Jules and Peter engage in a long philosophical discussion about the nature of Blackness and Jewishness in America. She evicts him, and he goes back to Jules's, who says he will let him stay at his place. His friend Jules lets him stay in a room he is renting in a white neighbourhood despite hiding, Peter is eventually found out by the other neighbours and the landlady. Peter, an actor, is surreptitiously living in a white neighbourhood in New York.īack from Chicago where he was working, Peter is now in New York City.
Themes in the story include father-son relationships generational transference of property white masculinity white fatherhood frontier mentality jealousy and loneliness. The latter takes him into a barn and strangles him, while his mother in the kitchen. Later, after Eric's mother had a miscarriage Eric goes to wash his hands at the outdoor pump and runs into Jamie. Back at the house, Jamie blows out the candles. Jamie, on the other hand, has lost his land, the land of Eric's father has grown even larger because he bought Jamie's. Then Eric and his father go for a walk, during which Eric learns that all the land around him is his, thanks to his father's self-discipline and the passing down of land from generation to generation. Eric's father upbraids him for being alone, with no wife or children, only a dog and his mother. It is Jamie's thirty-fourth birthday and he is at Eric's parents' place to celebrate. Eric's parents are celebrating with Jamie his birthday. In a rural setting, young Eric lives on a large farm with his parents, who are friends with Jamie, a farmer who has lost his farm to Eric's father.
Mrs Jackson, David and Lorraine's mother.Major themes of the story include adolescence and puberty and religious faith in the African-American community. David is with Sylvia, Roy is with another girl and Johnnie is alone. When Johnnie joins David and Roy at the riverside, it is time for them to leave. Johnnie leaves David and Roy to be alone for a while. Later, the boys are waiting for their friend Sylvia to be alone as they have brought her a present. There is then a church ceremony on the boat, with an ironic digression on the Bible being based on white symbolism. Everyone on the boat is talking about sin and salvation. Johnnie gets a moment alone with his best friend, David, they embrace and Johnnie tells David he loves him. Johnnie and Gabriel get in a verbal fight and Johnnie is left visibly angry. Johnnie's father, Gabriel, tells him to be good, and Johnnie replies that he need not reprimand him. Johnnie and Roy are brothers going on a religious outing on a boat with their church. On the Fourth of July, parishioners are having a church outing, which, this year, happens to be boat trip up the Hudson River up to Bear Mountain. Aunt Florence, Gabriel's sister, who lives in the Bronx.Richard, a boy who drowned in the Bronx River.Delilah, daughter of Elizabeth and Gabriel.John, Elizabeth's illegitimate elder son, born out of wedlock.Roy, son of Elizabeth and Gabriel who gets hurt on the rockpile.Gabriel, the father, who is a preacher.The characters are the same as in Baldwin's earlier novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain. The story also touches on the topics of reckless boys, familial love, favoritism, dominance, and abuse. Themes of the story include the feelings of alienation and neglect. He favors Roy because he is his biological son and while John, his stepson, serves as the scapegoat. He is brought back into the house and as the father gets home, he tries to blame the woman and John for letting Roy go there. There he gets into a fight and gets hurt, starts bleeding. Whilst Roy and John are forbidden to play on the Rockpile as the other boys from the neighborhood do, Roy decides to go anyway once, asking John not to tell anyone as he will be right back. 6 This Morning, This Evening, So Soon (1960).