dge facing east to Africa, also makes Baldwin's novel a traditional American narrative of conversion and redemption. John breaks free of the pressures of the streets to seek his own path via the church. Unbeknownst to him, the storefront Pentecostal church in which his father is head deacon has embedded through its songs and rituals the elements of African worship. (5) These characteristic elements make the church a place where young African Americans could develop self-reliance and pride, where they could sharpen aesthetic and intellectual skills (the music and oratory of the black church stand as some of the best examples of high art that America has produced in the twentieth century) in order to battle the forces that oppress them. It was here that black Americans could find purpose, a sense of worth in their lives and in themselves. Here they were reminded that they were not beasts oflabor but human beings, with rights, dignity, and a wealth of aspirations and goals. As the novel recounts, the church stoked the fires of freedom: They wandered into the valley forever; and they smote the rock forever; and the waters sprang, perpetually, in the perpetual desert. They cried unto the Lord forever, and lifted up their eyes forever. No, the fire could not hurt them, and yes, the lion's jaws were stopped; the serpent was not their master, the grave was not their resting-place. (205) In the church, critiqued though it might be as a functionary of European colonialism, African Americans found a way to blend their traditional form of worship with that of their new land. By doing so, as is seen in the figure of John Grimes, they were able to transcend the incessant horrors of American racism. The spiritual foundation laid by the church provided its believers with an essential metaphysical truth that reached beyond time and place andcircumstance: love as an antidote to hatred, notions of justice as an expression of this love.Baldwin's protag...
