Previous
Mood
Definition of Motif
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the central themes of a book... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of... read full definition
Part 1: The Seventh Day
Explanation and Analysis—The Dirty House :
Throughout Go Tell It on the Mountain, Baldwin utilizes the motif of a dirty living space to repeatedly comment upon the embedded nature of both racism and religious guilt in American culture. At the beginning of the novel, John repeatedly complains about his least favorite household chore: cleaning the seemingly eternally-dirty rugs:
He felt like an indescribably weary traveler who sees his home at last. Yet for each dustpan he so laboriously filled at the doorsill demons added to the rug twenty more; [...] and nearly wept to think that so much labor brought so little reward.
The rugs that John must clean require him to labor intensively without any real reward. They symbolize both the permanence of racial injustice and religious guilt throughout John's life. While racism and religion are different entities—with religious sin being more a terror of conscience and racial injustice being both physical and mental terror—they act together to influence John's life and represent the social environment that surrounds him. John does not have the power to refuse the task, nor does he have the power to situate himself elsewhere: in the 1930s, Black Americans living in cities such as New York were firmly segregated and sometimes forced to live in less desirable areas. The dirty rug also represents John's dirty conscience. He feels he has sinned because of his homosexual desires and is permanently "dirtied" by these thoughts and actions, which go against the teachings of the Bible—unless he can somehow achieve ultimate salvation and forgiveness.
Later in the novel, Baldwin returns to the motif of dirty rugs during a flashback to Florence's youth in "Florence's Prayer." Florence grows angry over her and others' Blackness and seeks to bleach her skin but is unsuccessful. Her internalized racism and internalized misogyny develop into unabashed anger over the "curse" of her race:
Why had He preferred her mother and her brother, the old, black woman, and the low, black man, while she, who had sought only to walk upright, was come to die, alone and in poverty, in a dirty, furnished room? She beat her fists heavily against the altar.
Like John's frustration over his failure to clean the dirty rug, Florence feels frustration over her perceived failure to "clean" herself—for she knows that her racist society prizes Whiteness above all else. She seeks to walk "upright," unlike her parents, but feels herself fighting a losing battle, just like John.
The motif of dirtiness appears again in "Part Three: The Threshing-Floor." John feels he has committed a sin for staring at Gabriel's naked body and cursing it. Alone with his father in the "dirty bathroom, in the square, dirt-gray cupboard room," John feels wracked with religious guilt—a guilt that appears to dirty his very soul. Here, the motif of the dirty house represents the concepts of sin and purity and their ties to darkness and light, respectively.
Related Themes:
Part 2: The Prayers of the Saints: Florence’s Prayer
Explanation and Analysis—The Dirty House :
Throughout Go Tell It on the Mountain, Baldwin utilizes the motif of a dirty living space to repeatedly comment upon the embedded nature of both racism and religious guilt in American culture. At the beginning of the novel, John repeatedly complains about his least favorite household chore: cleaning the seemingly eternally-dirty rugs:
He felt like an indescribably weary traveler who sees his home at last. Yet for each dustpan he so laboriously filled at the doorsill demons added to the rug twenty more; [...] and nearly wept to think that so much labor brought so little reward.
The rugs that John must clean require him to labor intensively without any real reward. They symbolize both the permanence of racial injustice and religious guilt throughout John's life. While racism and religion are different entities—with religious sin being more a terror of conscience and racial injustice being both physical and mental terror—they act together to influence John's life and represent the social environment that surrounds him. John does not have the power to refuse the task, nor does he have the power to situate himself elsewhere: in the 1930s, Black Americans living in cities such as New York were firmly segregated and sometimes forced to live in less desirable areas. The dirty rug also represents John's dirty conscience. He feels he has sinned because of his homosexual desires and is permanently "dirtied" by these thoughts and actions, which go against the teachings of the Bible—unless he can somehow achieve ultimate salvation and forgiveness.
Later in the novel, Baldwin returns to the motif of dirty rugs during a flashback to Florence's youth in "Florence's Prayer." Florence grows angry over her and others' Blackness and seeks to bleach her skin but is unsuccessful. Her internalized racism and internalized misogyny develop into unabashed anger over the "curse" of her race:
Why had He preferred her mother and her brother, the old, black woman, and the low, black man, while she, who had sought only to walk upright, was come to die, alone and in poverty, in a dirty, furnished room? She beat her fists heavily against the altar.
Like John's frustration over his failure to clean the dirty rug, Florence feels frustration over her perceived failure to "clean" herself—for she knows that her racist society prizes Whiteness above all else. She seeks to walk "upright," unlike her parents, but feels herself fighting a losing battle, just like John.
The motif of dirtiness appears again in "Part Three: The Threshing-Floor." John feels he has committed a sin for staring at Gabriel's naked body and cursing it. Alone with his father in the "dirty bathroom, in the square, dirt-gray cupboard room," John feels wracked with religious guilt—a guilt that appears to dirty his very soul. Here, the motif of the dirty house represents the concepts of sin and purity and their ties to darkness and light, respectively.
Related Themes:
