The Threshing-Floor Symbol Analysis

The threshing-floor is the surface before the altar in John’s Harlem church, the Temple of the Fire Baptized, and it symbolizes God’s judgement in Go Tell It on the Mountain. In biblical times, harvesting wheat was a laborious process—without machinery, grain had to be separated from the chaff by hand. This typically involved a large flat surface, usually high above the fields so the wind could hit it, where the wheat could be laid out and repeatedly trampled by oxen. The Old Testament uses the image of a threshing-floor to tell stories of God’s judgement. In the Book of Hosea, for example, Hosea prophesized that God would throw the Israelites to the wind, much like chaff blowing from the threshing-floor, because they worshipped false idols, and Baldwin imbues it with similar significance.

Members of John’s church go to the threshing-floor to feel the spirit of God and to be saved and redeemed for their sins. Elisha, one of the temple’s “saints” and preachers, falls to his knees on the threshing-floor and begins “to speak in a tongue of fire, under the power of the Holy Ghost.” Elizabeth goes to the threshing-floor to confess her sins and be saved, but since she is not truly sorry for loving Richard and giving birth to his son, John, out of wedlock, she doubts her redemption. John, too, is moved to the threshing-floor under a mysterious power, and after being thrust into a “darkness” that “has no beginning, and no end,” John is lifted by God and will be rewarded with “eternal life” in Heaven. Having gone to the threshing-floor to be judged by God, John is found to be righteous.