{"id":939,"date":"2023-09-26T00:06:27","date_gmt":"2023-09-26T04:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/?p=939"},"modified":"2023-09-26T00:06:28","modified_gmt":"2023-09-26T04:06:28","slug":"sin-and-shame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/2023\/09\/26\/sin-and-shame\/","title":{"rendered":"Sin and Shame"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When reading the first part of Go Tell It on the Mountain<\/em> and Field\u2019s piece \u201cPentecostalism and All that Jazz: Tracing James Baldwin\u2019s Religion\u201d I noticed many connections between religion and the Bible and Baldwin\u2019s literary work. One that particularly caught my attention was the prevalent state of nakedness that dominated John\u2019s feelings. On page 38, John stresses about what he would have to do if his mom was not feeling well. \u201cHe would have to prepare supper, \u2026take care of the children\u2026and be naked under his father\u2019s eyes\u201d (Baldwin, p. 38). When he looks at his baby picture in his house, he feels the shame of his nakedness in comparison to his siblings\u2019 nakedness, even though he is a baby. Baldwin writes, \u201cBut John could never look at it without feeling shame and anger that his nakedness should be here so unkindly revealed\u201d (Baldwin, p. 26). A lot of John\u2019s feeling of nakedness reminded me of the origin and creation story with Adam and Eve. In the same way that Adam and Eve, once they committed original sin, became aware of themselves, their bodies, and their shame; they hid their naked bodies from each other and were overcome with vulnerability and guilt. The portrayal of John\u2019s character is done similarly. In every example in which John acknowledges his nakedness, he feels shame and this nakedness and shame is tied to John\u2019s sin. Like Adam and Eve, John submits to the temptations of his sexuality, has sinned, and now feels shame and guilt. John\u2019s sin, not only his masturbation but his true sexuality, that being homosexuality, makes him feel shame in the world and this shame appears to him to be very visible to everyone. John is always under the assumption that others know of his sin, especially his stepfather. Now not only must he stand before God the Father on judgment day but must also stand before his step-father, naked and exposed. This also connects to a larger theme in which religion and the institution of the Church often view and depict sexuality outside of the tradition of the man and woman and outside of marriage to be shameful. These boundaries and standards of religion and the Church prevent people like John from having good relationships with the Church, religion, and even himself. I am curious to see how much this theme of nakedness and shame similar to the shame of Adam and Even when they committed their sin of temptation expands for John when he continues to explore his sexuality throughout the novel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When reading the first part of Go Tell It on the Mountain and Field\u2019s piece \u201cPentecostalism and All that Jazz: Tracing James Baldwin\u2019s Religion\u201d I noticed many connections between religion and the Bible and Baldwin\u2019s literary work. One that particularly caught my attention was the prevalent state of nakedness that dominated John\u2019s feelings. On page … Continue reading Sin and Shame<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4683,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[471414],"class_list":["post-939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-native-son"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4683"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":940,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions\/940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}