"The Outing" is a 1965 short story by James Baldwin

James Baldwin (writer)

James Arthur Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic.Baldwin's essays, for instance "Notes of a Native Son" , explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th century America,...

, taken from the short story collection, Going to Meet the Man

Going to Meet the Man

Going to Meet the Man, published in 1965, is a short-story collection by American writer James Baldwin. The book is dedicated "for Beauford Delaney." It covers many topics related to anti-Black racism in American society, as well as the creative process, jazz, drug addiction, family relationships,...

.

Plot introduction

On the Fourth of July, parishioners are having a church outing (this year, a boat trip up the Hudson River

Hudson River

The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...

 up to Bear Mountain

Bear Mountain (New York)

According to the , the state of New York in the United States has 11 peaks named Bear Mountain. The most widely known is in the Hudson Highlands of Orange County, just north of the New York metropolitan area and from which the name for Bear Mountain State Park is derived....

).

Plot summary

Father James tells his son Johnnie to be good, and the latter replies that he need not reprimand him, thus making his father angry. Everyone is talking about sin and salvation, while the boys are only interested in Sylvia, for whom they have bought a present. There is then a church ceremony on the boat, with an ironic digression on the Bible being based on white symbolism. Later, the boys are waiting for Sylvia to be alone so they can give her her present. David finally manages to do so, and she demands that he go to the forthcoming revival church ceremonies and go through the salvation process. Johnnie joins David and Roy at the riverside, but it is time for them to leave. David is left in a wavering mode. There are also subtle undertones of homosexuality in Johnnie towards David who is unaware of it.

Characters

• Gabriel James, a.k.a. Father James.
• Johnnie,
• Lois, Johnnie's nine-year-old sister.
• Roy, Father James' son.
• Mrs Jackson, David and Lorraine's mother.
• David Jackson, John and Roy's friend
• Lorraine, David's elder sister.
• Sister McCandless
• Sylvia
• Sister Daniels, Sylvia's mother.
• Brother Elisha
• Reverend Peters
• Johnnie's unnamed mother

Main themes

• Adolescence
  Adolescence
  Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood , but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage...
  
   and puberty
  Puberty
  Puberty is the process of physical changes by which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of reproduction, as initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads; the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a boy...
  
  .
• Religious faith in the African-American community.