Nonlinear Narrative in Baldwin’s “Go Tell It on the Mountain”

    “She had met him through Florence. Florence and she had met at work in the middle of the summer, a year after Richard’s death. John was then over six months old.”

    — Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

    Technique

    In Go Tell It on the Mountain, James Baldwin builds a nonlinear narrative by flashing back and forth to key years throughout the novel that are birth years or notable ages, creating time markers for the story.

    In the passage above, Baldwin subtly shows how to place a moment in time based on the markers he established early in the story. Let’s break down these sentences from last to first for the sake of chronology:

    • John was six months and an unknown number of days old at the time of the event
    • John was 14 when the story opened in March of 1935, meaning he was born in 1921
    • The one-year anniversary of Richard’s death overlapped with John’s sixth month, placing Richard’s death in September, 1920
    • Florence and Elizabeth (“she”) approximately met in September, 1921, based on John’s age and Richard’s time of death
    • Elizabeth met Gabriel (“him”) through Florence in or after 1921

    Use

    • Create time markers as anchor points for your story.
    • Use everyday conversation to flash back and forth between the markers, giving the story a lifelike quality and depth.