s work. ccxv The external edifices of some storefront churches represent the economic disparity of those particular communities. The spaces in which storefront churches occupy illustrate the battle between Saturday night debauchery and Sunday morning worship. Indeed, John’s storefront church rests at the crossroads of black social life, positioned between a hospital and a dancehall. Music influences how black fictional characters move around in the space of the storefront church. With “Gabriel’s Prayer,” Baldwin captures the excitement and happiness that black people expressed through music. With this medium, African Americans were free to air out their frustrations and pain. The music of the saints created a space within the storefront church where spirituality was brought to life. However, consider the scene where Baldwin describes the origins of Gabriel’s faith in Christ: Then there was only silence in the church. Even Praying Mother Washington had ceased to moan. Soon someone would cry again, and the voices would begin again; there would be music by and by, and shouting, and the sound of the tambourines. But now in this waiting, burdened silence it seemed that all flesh waited – paused, transfixed by something in the middle of the air – for the quickening power. ccxvi “Gabriel’s Prayer” exposes the minister’s wasteful past. In the preceding passage, the absence of music marked Gabriel’s introduction to spirituality. Gabriel’s devotion to Christ marked an important transition in Baldwin’s narrative. For music to be not present 181 at Gabriel’s “conversion” suggests that commitment to spirituality would be lukewarm at best and problematic at worst. The power of music to shape the experience and conscious identity of a people can be seen in the growth and development of the blues. By some churchgoers, blues was viewed as the “Devil’s music,” arising from the marginal elements of black society with its use of profanity and celebration of Dionysian living. Consider the following passage that links Gabriel’s past indiscretions to his proximity to blues music: And he [=Gabriel] saw, in his wandering, how far his people had wandered from God. They had all turned aside, and gone out into the wilderness, to fall down before idols of gold and silver, and wood and stone, false gods that could not heal them. The music that filled any town or city he entered was not the music of the saints but another music, infernal, which glorified lust and held righteousness up to scorn. Women, some of whom should have been at home, teaching their grandchildren how to pray, stood, night after night, twisting their bodies into lewd hallelujahs in smoke-filled, gin-heavy dance halls, singing for their loving man.” And their loving man was any man, any morning, noon, or night – when one left town they got another – men could drown, it seemed, in their warm flesh and they would never know the difference. ccxvii When Gabriel met John as a baby, he interpreted John’s attraction to blues music as a foreshadowing and symbol of his profane tendencies, condemning John in his heart (even before he knew of his illegitimacy) as evidence that “the Devil’s working every day.” ccxviii John’s healthy embrace of worldly interests and consolations was first evident in his gesture as a baby, on the day he met Gabriel, of extending his arms toward the blues music he heard, and dancing. ccxix For John, the threshing-floor becomes a place of reckoning. Within the space of the threshing-floor, John recognizes the awesome power of the Holy Spirit. At this point, John feels powerless, yet amazed. In this moment of transition, John bears witness to 182 things that he had never seen nor heard before. Indeed, the threshing-floor represents yet another psychic space where John struggles with his nascent spirituality. Consider the following scene where John emerges from this space: He knew, without knowing how it had happened, that he lay on the floor, in the dusty space before the altar which he and Elisha had cleaned; and knew that above him burned the yellow light which he had himself switched on. Dust was in his nostrils, sharp and terrible, and the feet of the saints, shaking the floor beneath him, raised small clouds of dust that filmed his mouth. He heard their cries, so far, so high above him – he could never rise that far. He was like a rock, a dead man’s body, a dying bird, fallen from an awful height; something that had no power of itself, any more, to turn. ccxx With “The Threshing-Floor,” Baldwin recounts the struggle for John’s soul. During a series of surrealistic visions, John hears voices summoning him to the Lord. However, his conversion is spurious: like Gabriel, he uses religion to reinvent himself and to control others. John metaphorically “kills” Gabriel and replaces him with God: He began, for terror, to weep and moan – and this sound was swallowed up, and yet was magnified by the echoes that filled the darkness. This sound had filled John’s life, so it now seemed, from the moment he head first drawn breath…Yes , he had heard it all his life, but it was only now that his ears were opened to this sound that came from darkness, that could only come from darkness, that yet bore such sure witness to the glory of the light. And now in his moaning, and so far from any help, he heard it in himself – it rose from his bleeding, his cracked-open heart. It was a sound of rage and weeping which filled the grave, rage and weeping from time set free, but bound now in eternity; rage that had no language, weeping with no voice – which yet spoke now, to John’s startled soul, of boundless melancholy, of the bitterest patience, and the longest night; of the deepest water, the strongest chains, the most cruel lash; of humility most wretched, the dungeon most absolute, of love’s bed defiled, and birth dishonored, and most bloody, unspeakable, sudden death. Yes, the darkness hummed with murder: the body in the water, the body in the fire, the body on the tree. John looked down the line of these armies of darkness, army upon army… ccxxi 183 In the preceding passage, Baldwin begins to describe John’s conversion. The threshing- floor also serves as a space for re-enacting the past of African Americans. Baldwin uses John’s “possessed”/tortured body and soul as a conduit to allude to some of the hardships that blacks faced as they made the transition from Africa to the Americas. The sounds that echoed from the threshing-floor not only reflect the pain that John himself was experiencing in the moment of divine ecstasy, but also mirrors the horrors of the black experience in the United States. The “boundless melancholy,” “bitterest patience,” and the “longest night” are indirect references to the theft of African bodies by European slave catchers who used the cover of night to hide their crime of taking African women, men, and children from their homeland. Moreover, the “deepest water,” “strongest chains,” and “the most cruel lash” are veiled references to the horrors of Middle Passage and the pain and suffering endured by black during chattel slavery. “Humility most wretched” refers to the humbleness that African had to maintain as they were torn away from their family and friends during Mid Atlantic slave trade. The “dungeon” is a reference to the deplorable and vile conditions of most slave ships as most African traveled from the shores of Africa to the America. Lastly, “love’s bed defiled,” “birth dishonored,” and “most bloody, unspeakable, sudden death” underscores the rape, mutilation, and exploitation of African bodies at the hands of European slaveholders. In Sacred and Silent (Man)ufcaturing: Melancholy, Race, and the Gendered Politics of Testifying…, Jermaine Singleton contends “John’s passage into the realm of salvation reflects the inextricable link between African America’s racial and gender order…Here, unmistaken masculinity stands as a means of disavowing the history of racial 184 subordination that the black body signifies.” ccxxii All of these images serve as a dramatic backdrop for John’s conversion and culminates with the following scene: Then John saw the Lord – for a moment only; and the darkness, for a moment only, was filled with a light he could not bear. Then, in a moment, he was set free; his tears sprang as from a fountain; his heart, like a fountain of waters, burst. Then he cried: “Oh, blessed Jesus! Oh, Lord Jesus! Take me through!” Of tears there was, yes, a very fountain – springing from a depth never sounded before, from the depths John had not known were in him. And he wanted to rise up, singing, singing in that great morning, the morning of his new life. Ah, how his tears ran down, how they blessed his soul! – as he felt himself, out of the darkness, and the fire, and the terrors of death, rising upward to meet the saints. ccxxiii The preceding passage conveys John’s virtual impossibility of having faith in someone or something that is higher and larger than him. With the phrase “for a moment only,” Baldwin suggests that the representation of spirituality in black fictional communities is fleeting and not permanent. Baldwin captures John’s hesitation and doubt right at the moment of conversion. The phrase “he wanted to rise up” suggests that John was not quite ready to relinquish control of his body and life and implies that John wanted to hold on to some of his earthly habits. The “conversion” of John did not necessarily heal the rift between father and son. The actual event seemed hollow, yet redemptive: “Praise the Lord,” said his father. He did not move to touch him, did not kiss him, did not smile. They stood before each other in silence, while the saints rejoiced; and John struggled to speak the authoritative, the living word that would conquer the great division between his father and himself. But it did not come, the living word; in the silence something died in John, and something came alive. ccxxiv John’s transformation brings little relief from the squalid Harlem life that mocks him mercilessly. John’s hope rests in his bidding love for Brother Elisha, an older 185 adolescent who conducts his spiritual pilgrimage: “Elisha,” he said, “no matter what happens to me, where I go, what folks say about me, no matter what anybody says, you remember – please remember – I was saved. I was there. ccxxv Grimes’s Seventh-Day experience of conversion at the Temple of the Fire Baptized represents the liminality of the black body. John is struck down and convicted of sins, repents, and undergoes the first signs of redemption, but he does not complete the traditional process. Baldwin’s story ends with Gabriel standing between John and the door to their home. Looking up at his father, who is a minister and a major obstacle to John’s salvation, he acknowledges the difficulty he has yet to face. Baldwin’s convert can only affirm that “I’m ready…I’m on my way.” ccxxvi In the ambiguity of this ending, Baldwin questions the possibility of sanctification or even the possibility of being safe or saved. Clarence E. Hardy III, with James Baldwin’s God: Sex, Hope, and Crisis in Black Holiness Culture, observes “John, becomes, through his conversion on the threshing- floor, a genuine adult member of the community” and “John’s uplifting statement that concludes the novel suggests a satisfaction that can only come with a boy’s graduation into manhood.” ccxxvii As a conversion narrative, Go Tell It on the Mountain portrays the black body in a state of flux. More precisely, the flesh and spirit are at odds with one another. The Fire Next Time and Ecstatic Behavior Ten years later, Baldwin takes up where Go Tell It on the Mountain has left off. With The Fire Next Time, Baldwin continues his spiritual journey as he describes his early engagements with Christianity and the struggles he had with religion, especially in 186 the black community. Such encounters highlight both his admiration and frustration with the church. The Fire Next Time serves as an unapologetic social commentary on race relations in the United States. Baldwin directs his nephew on how to deal with the racist society in which he was born. In spite the discrimination and hostility of some white Americans, Baldwin believed that Afro-Americans must take the high road and show whites, in their ignorance and innocence, how to love. The Fire Next Time consists of two essays. The first, “My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation,” was written on the occasion of the fourteenth birthday of Baldwin’s nephew James, who was named after him. The second essay, “Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind,” recounts Baldwin’s experiences growing up in New York, including his unpleasant encounters with the police, his attraction to and rejection of Christianity, his awareness of sexual pitfalls in Harlem, and his later encounter with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Filling in the backdrop for these specific comments is Baldwin’s ever-spirited indictment of an America in which the inequities between the races continue to define people’s futures. Recognizing that politics are endemic to life, Baldwin uses the volume for his own political commentary, and that commentary serves to underscore the thoroughly engaging personal and social incidents he relates. Baldwin to Baldwin: The Past Speaks to the Present in “My Dungeon Shook” The two essays naturally set up a contrast between past and present, between the sometimes sordid adventures of the older James and the possible revisionist future for the younger James. With “My Dungeon Shook,” Baldwin explains to his nephew, who is also 187 named James, why it is that that he is growing up in poverty and why it his prospects appear so limited. The essay takes the form of a letter Baldwin addresses to James. In it, he provides family history and indictments of America for the racism that has pervaded that family history. He indicates that James himself must remain free of racial prejudice, however, in order to be clear sighted in the fight against racists, for they are themselves frequently “innocent” and “well-meaning.” Baldwin enlists his nephew’s aid in making America “what America must become,” that is, receptive to all of its native sons and daughters, allowing the black ones the same opportunities as the white ones. Baldwin encourages his nephew not to accept the white world’s definition of him and urges him to make the notion of freedom real. Baldwin frames his response to his nephew by drawing upon the racial rhetoric of the Civil Rights era. He tells him, “You can only be destroyed by believing that you really are what the white world calls a nigger.” ccxxviii Baldwin conveys that racism is not the be all and end all of human existence. He believes that black people should be able chart their own path and carve out their own destiny. Baldwin suggests that blacks must move beyond the labels that whites impose upon them. He asserts that people of African descent are not the ones calling themselves “niggers.” “Nigger” was not meant as a term of endearment or sign of respect. Moreover, Baldwin implies that the label of “nigger” is not only a derogative term that refers to black people but also signifies an inferior state of mind. Thus, from the outset, Baldwin strongly advises his nephew to rebuff the hatred and scorn of mainstream white society. 188 Baldwin continues his letter by implying that some Americans use race and cultural upbringing as metrics for assigning and attributing inhumanity to blacks in the United States. Baldwin refutes the notion of environmental determinism. He asserts, “This innocent country set you down in a ghetto in which, in fact, it intended that you should perish. Let me spell out precisely what I mean by that, for the heart of the matter is here, and the root of my dispute with my country. You were born where you were born and faced the future that you faced because you were black and for no other reason. The limits of your ambition were, thus, expected to be set forever. You were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity, and in as many ways as possible, that you were a worthless human being. You were not expected to aspire to excellence: you were expected to make peace with mediocrity.” ccxxix Baldwin indicates that the ghetto was not a place that nurtures success, but a site for despair and hopelessness, especially for blacks. After World War II blacks moved from rural areas to cities at an enormous rate, but the move failed to solve many of their problems. Between 1940 and 1960 the black population of New York City increased two and one-half times, but fully 85 percent of the new comers were crowded into the already overcrowded black ghettoes. As whites departed from the inner city to more attractive sections of the city or to the suburbs, African Americans found housing not on their own terms but on those arranged by owners, mortgage companies, and other beneficiaries. All too often they paid premium prices for housing that was already outmoded and becoming dilapidated. He maintains that his nephew was doomed to a miserable future as a consequence of his race. Baldwin acknowledges the cruel realities of segregation for Afro-Americans. However, Baldwin 189 does not agree with this forecast and encourages the younger Baldwin to not settle for second class citizenship. Discrimination in housing was not only private practice but public policy. Between 1935 and 1950, 11 million homes were built. Wherever there was federal assistance, the racial policy was laid down in the manual of the Federal Housing Administration that declared, “If a neighborhood is to retain stability it is necessary that properties shall be continued to be occupied by the same social and racial classes.” One housing authority has claimed that this policy did more to entrench housing bias in American neighborhoods than any court could undo by a ruling. Despite the fact that by 1962 about seventeen states and fifty-six cities had passed laws or resolutions against housing discrimination, the bias persisted. Banks, insurance companies, real estate boards, and brokers greatly benefited from segregated housing for which they received a maximum profit from a minimum of expenditure. African Americans were greatly embittered to discover that they were being exploited by landlords and real estate brokers who took their rents but refused to comply with the minimum housing and health standards established by the city and state. As they paid high rents for rat-infested slums, they discovered that in such neighborhoods their children received inferior education, found few job opportunities, and had few, if any, public facilities. Baldwin, like many Afro-Americans, became increasingly impatient with the intransigence of the opponents of civil rights. Nevertheless, he continues to condemn segregation while celebrating the value of humanity. Consider the following passage where Baldwin addresses inequality in Harlem and America: “Wherever you have turned, 190 James, in your short time on this earth, you have been told where you could go and what you could do (and how you could do it) and where you could live and whom you could marry. I know your countrymen do not agree with me about this, and I hear them saying, ‘You exaggerate.’ They do not know Harlem, and I do. So do you. Take no one's word for anything, including mine—but trust your experience. Know whence you came. If you know whence you came, there is really no limit to where you can go.” ccxxx Baldwin urges his nephew to be bold and aggressive, encouraging him to press for his civil rights with relentless vigor. He subtly tells him that the etiquette of race evolved as a complicated set of rules and customs designed in part to “place” individuals in a racial and class hierarchy that would retain its fixity regardless of the tensions and pressures swirling in and about the nation. But in a quasi spiritual sense, Baldwin conveys to his nephew that he should know who he is as well as whose he is. In no uncertain terms, Baldwin once again advocates autonomy and self determination. However, he pushes his point by saying that the younger Baldwin should not rely upon him to make up his mind about the future. Baldwin implies that white people have a myopic view of race relations in the United States. He observes, “There is no reason for you to try to become like white people and there is no basis whatever for their impertinent assumption that they must accept you. The really terrible thing, old buddy, is that you must accept them. And I mean that very seriously. You must accept them with love. For these innocent people have no other hope. They are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it.” ccxxxi As long as racial etiquette created a system of behavior that serve to reinforce the supremacy of the white 191 race and the inferiority of the black, Baldwin believed that his nephew should not imitate whites. The tragedy for whites was that race pride clouded their vision and judgment. Ironically, blacks offered whites a clearer perception of place, and themselves the ability to love, unfettered by fear or frustration. The young James Baldwin was running from the sins of the world. He noticed the surroundings of some of his fellow blacks and understood it as a warning. Baldwin recalls: “What I saw around me that in Harlem was what I had always seen; nothing had changed. But now, without any warning, the whores and the pimps and racketeers on the Avenue had become a personal menace. It had not before occurred to me that I could become one of them, but now I realized that we had been produced by the circumstances.” ccxxxii Baldwin believed he could end up like the people on the street if he was not careful. Baldwin was seeking in his turn to religion as a fourteen-year-old boy in Harlem an escape from alienation and fear. For Baldwin, the secular world was an ominous and seedy place. The passage above illustrates the environment of the street as highly influential in determining one’s life path. Baldwin’s the Avenue is quite foreboding, representing the evil in urban ghetto life. Portraying the interrelationships among racism, sexism, and economic oppression, Baldwin reveals the dreary despair of Harlem. The observation that “in the same way that the girls were destined to gain as much weight as their mothers, the boys, it was clear, would rise no higher than their fathers” shows that equality of the street was alluring, yet terrifying. ccxxxiii Growing up on the Avenue was not glamorous: young women became malnourished adult women; young men became stunted adult men. In effect, the equality 192 of the street was a trap, where ambitious adults lost the innocence of youth. Baldwin continues by saying, “one did not have to be abnormally sensitive to be worn down to a cutting edge by the incessant and gratuitous humiliation and danger one encountered every working day.” ccxxxiv Consequently, Baldwin asserts that his prospects for the future were shaped by the present-day indiscretions of the people on the Avenue, who had struggled and lost. Instead of looking at the black folks on the street with amused contempt, Baldwin considered their plight as a cautionary tale that would alter the course of his own action. Life on the Avenue was so bleak that neither money nor religion could alleviate the penury and destitution of the Harlem ghetto. White racism amplified black suffering. Baldwin writes, “In spite of the Puritan-Yankee equation of virtue with well-being, Negroes had excellent reasons for doubting that money was made or kept by any very striking adherence to the Christian virtues; it certainly did not work that way for black Christians. In any case, white people, who had robbed people of their liberty and who profited by this theft every hour that they lived, had no moral ground on which to stand.” ccxxxv Baldwin felt the dull pain of poverty and the uprootedness of economic change. The sin of race pride had come between blacks and whites and created an abyss so deep that few held out hope for reconciliation. Baldwin’s surroundings seemed to pose a great danger to him. Nevertheless, Baldwin felt that he had to try something, anything to escape the fate of those around him. During the summer of his fourteenth birthday, Baldwin was not necessarily looking for spiritual salvation; he pursued singing, dancing, and prizefighting – all as a temporary 193 respite from the haunting realities of the Avenue. He maintains, “Every Negro boy – in my situation during those years, at least – who reaches this point realizes, at once, profoundly, because he wants live, that he stands in great peril and must find, with speed, a “thing,” a gimmick, to lift him out, to start him on his way. And it does not matter what the gimmick is. It was this last realization that terrified me and – since it revealed that the door opened on so many dangers - helped to hurl me into church. And by an unforeseeable paradox, it was my career in the church that turned out, precisely, to be my gimmick.” ccxxxvi For Baldwin, options were becoming few and far between. He was not concerned about making a righteous decision or a morally acceptable one. Fear propelled Baldwin into the ministry and rescued him from the temptation of the streets. In other words, he did not enter the church to save the world or to find God. Baldwin regarded the church as a part of a strategy to move beyond the confines of the Avenue. In a sense, he sought to “get ovah” – nothing more, nothing less. Baldwin embraced the church as a teenager when he encountered a black woman evangelist, Mother Horn. He writes, “It was my good luck – perhaps – that I found myself in the church racket instead of some other, and surrendered to a spiritual seduction long before I came to any carnal knowledge. For when the pastor asked me, with that marvelous smile, ‘Whose little boy are you?” my heart replied at once, ‘Why yours.’” ccxxxvii The question so evoked a sense of belonging in Baldwin that he joined her church. From that time until he was seventeen, Baldwin was a “young” minister” in the Pentecostal Church. Baldwin recalls his pathway to authority: “…Out of a deep, adolescent cunning I do not pretend to understand, I realized immediately that I could not 194 remain in the church merely as another worshipper. I would have to give myself something to do, in order not to be too bored and find myself among all the wretched unsaved of the Avenue.” ccxxxviii Baldwin had now found a constructive outlet for his talents. For the moment, he had a purpose in his life. Also, Baldwin used the church as a way to free himself from the manipulation and abuse of his stepfather, David Baldwin. Baldwin remembers the energy and awesomeness of Pentecostal worship: “The church was very exciting. It took a long time for me to disengage myself from this excitement, and on the blindest, most visceral level, I never really have, and never will. There is no music like that music, no drama like the drama of the saints rejoicing, the sinners moaning, the tambourines racing, and all those voices coming together and crying unto the Lord.” ccxxxix The Pentecostal church called for full participation of the congregation in all its worship activities. During the musical performances of the worship service, members of the congregation clapped their hands (typically on off-beats of the music) stomped their feet, and, if so moved, played their own tambourines and joined the choir in singing. Moreover, the holy dance was an integral part of the worship ceremonies. Pentecostal churches expanded rapidly in the rural south. When black folk began pouring into the nation’s cities during the second decade of the twentieth century, they took their joyful church songs with them into the urban ghettos, into storefront churches, some of which developed into large temples within a few years. By the 1920s it had developed into a distinctive genre, displaying features of both the historical sacred black music and the secular. Observers perceived that this expressive church music was 195 essentially the sacred counterpart of the blues, frequently the scared text being the only distinguishing element. Call-and-response, rhythmic vitality, musical intensity, syncopation, and improvisation were all present. Baldwin recalls the thrills and liveliness of his Pentecostal church in Harlem, “I have never seen anything to equal the fire and excitement that sometimes, without warning, fill a church, causing the church, as Leadbelly and so many others have testified, to ‘rock.’ Nothing that has happened to me since equals the power and the glory that I sometimes felt when, in the middle of a sermon, I knew that I was somehow, by the miracle, really carrying, as they said, ‘the Word’ – when the church and I were one.” ccxl Baldwin shared a faith that God had chosen blacks as modern-day Hebrews to lead them to a promised land of better times, if not here and now, then assuredly in the by-and-by. His was a personal relationship. He worshipped God in a familiar, conversational tone: “Their pain and their joy were mine, and mine were theirs – they surrendered their pain and joy to me, I surrendered mine to them – and their cries of ‘Amen!’ and ‘Hallelujah!’ and ‘Yes, Lord!’ and ‘Praise His name!’ and ‘Preach it, brother’ sustained and whipped on my solos until we all became equal, wringing wet, singing and dancing, in anguish and rejoicing, at the foot of the altar.” ccxli These moments of ecstasy served as a pathway for Baldwin to break away from his father and to forge his own ideas about equality and spiritual freedom. Haunting Revelations: Paternal Shadows and Separatist Spirituality “Down at the Cross” Baldwin became quite disillusioned with the Pentecostal church. During his three year stint with the ministry, Baldwin felt that God was not keeping up his end of the bargain and that God’s moral standard was working against black Christians. Black 196 Christians were not following the laws that would enable them to receive the Lord’s blessings. He writes, “I really mean that there was no love in the church. It was a mask for hatred and self-despair. The transfiguring power of the Holy Ghost ended when the service ended, and salvation stopped at the church door. When we were told to love everybody, I had thought that that meant everybody. But no. It applied only to those who believed as we did, and it did not apply to white people at all. But what was the point, the purpose of my salvation if it did not permit me to behave with love toward others, no matter how they behaved toward me?” ccxlii For Baldwin, the notion of professing salvation without manifesting universal love contradicted the ecstatic experience of the Christian church. The passage above suggests that white Christians were not a part of the faith experience and were sinister figures that were beyond the reach of love. Consequently, this formulation reinforced an “us versus them” mentality, where white people were perceived as the enemy, or worse still, devils to be exorcised. Moreover, the outcome here reinforces the idea that Sunday morning remains to be the most segregated time of the week. Baldwin implies that black Christians were only fooling themselves when they walked through the church doors week to week. The “love” that some black Christians displayed on Sunday morning was not necessarily moving them to a higher ground. When discussing the ambivalence of the black church in Baldwin’s work, O’Neale writes, “Yet the black themselves were either humble inheritors of some future earth or heaven; or pitiful imitators of the hypocritical whites whom they despised.” ccxliii Baldwin conceived of spirituality in terms that transcended the interior of the black church. While Baldwin believed that salvation would be personally gratifying, he 197 vehemently asserts that his salvation is also connected to the sanctity of others. Love for other people, including whites, helped Baldwin to become a better person. For Baldwin, universal love did not demand reciprocity. The hope of Christian love was the cornerstone of faith based communities such as the Pentecostals. Baldwin’s visit to the home of the honorable Elijah Muhammad provides yet another moment for ecstatic expression which took the form of an epiphany. Elijah Muhammad was a fascinating figure because some African Americans viewed him as a new prophet able to promote racial pride, political and economic visibility and renewed spiritual hope. However, the ideology of the Nation of Islam framed black dispossession in separatist terms, subordinated black women, and insisted that black men submit to Allah. David Leeming, a biographer of Baldwin, describes the religion of the Nation of Islam as a “set of puritanical taboos and totems that could not speak to the real nature of our problems as a nation.” ccxliv Baldwin himself writes, “I felt that I was back in my father's house—as indeed, in a way, I was—and I told Elijah that I did not care if white and black people married and that I had many white friends. I would have no choice, if it came to it, but to perish with them, for (I said to myself, but not to Elijah) ‘I love a few people and they love me and some of them are white, and isn't love more important than color?’” ccxlv Suffice it to say, Baldwin did not entirely agree with all of the philosophies of the Nation. Lawrie Balfour observes that Baldwin “objects to an ideal of freedom based on the illusion that blackness and whiteness are internally unified and externally divisible properties” ccxlvi Moreover, while the Nation of Islam believed that an embrace of sensual things such as “taboos,” “crosses,” “blood sacrifices,” “flags” would lead to 198 death, Baldwin contended that these same items were life affirming. Baldwin extends this point by acknowledging that one “ought to earn one’s death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life.” ccxlvii Such an approach to living is not only existential but is also ecstatic. Baldwin implies that risk allows people to break out of their shells and to move beyond their comfort zones. He poignantly conveys a dilemma that human beings often face: to live each day as if it were the last or to tread carefully and bemoan the possibilities. The freedom to love someone regardless of race or color represents the apex of Baldwin’s conception of equality. In effect, Baldwin questions any belief system that does not push the boundaries of the human condition. Baldwin closes The Fire Next Time on quasi-ecstatic note by encouraging Western culture to embrace a national narrative that emphasizes color consciousness rather than colorblindness. The type of social change that he advocates challenges people to imagine race along different metrics. Baldwin comments, “What one would not like to see again is the consolidation of peoples on the basis of their color. But as long as we in the West place on color the value that we do, we make it impossible for the great unwashed to consolidate themselves according to any other principle. Color is not a human or a personal reality; it is a political reality.” ccxlviii Baldwin reminds us that skin color has been linked to race for quite some time. Critic Lawrie Balfour contends “Baldwin insists that racial assumptions, which serve to perpetuate racial hierarchy, pervade American society to a degree that defies simple abolition, and he urges that Americans acknowledge the ways in which those assumptions shape their experience, their identities, their language.” ccxlix Since 1619, blacks have existed either in complete 199 bondage as bondsmen and slaves or in a peculiar state of semi-freedom. The legitimacy of bondage was undermined by the Civil War, but the black presence remained, and blacks continued to be the victims of the ruthless oppression and exploitation of white society. Over the years, American society has grappled with the dilemma of the black presence, while blacks have worked, fought, and died to end their oppression and claim a status equal to that of whites in society. The popular image of a democratic polity committed to the principles of justice and equality for all could not tolerate the reality of inequality and systematic oppression that has been the experience of blacks. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and the “revolution” of the 1960s are eloquent testimonies to the total commitment of blacks to realize for the first time the full promise of the democratic creed “e pluribus unum.” Baldwin understands black political powerlessness as an integral part of the overall assignment of inferior status in U.S. culture and suggests that any steps to alter the condition would invariably induce hostility by the dominant white society. The character of the founders of the nation and the depth of the nation’s commitment to its formally espoused values are touched by the presence of blacks. Thus, while blacks have not always been active or influential participants in the political system, they have profoundly and consistently affected it. Because they are so inextricably intertwined to the national experience, no account of this experience is plausible without serious attention to blacks. Ecstasy Rising: Baldwin’s Legacy in the Wake of the Civil Rights Movement 200 When Go Tell It on the Mountain is analyzed through the prism of The Fire Next Time, Go Tell It on the Mountain emerges as a sociopolitical commentary about the possibility of freedom and equality. As a semi-autobiographical narrative about his adolescent experience in a black Pentecostal church, Baldwin’s first novel explores the interlocking nature of race, aesthetics, religion and sexuality. However, where does Baldwin locate his spirituality? Is it in the neighborhood, the church, the home, or elsewhere? For Baldwin, spirituality did not reside in any one space or place. Ecstasy embodies the creative means by which Baldwin made sense of a world and society that systematically stripped him of his dignity and respect. 201 Conclusion You Turn My Swag On: The Viability of African American Spirituality in the Age of Obama Let us draw near…with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith…Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess. Hebrews 10:22-23 Hopped up out the bed turn my swag on Took a look in the mirror said what's up? Turn my swag on It's my time to turn it up, yeah, yeah I put my team on, did my theme song Now it's time to turn it up, yeah, yeah I got a question why they hatin' on me I got a question why they hatin' on me I ain't did nothing to 'em but count this money ccl Soulja Boy, “Turn on My Swag” In the preceding chapters, I have tried to do three things: first, to frame the decline of the black church in modern culture. The church has accommodated itself to the cultural climate. I contend the black church is no longer changing culture, but is being changed by culture. By framing black spirituality in terms of a crisis, I have shown that the church has lost some of its sense of mission. Secondly, I have attempted to identify some parameters for exploring literary representations of ecstatic behavior and charismatic expression among African Americans from the Harlem Renaissance to the Civil Rights Movement. Ecstasy and charisma, both in the sacred and secular sense, represent the culturally structured assumptions, values, and commitments underlying black people’s perception of reality. Lastly, to show that African Americans did not have 202 to go to church to know their God. I show that black church changes its protective coloring like a chameleon to suit the environment it is in. While each perspective represented in “Stepping Out on Faith” is profoundly unique, the differences are myriad. This project represents not one single or unified perspective on black spirituality, but many. As expressions of varied narratives and perspectives, the chapters in this dissertation represented differences and, at times, disagreements about what faith and spirituality mean to people of African descent. However, at other times, the similarities between the authors were more obvious, such as their shared sense of being connected to a higher power that did not always reside in the church and their discomfort with rigid ecclesial and social hierarchies. Nevertheless, for the authors whose works have appeared in this dissertation these similarities and differences have been a source tension and conflict as well as growth and celebration. Having demonstrated to some degree the multi-facetted and multi-layered dimensions of black spirituality, I would like to add another word on this matter before I come to a formal set of closing statements. Since the Civil Rights Movement, the faith of African Americans has continued to fascinate people, both inside and outside of the academy. Consider for a moment the dynamics of the last presidential campaign. The 2008 presidential election was one of the most intensely debated and commented on race in modern history, in part because of the race and religion. The passionate standpoints expressed in this election not only stemmed from ideological conflicts, but from Barack Obama’s uniqueness as a presidential candidate. 203 Early in the presidential campaign, the artist Will.i.am creatively sets one of Obama’s speeches to music. With the song “Yes We Can,” Will.i.am captures both the motions and emotions of many people who supported Barack Obama, especially the youth. In particular, the video version of this song places the image of Obama giving a speech after his second place finish in the New Hampshire primary alongside an image of Will.i.am and other musicians singing to Obama’s text. This tribute to the future commander-in-chief demonstrates that attitude determines altitude. Obama’s commitment to hope generated a wave of optimism that this country (and for that matter the world) has not seen since the days John Fitzgerald Kennedy. With the creed “Yes We Can” Obama not only sums up the key points embodied in the Declaration of Independence but also inspires a new generation to pursue justice and equality. Also, the image of one talented black man talking to another talented black man comes across as very positive and empowering. More precisely, the dialogue between Obama and Will.i.am suggests a new pathway for black spirituality that may be realized through popular music. For some, the sight of two black men conversing side by side may be a healing presence. Obama’s image and words serve as historical corrective, placing the experiences of people of color and the disadvantaged at the center rather than relegating them to the margins. Such a re- positioning is productive because it lifts up spirits and allows folks to suspend their disbelief and doubt long enough to (re) imagine new conditions of possibility. On April 16, 2008, Obama debated Senator Hillary Clinton for the twenty-first time. As moderators of the debate, George Stephenopolous and Charles Gibson spent the first forty-five minutes talking about morality, faith, religion, and Reverend Wright. 204 However, in a town hall meeting in Raleigh, NC on the following day Obama responded to the lop-sided structure of the debate by saying that he understood how the political climate of Washington, D.C. stirs up negativism and pettiness. At one point, Obama employs hand gestures to show how he would brush off any troubles that came along the campaign trail. The image of Obama brushing away campaign attacks reminded some people of Jay-Z’s lyrics for “Dirt Off Your Shoulder”: If you feelin like a pimp nigga, go and brush your shoulders off Ladies is pimps too, go and brush your shoulders off Niggaz is crazy baby, don't forget that boy told you Get, that, dirt off your shoulder ccli Obama employs hand gestures to show how he would brush off any troubles that came along the campaign trail. The image of Obama brushing away campaign attacks reminded some people of Jay-Z’s lyrics for “Dirt Off Your Shoulder.” By incorporating suggestive gestures from hip hop culture into his political campaign, Obama shows that he is more than a politician; he invokes the ethos and vibe that comes from popular culture. He implies that he not only listens to hip hop music and keep in step with their bodily motions, but also understands some of the messages that come out of this genre. Hip hop journalist Farai Chideya interprets Obama’s movement as telling critics to “back up off this” and letting fear mongers that “you don’t matter.” Jay-Z, speaking at Virginia Union College in Richmond, VA, puts Election Day in a historical perspective: “Obama’s running so we can all fly.” The spirituality of Barack Obama came up time and time again on the 2008 Presidential campaign. Whether it is at a town hall meeting, debate, or interview, Obama’s religious views and associations would somehow emerge as a topic 205 for conversation. One might say, “What’s the big deal?” or “Religion is an opiate for the masses.” While Obama recognizes that the potential for the church to shape individual and/or collective identity, he also understands that the church is not perfect; in other words, he strives for perfectibility, not perfection itself. Obama combines secular knowledge with sacred teachings. Through his faith, Obama honors some of his ancestors who involuntarily came to the shores of America. In effect, Obama’s swagger attempts to bridge the gap between spiritual theory and practice. Obama’s own struggle with his religious faith was brought into focus as the presidential campaign unfolded. Obama’s decision to separate from Reverend Wright and Trinity Unity Church of Christ was indeed a difficult one. Obama devised creative solutions for dealing with the church. Through both the spoken and written word, the image of Obama challenges us to not only (re) examine the place of African American spirituality and expressive culture in the larger global community but also to call into question reductive notions about race, gender, and oppression. Simply put, the image of Obama embodies strength, courage and wisdom. While I have presented ecstasy and charisma as phenomena that unsettle traditional formulations of the divine among African Americans, I have also wondered if there are any other productive ways to talk about such phenomena and what promises does such inquiry hold for literary study and thought. In no way am I underestimating the significance ecstatic behavior and charismatic expression. However, in thinking further about the legacy of African American spirituality, especially in the twenty-first century, I 206 believe the term swagger will be useful. The third edition of the American Heritage Dictionary defines swagger in three significant ways: (1) to walk with an insolent or arrogant air; strut; (2) to brag or boast; (3) to browbeat or bully (someone). I introduce this term to remind my readers that the representations of black spirituality have a life beyond the written word, as evidenced by the last presidential campaign. For the rest of this epilogue, I will use the term “swagger” or “swag” as a noun to refer to the calm and measured approach that blacks use to address their religious convictions and political views. The title and theme of this portion of my dissertation comes from the hip hop song “You Turn My Swag” cclii by artist Soulja Boy. The lyrics from Soulja Boy’s song poignantly embodies and encapsulates the bold direction of the spirituality of a new generation of black folks as the nation and the world bear witness to their talent as well as their aspirations for the future. Through hip hop music and culture, some African Americans find alternative way to express their outlook and point of view on everyday affairs. Soulja Boy’s lyrics serve as an extension of Du Bois’ double consciousness as well as a commentary on black people’s approach to dealing with the hostility and animus of a society that, in part, was not ready for a black commander-in-chief. Through his song, Soulja Boy illustrates that double consciousness had to do with problems of self-definition resulting from living in a society pervaded by stereotypes and negative images that all Afro-American had to confront. Soulja Boy also shows that double consciousness relates to the exclusion of African Americans from mainstream American 207 institutions, creating a way of life that was both “American” and “not American.” Soulja Boy employs Du Bois’ approach to the black psyche to highlight the internal conflicts in the individual between what was distinctly “African” and what was “American.” With Soulja Boy’s lyrics in mind, I thought about how far African Americans have come since we set foot on the shores of the Atlantic some four hundred years ago. While people of African descent did not choose to come to the Americas, we have found ways to adapt and thrive in our new home. Our bodies may have been scared, beaten, and tortured but our spirits remained ready and strong for the next struggle. Long before churches were built, black folks had developed other creative outlets for expressing their agony and ecstasy. Katie Geneva Cannon reflects on the meaning of enslaved black bodies: The rigor of bondage meant that chattel slaves worked always at the discretion of their owners. They could not sell their own labor. My forebearers had no say-so as to where, for whom, or how they would work. Slaveholders appointed the nature of work, the times for labor and rest, and the amount of work slaves were required to perform. The fruit of Black labor could not convert to financial and material gains for Black people and their families. Black people were exploited for white people’s profit and their pleasure. ccliii African Americans from all walks of life feel so connected to some sort of faith. Blacks in the twenty-first are connected to and by the United States through their pursuit for spiritual autonomy. Ultimately, in a time of increasing economic uncertainty, political disquietude, and cultural transition faith reminds African Americans that they can do anything if they set their minds to it. Faith has been an encouragement in times of hope and a consolation in times of sorrow. It has inspired men and women to works of 208 service in the world and of generosity to each other. It has been a guide in times of perplexity and a direct line to God. With that said, the purpose of the rest of this epilogue is threefold: (1) to briefly summarize how I have deployed the concept of “stepping out on faith” throughout this project and (2) to link Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin to twenty- first century articulations of African American spirituality and (3) to offer some final thoughts about the state of black spirituality and the intersection of race, religion, and popular culture in America. Stepping Out on Faith: A Summary “Stepping Out on Faith” has explored the ways that spirituality continually disposes African Americans to live in the world. Along the way, one has also heard subtle echoes of older voices, which come through their shared senses of frontier, of open spaces, of struggle, and of possibility. By framing the representation of spirituality as a process of “stepping out,” I have analyzed the degree to which African Americans: (1) organize their spiritual thinking and activity on the basis of believing in God (2) be outside of themselves to channel their spiritual energy (3) reach out to others and forge communities (4) not give up on themselves and others (5) break out of their comfort zones (6) not allowing fear and opposition control their fate and destiny For African Americans to organize their spiritual thinking and activity on the basis of God was not an easy task. This means living and lingering in holiness: to be in the world, not of the world. Also this means rejecting the world on the basis of biblically- derived ascetic commitments. When “saints” sing “Holy” unto the Lord, lift up holy hands, and do the holy dance, they are expressing their allegiance to a world where God has determined who is accepted and who will receive power. Saints believe that they are “in” a world that is sinful, oppressive, and discriminatory; they demonstrate that they are 209 not “of” this world by purging themselves of its secularizing influences through rituals that meet their own criteria for cultural authenticity and biblical interpretation. In worship, the saints replicate the “other” world, the place where the oppressed outsider can be at home. Ethically, their allegiance to this “other” world requires them to be loving, honest, and pure, even in relation to their enemies. Just as the sanctuary or temple is the place of ritual possession, their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. Ritual purity in the sanctuary requires purity of body, mind, and spirit outside the sanctuary. By their worship the saints manifest the holy character of the God they serve; by clean living they demonstrate to the world that they possess the Spirit that possesses them in worship. Additionally, the ability to live outside of one’s self was also a challenging task. African Americans that got caught up in material blessings (e.g. the rank of Senator) struggled with their relationship with the spiritual realm. Black spirituality requires getting outside of a self-centered way of thinking. In particular for African American Christians, black people must become Christ centered and Christ focused. Stepping out on faith also means reaching out to others and asking for help, especially in times of need. For African Americans, faith tends to be communal in nature. Often this notion is reinforced with the sentiment “It takes a village.” When black folks share with one another rather than isolate themselves, the community becomes stronger as a whole. Unfortunately, sometimes African Americans act like crabs in a barrel: they would rather eat one another than support one another. Moreover, resilience matters to the faith of African Americans. When one black person says to another one, “Keep on keeping on,” he or she is talking about not giving 210 up and persevering in the midst of hopelessness. For some African Americans this means knowing that they are a part of God’s plan and trusting that He will provide a way for them even if they cannot see it. It is the knowledge that they are not alone and that God is much nearer to them that they have ever imagined. Janie Starks in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God “steps out on faith” when the odds were stacked against her as she defends her love for Tea Cake. She kept right on believing in Tea Cake, even after his death. Furthermore, part of stepping out on faith for African Americans involves breaking out of comfort zones. Sometimes black folks find themselves in a holding pattern where nothing seems to change. However, through great risk comes great reward. Some African Americans have a hard time putting their faith in something that they cannot see nor hold. Others take a more divine approach, trusting in God’s powerful presence and his unyielding commitment to show his children how to follow him in good times as well as the difficult times. Lastly, part of stepping out on faith means boldness and courageousness. For some African Americans this takes the form speaking out about racism and participating in the ongoing struggle for social justice in our nation. Nevertheless, for others it means taking the initiative to follow the Word of God. While the preceding paragraphs present the concept of stepping out on faith as a positive endeavor, there were also moments where it proved to be disappointing and unsettling for some African Americans. Consider the plight of John Grimes in Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain. All John felt was the absence of God; the intense pain of 211 feeling unwanted, that somehow he had been abandoned by God. His cries to God went unanswered, the silence was deafening. Even as he preached the power and certainty of God’s love to others as a teenage minister in Harlem, often it failed to fill his soul. Twentieth Century Modernism Meets Twenty-First Century Swagger In academia and popular culture questions about faith continue to dominate the discourse on spirituality and divinity. By exploring the short stories of Zora Hurston, Ralph Ellison, and James Baldwin, one will better understand not only how African Americans have used spirituality to resist discrimination and racial oppression in the United States in the past but continue to do so today. I use the concept of swagger to illuminate my previous discussions on charisma and ecstasy which have dealt with the complex relationship between longing, belonging, and spiritual development for people of African descent. While Hurston’s “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” Ellison’s “A Party Down at the Square,” and Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” portray fictional accounts of the struggles of African Americans living in the mid twentieth century, they raise important issues about the spiritual health and well being of blacks that are applicable to African Americans living in the Obama era. Hurston and female swagger The short story “How It Feels To Be Colored Me” highlights Hurston’s uncanny ability to assert her individuality and presence as an African American woman living in the South during the first quarter of the twentieth century. Hurston did not need a church setting to affirm or frame her dignity and worth as a human being. Through succinct syntax, precise diction, and selective details, Hurston projects a bold, confident presence 212 that was not typical for women of her time. Consider the following passage where Hurston describes her uniqueness: But I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow damned up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all hurt about it. Even in the helter- skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more or less. No, I do not weep at the world – I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife. ccliv In the preceding excerpt, Hurston rejects the prevailing pathology that black people suffered horribly because of their race. She chose not to participate in the ongoing drama that has resulted from tensions between American blacks and whites. Hurston attempted to operate above the fray when it came to the politics of race relations in the United States. She was not a “race woman” and did not use race as way to organize her concerns about African Americans. Indeed, Hurston was not sensitive about race; she condemned blacks who complained that life was difficult because of their race. In effect, she suggests that blacks should accentuate the positive aspects of living in America rather than be consumed by racial oppression. Hurston reinforces this notion with some sea-faring imagery (“oyster knife”), which implies that the world is where she seeks her fortune. Hurston indirectly refers to the old expression “the world is my oyster” as she suggests that the world is hers and she felt it was whatever she made of it, regardless of her skin color. Hurston’s faith in herself and charismatic stance also comes across quite well as she reflects about slavery. Hurston regards slavery as an unfortunate event rather than a traumatic experience. She approaches the subject as if there was nothing she could do 213 about the actions of the past. Consider the following passage where Hurston looks at the relationship between slavery and civilization: Slavery is the price I paid for civilization, and the choice was not with me. It is a bully adventure and worth all that I have paid through my ancestors for it. No one on earth ever had a greater chance for glory. The world to be won and nothing to be lost. It is thrilling – to know that for any act of mine, I shall get twice as much praise or twice as much blame. It is quite exciting to hold the center of the national stage, with the spectators not knowing whether to laugh or to weep. cclv From Hurston’s point of view, slavery represents a new opportunity for African Americans. Hurston does not feel it is necessary for blacks to hold on to slavery as an excuse for failure in life. Instead, she sees the event as a chance for African Americans to re-invent themselves and to imagine new possibilities. Rather than dwelling upon the past, Hurston forges ahead into the future as if the horrors and travails of slavery had not existed. Her spirit here embodies a “throw caution to the wind” or a “carpe diem” approach to living. Also, she uses her humor as a sort of a shield to quell her critics and to showcase her brazenness. Hurston seems to relish adversity and accepts the fact that artists during her period were going to find fault with her no matter what she did. At the end of the day, she enjoyed the attention that she was receiving - good, bad, or indifferent. As an African American woman living during the late Harlem Renaissance, Hurston welcomed the opportunity to express herself freely no matter what the public thought. For Hurston, being colored was like a voyage of discovery. In this regard, the journey that she went on as a result of her skin color was more adventurous than the actual destination itself. Sometimes Hurston was able to literally go to different places 214 and witness different things because of her skin color; at other times, the trip she would experience was more an odyssey of the mind. At one point in her narrative, Hurston acknowledges the following: “I do not always feel colored. Even now I often achieve the unconscious Zora of Eatonville before the Hegira. cclvi I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background.” cclvii In this scene, Hurston suggests that race only mattered when she was in the presence of whites. Here she implies that racial progress should not be achieved solely through the benevolence of white liberals. Hurston continues to advance her perceptions of racial progress as she described her encounter with a fellow college student. At Barnard, she attended a musical performance with a white person. Consider Hurston’s reaction to a jazz concert at the New World Cabaret: I follow those heathen – I follow them exultingly. I dance wildly inside myself; I yell within, I whoop; I shake my assegai cclviii above my head, I hurl it true to the mark yeeeeooww! I am in the jungle and living in the jungle way. My face is painted red and yellow and my body is painted blue. My pulse is throbbing like a war drum. I want to slaughter something – give pain, give death to what, I do not know. But the piece ends. The men of the orchestra wipe their lips and rest their fingers. I creep back slowly to the veneer we call civilization with the last tone and find the white friend sitting motionless in his seat, smoking calmly. cclix Hurston places herself in a “white environment” in Jacksonville and then she reverses the situation and places a white man in a black jazz club. The jazz scene with her and her white friend illuminates the differences in the races because both people have totally different reactions to the music. While Hurston’s pulse is throbbing and she feels like a jungle animal yelling “yeeeeowww!” because she is feeling the music, her white friend sits there “motionless” and drums “the table with his finger- tips.” Hurston also 215 showcases her interest in anthropology when she places herself in an African tribe with a tribal spear as an illustration of her primal, emotional response to the jazz music. Hurston writes, “I dance wildly inside myself: I yell within, I whoop, I shake my assegai above my head.” Though she feels most colored around whites, she “remains herself” because she is not going to change for anyone. As Hurston maintains her conservative position on race relations in the United States, she also expresses her commitment to her country. To Hurston, America represents a land of possibility and chance. While the Founding Fathers did not initially extend citizenship and civil rights to people who looked, walked, and talked like her, Hurston supported the land of her birth. She makes this quite clear in the following moment: “I have no separate feeling about being an American citizen and colored. I am merely a fragment of the Great Soul that surges within the boundaries. My country, right or wrong.” cclx Here Hurston attributes herself and her existence on earth to a greater, spiritual power. While Hurston does not explicitly mention God, she alludes to his glory and strength. By doing so, she suggests that in the larger configuration of things, race does not really mean all that much. Hurston goes as far as saying that she would stand by her country matter how poorly and inhumanely its forefathers had treated her ancestors. Indeed, Hurston’s patriotism is on display for all to see. She implies that United States is greater than the sum of its parts. Hurston most assuredly “steps out on faith” that a higher, mightier being has authority and supremacy over human beings and their affairs on earth. 216 Moreover, Hurston continues to draw upon her knowledge as a cultural anthropologist, recognizing the interconnections between culture and power. Towards the end of the narrative, she critically examines her privileged position as an anthropologist in gathering data and representing other people. Consider Hurston’s startling image in the final paragraph: But in the main, I feel like a brown bag of miscellany propped against a wall. Against a wall in company with other bags, white, red, and yellow. Pour out the contents, and there is discovered a jumble of small things priceless and worthless. A first-water diamond, an empty spool, bits of broken glass, lengths of string, a key to a door long since crumbled away, a rusty knife-blade, old shoes saved for a road that never was and never will be, a nail bent under the weight of things too heavy for any nail, a dried flower or two still a little fragrant. In your hand is the brown bag. On the ground before you is the jumble it held – so much like the jumble in the bags, could they emptied, that all might be dumped in a single heap and the bags refilled without altering the content of any greatly. A bit of colored glass more or less would not matter. Perhaps that is how the Great Stuffer of Bags filled them in the first place – who knows? cclxi The passage above highlights Hurston’s sense of personal identity. Artifacts (i.e., material products) are possible indicators as to where a person comes from and provide tangible clues about human behavior and conduct. Suppose that Hurston uses the other bags to represent cultures other than her own (i.e., white, red, and yellow). Here Hurston implies that she would be unchanged by any sort of reshuffling or rearrangement if the contents of the bags were emptied. Material culture and the accumulation of stuff did not hold much interest to Hurston and she encourages others, especially blacks, to free themselves from the trappings of a consumerist society. In effect, Hurston has faith that her identity and sense of self would not be drastically impacted by the possession of things. She is comfortable in her own skin, yet is flexible enough to move around in the 217 skin of others. Again, Hurston coquettishly gestures that a higher power might be at work here with the phrase “the Great Stuffer of Bags.” By extension, Hurston also advocates for a colorblind society where she would rather be judged by the content of her character rather than the color of her skin. Hurston thought that being colored was quite amusing at some moments, but a nuisance at other moments. For Hurston, being colored was both a burden and a joy. She was different from other colored people in that she was not sorry for whom she was and that she was not afraid to offend others, especially if she felt passionately about the issue. From Hurston’s angle, she did not care what others called her – whether it was crazy, cosmic, or comical – as long as they just remember to call her. In short, being colored for Hurston meant performing at every chance she got. The swagger that Hurston adopts in “How It Feels to be Colored Me” mirrors the confidence and braggadocio of a rapper. Just as rapper Soulja Boy may boast about making money by selling his music, Hurston brags about seeking her fortune by writing books about African American folk culture. Both speak with pride about overcoming the odds of their success in mainstream society. Soulja Boy talks about how he ignored the indifference of the hip hop industry while Hurston addresses how she transcended the racism and sexism (some of which came from her fellow African Americans, like Richard Wright and Langston Hughes) and produced amazing works of literature that is still widely read today. 218 Ellison and the swag of the Bacote Nigger With “A Party Down At the Square,” Ellison conveys the horrors and injustices of lynching through the eyes of a young white male narrator, who is visiting from Cincinnati. The setting for the story is an unnamed Southern town. Through his narrative, Ellison calls on his readers to demonstrate concern and outrage for the gross violation of human and civil rights practiced by mob violence, often with the consent, involvement or knowledge of law enforcement officials. As the narrator witnesses the murder of a black man, he seems quite indifferent to the sight, smell, and sound of burning flesh. Ellison’s short story captures how blacks attempted to draw upon their spirituality to respond to the devastating physical and psychological impacts of racism. The torture of the “Bacote nigger” by rope and flames crystallized for Ellison his understanding of lynching as a means of white social control. Consider the following scene where the white narrator comments on the sight of a burning black man: God, it was a hell of a night. It was some night all right. When the noise died down I heard the nigger’s voice from where I stood in the back, so I pushed my way up front. The nigger was bleeding from his nose and ears, and I could see him all red where the dark blood was running down his black skin. He kept lifting first one foot and then the other, like a chicken on a hot stove. I looked down to the platform they had him on, and they had pushed a ring of fire up close to his feet. It must have been hot to him with the flames almost touching his big black toes. Somebody yelled for the nigger to say his prayers, but the nigger wasn’t saying anything now. He just kinda moaned with his eyes shut and kept moving up and down on his feet, first one foot and then the other. cclxii The violence that manifested itself in lynchings against blacks was all too common occurrences in the United States, particularly in the South. The invocation of God by the narrator suggests that the magnitude of the spectacle of lynching was so great that it was 219 worthy of divine recognition. Through this interjection, the narrator testifies to the awesomeness of “the party down at the square” and expresses his extreme pleasure and surprise of the evening’s events. By contrast, Ellison portrays the burning black man as suffering in vain, even to the point where the charred figure cannot pray, perhaps for salvation or deliverance. In this scene, the silence of the African American male not only represents the tragedy of the black man’s persecution because of his race, but also symbolizes vexed positioning of African American spirituality, especially during a time of crisis and peril. The reader learns of the quasi-spiritual leanings of the white narrator through his interjection and invocation of God; however, the reader does not explicitly know what the burning black man is thinking and only sees that he is shifting his feet and moaning in discomfort and agony. By denying the black man a chance to voice his prayers, Ellison implies that the faith of African Americans is unspoken and restrained. As the short story unfolds, the situation for the burning black male does not get any better. Ellison explores the troubling relationship between race and religion as the conflict in his narrative escalates to new heights. Consider the scene where the charred African American man addresses Jed Wilson, one of the white townspeople and candidate for sheriff: The nigger tried to say something I couldn’t hear for the roar of the wind in the fire, and I strained my ears. Jed Wilson hollered, “What you say there, nigger?” And it came back through the flames in his nigger voice: “Will one a you gentlemen please cut my throat?” he said. “Will somebody please cut my throat like a Christian?” And Jed hollered back, “Sorry, but ain’t no Christian around tonight. Ain’t no Jew-boys neither. We’re just one hundred percent Americans.” cclxiii 220 Ellison exposes the irony associated with African Americans adopting Christianity. Blacks who found refuge and solace in religious instruction often found themselves at the mercy of whites who did not respect their Christian faith, devotion to God, and knowledge of the Bible. For the burning black man to ask for a Christian death, he aligns himself with Jesus. Like Jesus, the black man thought he was wrongly accused and falsely condemned. The request that the dying African American male seemed fine until he insisted upon bringing Christianity into the picture, which proved to be a source of alienation and amusement to Jed. Ellison challenges the efficacy of Judeo-Christian roots in the United States. The swagger that Bicote Nigger adopts in “A Party Down at the Square” takes on quite a religious tone. By figuratively and literally keeping cool under fire, the lynched black man showed how bad (as in bad ass) he can be. Indeed it takes a lot of guts to stand up to race baiting bigots, just as the Bicote Nigger did. Just as rappers may confront psychological and experiential logic in their music (e.g. Jay-Z asserting, “When the gun is tucked, untucked, nigga you dies,” a verse taken from the song “Threat” which is from his The Black Album cclxiv ), the lynched black man also faces the same scenario when Jed Wilson mocked him wanting to die like Christian. Baldwin and the blues swagger James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” reflects the story of two brothers who struggle to understand one another in post World War II Harlem. The brothers embody two sides of African American experiences in the 1950’s and 1960’s: assimilation with limited privileges versus isolation and pain. The older brother, an algebra teacher, is the unnamed 221 narrator who represents order and social respectability and a possible pathway to integration. Sonny, who is about seven years younger, is blues musician addicted to heroin and attempts to find meaning in life through suffering. Baldwin uses the medium of the blues to highlight the intricate bonds the bind one brother to the other. While Baldwin draws upon the metaphor of the blues to educate his readers about the complexity of black freedom, I contend that the narrative also represents a commentary about African American spiritual practices. Through the phenomena of charisma and ecstasy, I show that Baldwin’s short story may be used as a model for making sense of black creative expression. Sonny’s battle with drug addiction did not do much for his poor relationship with his older brother. For Sonny, heroin led to a life of petty crime and hustling in the streets. Ultimately such behavior landed him in prison where he had some time to think about some of the poor decisions he made and meditate on the hardships he imposed on himself and others. However, at one point Sonny returns home and attempts to set things right with his family. Consider the following scene where Sonny’s brother looks down from his apartment window and observes the procession on the street: It was strange, suddenly, to watch, though I had been seeing these street meetings all my life. So, of course, had everybody else down there. Yet, they paused and watched and listened and I stood at the window. “Tis the old ship of Zion,” they sang, and the sister with the tambourine kept a steady, jangling beat, “it has rescued many a thousand!” Not a soul under the sound of their voices was hearing this song for the first time, not one of them had been rescued. Nor had they seen much in the way of rescue work being done around them. Neither did they especially believe in the holiness of the three sisters and the brother, they knew too much about them, knew where they lived, and how. The woman with the tambourine, whose voice dominated the air, whose face was bright with joy, was divided by very little from the woman who stood watching her, a cigarette 222 between her heavy, chapped lips, her hair a cuckoo’s nest, her face scarred and swollen from many beatings, and her black eyes glittering like coal. Perhaps they both knew this, which was why, when, as rarely, they addressed each other, they addressed each other as Sister. As the singing filled the air the watching, listening faces underwent a change, the eyes focusing on something within; the music seemed to soothe a poison out of them; and time seemed, nearly to fall away from the sullen, belligerent, battered faces, as though they were fleeing back to their first condition, while dreaming of their last. cclxv The preceding passage captures the new relationship that emerges between the two brothers. Prior to this scene, Sonny’s brother is a brother in name only. He is not a “brother” in the African-American sense; he does not even know who Charlie Parker is. To become a “brother” in that sense, he must accept his heritage of suffering rather than attempt to escape from it. However, by the time street revival takes place, the brothers begin to think of brotherhood more broadly and substantively. Sonny’s brother recognizes that music of the street revival has given him and his brother a new lease on life, for it “seemed to soothe a poison out of them.” Sonny’s brother begins to tear down some of the psychological and cultural walls that were separating him from Sonny. Prior to this scene, Sonny’s brother had serious reservations about Sonny performing in a blues band. Consequently, Sony extends to his older brother an invitation to go see him play his own music in a nightclub. Sony desperately wants to be heard, just like the brothers and sisters playing their church revival music in the streets. In effects, Sony not only asks his older brother to listen to his music, but also to listen to him talk about the trials and tribulations he is trying to work resolve through music rather than drugs and crime. By the end of the story, Sony and his brother were heading down the path of reconciliation. Sony introduced his brother to Creole, the bass player who leads the band 223 that Sonny plays in the final scene of the narrative. Creole functions as a kind of father figure for Sonny and believes it is his purpose to guide Sonny through his blues and teach him how to turn them into music. As a result of Creole’s intervention, Sonny’s brother now has a better understanding and greater appreciation for Sonny as a human being and an artist. Consider the moment where Sonny plays the piano: Then they all gathered around Sonny and Sonny played. Every now and again one of them seemed to say, amen. Sonny’s fingers filled the air with life. But that life contained so many others. And Sonny went all the way back, he really began with the spare, flat statement of the opening phrase of the song. Then he began to make it his. cclxvi Blues music truly captured Sonny’s spirit. The piano allowed Sonny to finally be heard. While Creole was able to tell the reader in words how much music meant to Sonny, Sonny used the piano to convey his blues, the deep and heavy feeling, akin to melancholy and depression, that was impossible to explain just in words. For Sonny as well as for several of the black characters in the narrative, the blues was a mental and emotional state arising from recognition of limitation imposed by racial barriers to opportunity. Ultimately, Baldwin shows his readers that communication is central to exchanges between human beings. He complicates our understanding of words like “listen” and “hear.” On the surface, both of these terms underscore the importance of learning and perceiving, but Baldwin was after something more. Indeed, Baldwin was writing for the reader’s ear as well as the reader’s mind. The swagger that the protagonist adopts in “Sonny’s Blues” parallels the stance and spontaneity of a hip hop artist such as Jay- Z. Just as Jay-Z manifests physical badness and coolness in his song “Dirt Off Your Shoulder,” Sonny exhibits the same sort 224 of fearlessness as he moves about the street corners and blues venues of Harlem. Both men, as a part of their swagger, embrace secularism and personify a hustler’s spirit. When Jay-Z declares, “You ain’t gotta go to church to get to know yo’ God” (a verse taken from the song “Threat” on his The Black Album cclxvii ), he celebrates a spirituality that does not require attending the house of the Lord. By locating spirituality outside of the church, Jay-Z suggests that not all black people take comfort in gathering divine forums. For example, some may stay home and listen to music as a way of honoring a higher force. Others, like Sonny, find refuge in the blues. As a blues performer moving from club to club, he used his piano to improvise – to respond spur-of-the-moment to the needs of his fellow musicians and the audience. In a sense, Sonny’s idea of personal fulfillment and spiritual engagement came from a piano keyboard, not a synagogue or a sermon. Ecstasy, Charisma, and Swagger: A Last Stand What Soulja Boy, Jay-Z, and Obama did for spirituality as musicians or politicians in the early twenty-first century parallels what Baldwin, Hurston, and Ellison did for spirituality as writers of African American literature in the mid twentieth century. They all take us to a higher level of understanding and respect for ourselves and the world we live in. All of them show that the minds, bodies and spirits of black people are alive and well. Moreover, they all have changed the course of black spirituality by offering viable models for working through conflicts that may arise in the modern church. Part of my desire to write about the spirituality of black folks emerged out of a sincere hope that I could improve the state of mind and well being of young people, 225 especially those who happen to come from difficult or unfortunate circumstances. Along the way, one of the goals of this project is to increase people’s awareness of the competing paths to spirituality in the black community. Baldwin, Hurston and Ellison remind us that some black people may come from circumstances, but they are not their circumstances. Through writing, men and women of African descent have the potential to be a healing presence. More precisely, writing becomes a way of lifting up the spirits of the next generation through the printed word, in addition to our oral tradition, which is reflected in rap, hip-hop, and poetry. In the end, faith follows us and keeps us strong in the midnight hour. 226 Endnotes Introduction Endnotes i Charles H. Long, Significations: Signs, Symbols, and Images in the Interpretation of Religion. (Philadelerphia: Fortress Press, 1986) 138. ii India.Arie, “Strength, Courage, & Wisdom Lyrics,” online posting, 19 Oct. 2007, SING365.com <http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Strength-Courage-Wisdom- lyrics-India-Arie/F2C17332B6DDCB5748256A56002C0339>. iii Albert J. Raboteau, “Death of the Gods.” In African American Religious Thought: An Anthology. (Louisville and London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003) 263. iv Ibid. v Ibid., 259. vi Ibid., 261. vii Ibid. viii Albert J. Raboteau, “Ethiopia Shall Soon Stretch Forth Her Hands.” In African American Religious Thought: An Anthology. (Louisville and London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003) 402. ix Ibid., 411. x Elsa Barkley Brown, “Negotiating and Transforming the Public Sphere: African American Political Life in the Transition from Slavery to Freedom.” In African American Religious Thought: An Anthology. (Louisville and London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003) 463. xi W.E.B. Du Bois, “Of the Faith of the Fathers.” In African American Religious Thought: An Anthology.(Louisville and London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003) 3. xii John O. Hodges, “Charles Manuel ‘Sweet Daddy’ Grace.” In African American Religious Thought: An Anthology. (Louisville and London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003) 608. xiii Albert B. Cleage, Jr., “A Sense of Urgency.” In African American Religious Thought: An Anthology. (Louisville and London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003) 767. 227 xiv James H. Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation: Twentieth Anniversary Edition. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990) 5. xv Ibid., 7. xvi Ibid., 25. xvii Howard Thurman, “From The Luminous Darkness.” In African American Religious Thought: An Anthology. (Louisville and London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003) 682-683. xviii Ibid., 690. xix James H. Cone, “Black Spirituals: A Theological Interpretation.” In African American Religious Thought: An Anthology.(Louisville and London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003) 778. xx Ibid., 780. xxi Howard Thurman, “The Negro Spiritual Speaks of Life and Death: Love.” In African American Religious Thought: An Anthology.(Louisville and London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003) 30. xxii James H. Cone, “Black Spirituals: A Theological Interpretation.” In African American Religious Thought: An Anthology.(Louisville and London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003) 782. xxiii Ibid. xxiv Dwight N. Hopkins, “Slave Theology in the ‘Invisible Institution.’” In African American Religious Thought: An Anthology.(Louisville and London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003) 806. xxv Kelly Brown Douglas, “Homophobia and Heterosexism in the Black Church and Community.” In African American Religious Thought: An Anthology.(Louisville and London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003) 1004. xxvi Barbara Hill Hudson, African American Female Speech Communities: Varieties of Talk. (Westport, CT and London: Bergin & Garvey, 2001) 2. xxvii Elinor Ochs and Lisa Capps, “Narrating the Self.” (Annual Review of Anthropolgy 25, Spring 1996) 20. 228 xxviii Marcyliena Morgan, “Indirectness and Interpretation in African American Women’s Discourse.” International Pragmatics Association, 1991. Pragmatics (4): 425. xxix Jacqueline S. Mattis, “African American women’s definitions of spirituality and religiosity.” Journal of Black Psychology, 26, 101-122. xxx Henry Louis Gates Jr., Bearing Witness: Selections from African American Autobiography in the Twentieth Century (New York: Pantheon Books, 1991) 3. xxxi Geneva Smitherman, Talkin and Testifyin: The Language of Black America. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1977) 104. xxxii Ibid. xxxiii Ibid. xxxiv Frances Kostarelos, Feeling The Spirit: Faith and Hope in an Evangelical Black Storefront Church. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1995) 42. xxxv Field notes taken from April 2001 visit to Under the Big Tree Ministry. xxxvi Geneva Smitherman, Talkin and Testifyin: The Language of Black America. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1977) 108. xxxvii Ibid., 109. xxxviii Mario Azevedo, Africana Studies: A Survey of Africa and the African Diaspora. (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1998) 277. Chapter 1 Endnotes xxxix Gloria Wade-Gayles, My Soul is a Witness: African-American Women’s Spirituality (Boston: Beacon Press, 1995) 2-3. xl Ralph D. Story, “Gender and Ambition: Zora Neale Hurston in the Harlem Renaissance.” In Critical Essays on Zora Neale Hurston (New York: G.K. Hall & Company, 1998) 132. Story’s application of John Langston Gwaltney’s term “core” which he uses to characterize the most representative, germane experience of “everyday” black people is quite insightful here. By extension, I am interested in the use of the term here because some scholars and writers have come to regard the black church as the “core” of the black community. See John Langston Gwaltney, Drylongso (New York: Random House, 1980), p. xxii. 229 xli Zora Neale Hurston, Mules and Men (New York: Harper Perennial, 1990) 3. xlii Ibid., 21-22. xliii Ibid., 23. xliv Ibid., 139-142 xlv Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1990) 9. xlvi Henry Louis Gates, Jr., “Their Eyes Were Watching God: Hurston and the Speakerly Text.” In Zora Neale Hurston: Critical Perspectives Past and Present (New York: Amistad, 1993) 170. xlvii Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1990) 23-24. xlviii Ibid., 24. xlix Mary Helen Washington, “‘I Love the Way Janie Crawford Left Her Husbands’: Emergent Female Hero.” In Zora Neale Hurston: Critical Perspectives Past and Present (New York: Amistad, 1993) 99-100. l Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1990) 25. li Henry Louis Gates, Jr., “Their Eyes Were Watching God: Hurston and the Speakerly Text.” In Zora Neale Hurston: Critical Perspectives Past and Present (New York: Amistad, 1993) 196. lii Cheryl A. Wall, “Zora Neale Hurston: Changing Her Own Words.” In Bloom’s BioCritiques: Zora Neale Hurston (Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2003) 118. liii Ibid., 38. liv Ibid., 43. lv Ibid., 44. 230 lvi Ibid., 29. lvii Susan Willis, “Wandering: Hurston’s Search for Self and Method.” In Zora Neale Hurston: Critical Perspectives Past and Present (New York: Amistad, 1993) 117. lviii Ibid., 123. lix Cheryl A. Wall, Women of the Harlem Renaissance (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1995) 180. lx Ibid., 30. lxi Ibid., 31-32. lxii Henry Louis Gates, Jr., “Their Eyes Were Watching God: Hurston and the Speakerly Text.” In Zora Neale Hurston: Critical Perspectives Past and Present (New York: Amistad, 1993) 167. lxiii Ibid., 37 lxiv Mary Helen Washington, “‘I Love the Way Janie Crawford Left Her Husbands’: Emergent Female Hero.” In Zora Neale Hurston: Critical Perspectives Past and Present (New York: Amistad, 1993) 115. lxv Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1990) 41-42. lxvi Ibid., 49-50. lxvii Ibid, 137-138. lxviii Ibid., 69-70. lxix Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1990) 74. lxx Ibid., 81. lxxi Ibid., 85. lxxii Patricia Sharpe, “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” In Masterpieces of African American Literature. (New York: Salem Press, Inc.) 570. 231 lxxiii Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1990) 89. lxxiv Ibid., 91. lxxv Ibid., 111. lxxvi Ibid., 112. lxxvii Ibid., 116-117. lxxviii Ibid., 122-123. lxxix Ibid., 139-140. lxxx Ibid., 143. lxxxi Ibid., 161. lxxxii Ibid., 180. lxxxiii Ibid., 188-189. lxxxiv Ibid., 200. lxxxv Ibid., 277-278. lxxxvi Ibid., 284-285. lxxxvii Ibid., 215-216. lxxxviii John Renard, The Handy Religion Answer Book (Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 2002) 180. lxxxix Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1990) 216. xc Ibid., 284. xci Ibid., 286. 232 Chapter 2 Endnotes xcii Geneva Smitherman, Talkin and Testifyin: The Language of Black America. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1977) 151. xciii Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks. (New York: Grove Press, 1967) 17. xciv Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man. (New York: Vintage Books, 1995) 118. xcv Ibid., 312. xcvi John Hope Franklin and Alfred E. Moss, From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans. (New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1994) 271. xcvii Ibid. xcviii Ibid. xcix Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (New York: Random House, Inc., 1980) 29-30. c Ibid., 31. ci Ibid. cii Ibid., 308. ciii Ibid., 276. civ Ibid., 281. cv Ibid., 343. cvi Ibid., 381. cvii Geneva Smitherman, Talkin That Talk: Language, Culture, and Education in African America (London and New York: Routledge, 2000) 203. cviii Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (New York: Random House, Inc., 1980) 575. cix Ralph Ellison, Juneteenth. (New York: Vintage Books, 1999) xix-xxii. cx James Alan McPherson, “Indivisible Man,” In Speaking for You: The Vision of Ralph Ellison. (Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1987) 26. 233 cxi Ibid., 29. cxii Ibid. cxiii Ralph Ellison, Juneteenth. (New York: Vintage Books, 1999) 16-17. cxiv Ibid., 21. cxv Ibid., 22-23. cxvi Ibid., 37. cxvii Ibid., 38. cxviii Ibid., 57. cxix Ibid., 145-146. cxx Ibid., 153-154. cxxi Ibid., 238. cxxii Ibid., 58. cxxiii See also Job chapters 9,10, 14; 34:20; Psalm 90; 102:11,12;103:15; Isaiah 40:6-8; James 1:10, 11; 1 Peter 1:24,25. cxxiv See also Jeremiah 32:17; Matthew 19:26; Mark 10:27; Luke 1:37; 18:27. cxxv See also 2 Corinthians 12:9; Hebrews 4:15; Job 23. cxxvi See also Job 11:7-12;21;22; 36:22-33;37:5-24; 38:4. cxxvii See also Psalm 139:7-12; Ephesians 1:23;4:10;Colossians 3:11 cxxviii See also Job 23; 37:23;38-41. cxxix Ralph Ellison, Juneteenth. (New York: Vintage Books, 1999) 222-223. cxxx Michael J. Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 510. cxxxi Ibid., 514. cxxxii Ralph Ellison, Juneteenth. (New York: Vintage Books, 1999) 107. 234 cxxxiii Ibid., 109. cxxxiv Epiphany is derived from the Greek word meaning to show or reveal, when Christ was revealed to non-Jews. It occurs on January 6 th coming twelve days after Christmas. This time also celebrates the arrival of the Magi (Three Wise Men) who visited Jesus. As the Magi were non-Jews, Christians see their visit as a sign that Christ's message is for all nations. cxxxv Irishman James Joyce, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, first adapted the word to a secular meaning: a sudden radiance and revelation while observing a commonplace object. cxxxvi Ralph Ellison, Juneteenth. (New York: Vintage Books, 1999) 111-112. cxxxvii Ibid.,112. cxxxviii Ibid., 192-193. cxxxix Satan tempted Jesus to perform a miracle, “If you are the Son of God, command these stone to become loaves of bread” (Matthew 4:3 and Luke 4:3), but Jesus answered him with a text from Hebrew scripture: “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Deuteronomy 8:3, Matt 4:4, and Luke 4:4). Taking Jesus to the pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem, Satan started to quote scripture himself, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you’” (Luke 4:9-11, Mark4:5-6, and Psalms 91:11). Jesus replied: “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test’” (Matthew 4:7, Luke 4:12, and Deuteronomy 6:16). Finally Satan offered Jesus the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, as though they were his to give away, if Jesus would turn from God: “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me’” (Matthew 4:9 and Luke 4:7). Again Jesus replied to Satan with a biblical verse: “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him’” (Matthew 4;10, Luke 4:8, and Deuteronomy 6:13). cxl Ralph Ellison, Juneteenth. (New York: Vintage Books, 1999) 195. cxli Ibid., 196. cxlii Ibid. cxliii Ibid. cxliv Ibid., 198. 235 cxlv Ibid., 337. cxlvi Ibid. cxlvii Robert J. Butler, “Juneteenth: Ralph Ellison’s National Narrative.” In The Critical Response to Ralph Ellison. (Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press, 2000) 223. cxlviii Ralph Ellison, Juneteenth. (New York: Vintage Books, 1999) 338. cxlix Ibid., 112. cl Ibid., 113. cli Ibid., 121. clii Ibid., 122-123. cliii Eileen Southern, The Music of Black Americans: A History. (New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997) 172. cliv Ralph Ellison, Juneteenth. (New York: Vintage Books, 1999) 127. clv Ibid., 130-131. clvi Ibid., 129. clvii Ibid., 136. clviii Ibid., 133. clix Ibid. clx Ibid., 135. clxi Geneva Smitherman, Talkin That Talk: Language, Culture and Education in African America. (London and New York: Routledge, 2000) 211. clxii Ralph Ellison, Juneteenth. (New York: Vintage Books, 1999) 137. clxiii Ibid. clxiv Geneva Smitherman, Talkin and Testifyin: The Language of Black America. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1977) 150-151. 236 clxv Ralph Ellison, Juneteenth. (New York: Vintage Books, 1999) 138-139. clxvi Geneva Smitherman, Talkin That Talk: Language, Culture and Education in African America. (London and New York: Routledge, 2000) 211. clxvii Ibid., 406. clxviii Ibid., 150. clxix Ibid. clxx Ralph Ellison, Juneteenth. (New York: Vintage Books, 1999) 296. clxxi Ibid., 302. clxxii Robert J. Butler, “Juneteenth: Ralph Ellison’s National Narrative.” In The Critical Response to Ralph Ellison. (Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press, 2000) 221. clxxiii Ralph Ellison, Juneteenth. (New York: Vintage Books, 1999) 305. clxxiv Ibid., 311. clxxv Jim Jones, quoted in James Reston, Jr., and Noah Adams, “Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown,” program on National Public Radio (23 April 1981). Chapter 3 Endnotes clxxvi James H. Evans, Jr., Black Theology: A Critical Assessment and Annotated Bibliography. (New York and Westport, CT: Greenwood Press) 4. clxxvii David Leeming, James Baldwin: A Biography. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.) 3. clxxviii Ibid. clxxix Michael F. Lynch, “A Glimpse of the Hidden God: Dialectical Vision in Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain.” In New Essays on Go Tell It on the Mountain. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996) 34. 237 clxxx Ibid., 37. clxxxi Horace Porter, “The South in Go Tell It on the Mountain: Baldwin’s Personal Confrontation” In New Essays on Go Tell It on the Mountain. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996) 68. clxxxii Ibid. clxxxiii Csaba Csapo, “Race, Religion, and Sexuality in Go Tell It on the Mountain.” In James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain: Historical and Critical Essays. (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2004) 59. clxxxiv Shirley S. Allen, “Religious Symbolism and Psychic Reality in Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain.” In Critical Essays on James Baldwin. (Boston, MA: G.K. Hall & Company, 1988) 167. clxxxv Ibid., 168. clxxxvi Ibid. clxxxvii Sondra A. O’Neale, “Fathers, Gods, and Religion: Perception of Christianity and Ethnic Faith in James Baldwin.” In Critical Essays on James Baldwin. (Boston, MA: G.K. Hall & Company, 1988) 126. clxxxviii Fred L. Standley, “James Baldwin: The Artist as Incorrigible Disturber of the Peace.” In Critical Essays on James Baldwin. (Boston, MA: G.K. Hall & Company, 1988) 44. clxxxix Csaba Csapo, “Race, Religion, and Sexuality in Go Tell It on the Mountain.” In James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain: Historical and Critical Essays. (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2004) 57. cxc Ibid., 60. cxci E. Henderson, “Reconciling the Spirit: The Father, the Son, and Go Tell It on the Mountain” In James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain: Historical and Critical Essays. (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2004) 7. 238 cxcii Margo Natalie Crawford, “The Reclamation of the Homoerotic as Spiritual in Go Tell It on the Mountain .” In James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain: Historical and Critical Essays. (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2004) 76. cxciii Carol E. Henderson, “Reconciling the Spirit: The Father, the Son, and Go Tell It on the Mountain” In James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain: Historical and Critical Essays. (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2004) 6. cxciv Albert Raboteau, A Fire in the Bones: Reflections on African American Religious History. (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2004) 8. cxcv James H. Cone and Gayraud S. Wilmore, Black Theology: A Documentary History, Volume One: 1966-1979. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993) 60. cxcvi Clarence E. Hardy III, “From Exodus to Exile: Black Pentecostals, Migration, and Imagined Internationalism,” 743. cxcvii James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain. (New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1952) 12. cxcviii Ibid, 13. cxcix Ibid., 14-15. cc Ibid., 57. cci Clarence E. Hardy III, “From Exodus to Exile: Black Pentecostals, Migrating Pilgrims, and Imagined Internationalism,” 746. ccii Ibid., 19. cciii Ibid., 21. cciv Ibid., 34. ccv Ibid., 37. ccvi “Blond,” The American Heritage Dictionary, 1992 ed. The third edition of the American Heritage Dictionary’s discussion of the usage of “blond” (also spelled “blonde”) is quite instructive here: “It is usual in English to treat blond as if it required 239 gender marking, as in French, spelling it blonde when referring to women and blond elsewhere. But this practice is in fact a relatively recent innovation, and some have suggested that it has sexist implications and that the form blond should be used for both sexes. There is certainly a measure of justice to the claim that the two forms are not used symmetrically. Since English does not normally mark adjectives according to the gender of the nouns they modify, it is natural to interpret the final –e as expressing some additional meaning, perhaps because it implies that hair color provides a primary category of classification for women but not men. The association of hair color and a particular perception of feminine identity is suggested in phrases as dumb blonde and Is it true blondes have more fun? … The corresponding masculine form blond, by contrast, is not ordinarily used to refer to men in contexts in which hair color is not specifically at issue…” ccvii James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain. (New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1952) 33. ccviii Horace Porter, “The South in Go Tell It on the Mountain: Baldwin’s Personal Confrontation” In New Essays on Go Tell It on the Mountain. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996) 68. ccix James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain. (New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1952) 37. ccx Ibid., 42-43. ccxi Ibid., 15-16. ccxii E. Patrick Johnson, “Feeling the Spirit in the Dark: Expanding Notions of the Sacred in the African-American Gay Community” Callaloo 21.2 (1998) 399-416. ccxiii James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain. (New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1952) 52-53. ccxiv Bryan R. Washington, “Wrestling with ‘The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name’: John, Elisha, and the ‘Master.’” In New Essays on Go Tell It on the Mountain. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996) 90. ccxv James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain. (New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1952) 49-50. 240 ccxvi Ibid., 92. ccxvii Ibid., 136-137. ccxviii Michael F. Lynch, “A Glimpse of the Hidden God: Dialectical Vision in Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain,” New Essays on Go Tell It on the Mountain, ed. Trudier Harris (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996) 40. ccxix Ibid., 47. ccxx James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain. (New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1952) 193. ccxxi James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain. (New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1952) 200-201. ccxxii Jermaine Singleton, “Sacred and Silent (Man)ufacturing: Melancholy, Race, and the Gendered Politics of Testifying in James Baldwin’s Go Tell it On the Mountain.” In James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain: Historical and Critical Essays. (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2004) 118. ccxxiii James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain. (New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1952) 204. ccxxiv Ibid., 207. ccxxv Ibid., 220. ccxxvi Ibid., 221. ccxxvii Clarence E. Hardy, III, James Baldwin’s God”: Sex, Hope, and Crisis in Black Holiness Culture. (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 2003) 10. ccxxviii James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time. (New York, NY: The Dial Press, 1963) 18. ccxxix Ibid., 21. ccxxx Ibid., 21-22. 241 ccxxxi Ibid., 22. ccxxxii Ibid., 30. ccxxxiii Ibid., 32. ccxxxiv Ibid., 33. ccxxxv Ibid., 37. ccxxxvi Ibid., 38. ccxxxvii Ibid., 43. ccxxxviii Ibid., 46. ccxxxix Ibid., 47. ccxl Ibid. ccxli Ibid., 48. ccxlii Ibid., 53-54. ccxliii Sondra A. O’Neale, “Fathers, Gods, and Religion: Perception of Christianity and Ethnic Faith in James Baldwin.” In Critical Essays on James Baldwin. (Boston, MA: G.K. Hall & Company, 1988) 134. ccxliv David Leeming, James Baldwin: A Biography. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1994) 214. ccxlv James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time. (New York, NY: The Dial Press, 1963) 85. ccxlvi Lawrie Balfour, “Finding the Words: Baldwin, Race Consciousness, and Democratic Theory.” In James Baldwin Now. (New York and London: New York University Press) 90. ccxlvii James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time. (New York, NY: The Dial Press, 1963) 106. ccxlviii Ibid., 117-118. 242 ccxlix Lawrie Balfour, “Finding the Words: Baldwin, Race Consciousness, and Democratic Theory.” In James Baldwin Now. (New York and London: New York University Press) 94. Conclusion Endnotes ccl Soulja Boy, “Turn My Swag On.” The rest of the lyrics for this song may be found at http://www.elyrics.net/read/s/soulja-boy-lyrics/turn-my-swag-on-lyrics.html. ccli Jay-Z, “Dirt Off Your Shoulder Lyrics,” Lyrics 007. May 27, 2008, Lyrics 007.com. <http://www.lyrics007.com/Jay- z%20Lyrics/Dirt%20Off%20Your%20Shoulder%20Lyrics.html> cclii Soulja Boy, “Turn My Swag On.” The rest of the lyrics for this song may be found at http://www.elyrics.net/read/s/soulja-boy-lyrics/turn-my-swag-on-lyrics.html. ccliii Gloria Wade-Gayles, My Soul is a Witness: African-American Women’s Spirituality (Boston: Beacon Press, 1995) 20. ccliv Zora Neale Hurston, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me.” Editors Donald Mc Quade and Robert Atwan, The Writer’s Presence: A Pool of Essays (Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press, 1994) 75. cclv Ibid., 76. cclvi Heigira: A journey to safety. Historically it refers to Mohammed’s flight from Mecca in 622 A.D. cclvii Zora Neale Hurston, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me.” Editors Donald Mc Quade and Robert Atwan, The Writer’s Presence: A Pool of Essays (Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press, 1994) 76. cclviii Assegai: a hunting spear. cclix Zora Neale Hurston, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me.” Editors Donald Mc Quade and Robert Atwan, The Writer’s Presence: A Pool of Essays (Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press, 1994) 76. cclx Ibid., 77. cclxi Ibid. 243 cclxii Ralph Ellison, “A Party Down at the Square.” Flying Home and Other Stories, 5. cclxiii Ibid., 8. cclxiv The rest of the lyrics for Jay-Z song “Threat” may be found at http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/jayz/threat.html cclxv James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues.” Paul Lauter (editor), The Heath Anthology of American Literature – Volume E, Contemporary Period: 1945 to the Present. (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006) 2209. cclxvi Ibid., 2214. cclxvii The rest of the lyrics for Jay-Z song “Threat” may be found at http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/jayz/threat.html 244 Bibliography Azevedo, Mario. Africana Studies: A Survey of Africa and the African Diaspora. Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1998. Baldwin, James. The Fire Next Time. New York: The Dial Press, 1963. -----------. Go Tell It on the Mountain. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1952. Benston, Kimberly W. (ed.). Speaking for You: The Vision of Ralph Ellison. Washington, DC : Howard University Press, 1987. Cone, James H. A Black Theology of Liberation, Twentieth Anniversary Edition. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1991. Cronin, Gloria L., ed. Critical Essays on Zora Neale Hurston. New York: G. K. Hall, 1998. Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Random House, Inc., 1980. -------. Juneteenth. New York: Vintage Books, 1999. Erickson, Michael J. Christian Theology. 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Abstract (if available)
Abstract
This dissertation examines how African American writers experience faith in a society that has historically devalued their humanity and intellectual abilities. It calls for a new understanding of the unique obstacles blacks face in expressing their spirituality in America and points to a variety of secular and sacred practices that can mitigate those challenges and promote creativity. Working within the interpretive lens of African American literary criticism and African American religious studies, the central question of my dissertation asks, what were the forces that shaped African American religiosity in the interwar period and beyond?
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University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
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Asset Metadata
Creator
Smith, Anton Lowell
(author)
Core Title
Stepping out on faith: representing spirituality in African American literature from the Harlem Renaissance to the Civil Rights Movement
School
College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Degree Program
American Studies and Ethnicity
Degree Conferral Date
2010-05
Publication Date
03/31/2010
Defense Date
03/12/2012
Publisher
University of Southern California
(original),
University of Southern California. Libraries
(digital)
Tag
African American religion,African American spirituality,African American studies,black religion,black spirituality,OAI-PMH Harvest,religion
Place Name
USA
(countries)
Language
English
Contributor
Electronically uploaded by the author
(provenance)
Advisor
Rowe, John Carlos (
committee chair
), Gómez-Barris, Macarena (
committee member
), Gordon, Michelle Y. (
committee member
)
Creator Email
als3h@aol.com,antonsmi@usc.edu
Permanent Link (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-m2889
Unique identifier
UC1183793
Identifier
etd-Smith-3591 (filename),usctheses-m40 (legacy collection record id),usctheses-c127-306759 (legacy record id),usctheses-m2889 (legacy record id)
Legacy Identifier
etd-Smith-3591.pdf
Dmrecord
306759
Document Type
Dissertation
Rights
Smith, Anton Lowell
Type
texts
Source
University of Southern California
(contributing entity),
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
(collection)
Repository Name
Libraries, University of Southern California
Repository Location
Los Angeles, California
Repository Email
cisadmin@lib.usc.edu
Tags
African American religion
African American spirituality
African American studies
black religion
black spirituality
religion