" .
Unlike most of the other characters in Go Tell it on the Mountain Florence rarely attends church. However, poor health, life and its hardships, and past sins finally catch up with her and she feels as if she urgently needs to speak with God who will allow her, through prayer, to repent her sins and face her innermost fears. .
On the surface, Florence is a woman of character and principles. She is proud, strong, intelligent, independent, and has deep convictions. She serves as a role model for John and acts as Gabriel's conscience for much of the novel. However, as she prays, Florence reveals that she has led a very difficult and unfulfilling life that has left her emotionally scarred, insecure, and without hope. Florence's mother, despite her flaws, did instill within Florence a sense of strong-mindedness and strength which was derived from the fact that Florence was expected to shoulder many adult responsibilities from a very young age. The result of Florence's childhood and much of her life is depression, self-hatred, and most of all, resentment towards the people and events that are responsible for her unhappy existence. Florence resents her mother due to the overt favoritism she shows Gabriel. She resents her brother because he was given an education and nice clothes while Florence was forced to do housework despite Gabriel's mischievous ways, dishonesty, and ungratefulness. In addition, Florence experienced the rape of Deborah and the murder of Deborah's father both by white men which not only caused her to resent men in general but also left her with a sense of being an inferior woman in a white man's world. Florence is a survivor and her inner-strength and courage has helped her make it through tough times, but, the build-up of many deep emotional scars coupled with a very painful and presumably terminal abdominal disease and the desire to confront her brother with Esther's letter proving his infidelity causes Florence to go to the church, get on her knees and open her heart and soul to God.