Rock-Pile Reflection

       The Rock pile is a pile of rocks occupying the empty space between two houses. The two boys, John and Roy, are forbidden by their mother, to play in the rock pile. More specifically, it is Roy who is directly forbidden because the mother knows that John would probably not take the risk anyway. Therefore, each Saturday morning, the boys sit on the fire escape of their home and longingly watch other boys playing on the rock pile. Their mother, Elizabeth, usually sat in the room behind them and sewed or helped their younger sister Delilah, or took care of the baby boy Paul.

       "The Rock pile" shares several parallels with Go Tell It on the Mountain, but it also deviates from the novel in its portrayal of the character of Elizabeth. The story recounts in concentrated detail the incident of Roy's fight and injury which, in the novel, takes place on the Saturday of John's birthday. Baldwin apparently found the story form too constricting in what it allowed him to accomplish in the development of Gabriel's character as well as Elizabeth's. They both have features similar to those they have in the novel, but the background information on how they came to be as they are cannot be handled very effectively within the story. For example, Gabriel is presented as an angry man