But assume for a moment that Octavias world is not so simple. Examples of this are shown in the episode of the dentist offices with the poor treatment received to the patients, also in the kindness given to James and his mother by the old couple. Some of the reasons for what Lowe considers the unfair obscur[ity of] Gaines gifts are that Gaines writes about a largely rural community, isolated by both its southernness and its special Louisiana qualities, which it is true make it exotic, but at the same time somewhat inaccessible, even for many African Americans. Another reason Lowe cites for Gaines neglect is his refusal to cater to stereotypes. He states that although people expect stories set in Louisiana to take place in New Orleans, Gaines has never set one there. . Ernest Gaines, Boston: Twayne, 1991. With more than an hour to go before the doctors office will reopen and sleet starting to fall, Jamess mother decides to spend their bus money on something to eat and walk home. I went for a walk on a winter's day. While James and his mother would certainly have had an easier day if they had had enough money to own a carto drive to the dentists office, to perhaps stop and do some shopping and have lunch on the way, perhaps even to see Dr. Robillard instead of Dr. Bassettthe simple fact remains that to do so, they would have had to be not only financially comfortable, but also white. The great fear here is not the capriciousness of white townfolk, but of being beholden, as a result of their poverty, to anyone. 110-13. . Gainess story is meant as more than an entertainment; it is meant as a critique of the racial injustice he experienced as a boy made vivid again by a visit to Louisiana in 1968. Like the narrator in Ralph Ellisons Invisible Man, the student is profoundly alienated from his community. Because James is suffering a toothache, symbolic of the festering wounds of racism, he and his mother take the bus into Bayonne to see a dentist. missing from the current crop of responses to Gaines is a moral reading, one that doesnt look for causes and effects in a two-dimensional equation of character and color, but rather, in the quality of the characters thoughts and actions, regarding the characters not as caricatures of different types, but as fully formed people with their ownto borrow a phrase from Joyceindividuating rhythms. If Gaines is indeed an imaginative writer of canonical status, his works will reward such readings. Awesome bookit wraps within the narrative so many layers of the black's struggle in America, their historymakes the reader think and feel for the characters, as such engaged with their livesgave me goosebumps!! The greatest advantage of an episodic form is that it allows the author to follow the protagonist, or main character, from one important event to another without recording all the unimportant events in between. It is because of his absence that Octavias moral teachings are both so important and so urgently imparted. All the leaves are brown (all the leaves are brown) And the sky is gray (and the sky is gray) I've been for a walk (I've been for a walk) On a winter's day (on a winter's day) I'd be safe and warm (I'd be safe and warm) If I was in L.A. (if I was in L.A.) California dreamin' (California dreamin') The argument between the men focuses on the existence of God. Unfortunately, I was born too late to believe in your God. His feelings of isolation are clearly illustrated in his conversation with a woman who attempts to take his side in the disagreement. James lives with his other siblings, his aun. Can I live here tomorrow? The absence of the fatherin the armyhas somewhat prematurely forced James into the role of the man of the house; and we first find this young black initiate looking down the road, of American hypervisuality. While many argue that the difference between races is less substantive than the difference between the classes, class inequality clearly takes a back seat to racial inequality in Gainess fiction. artistfacts. That though there are grave issues of race and class and poverty that Gaines used an "innocent"black child and an old white woman to bring hope and lovea very touching, emotional and humbling story. "- [] And as long as you listen to what your heart tells you, you will have only what the white man gives you and nothing more. Short Stories for Students. Critical Overview The title of the piece hints to the general dreariness which lingers throughout the story. Babb, Valerie Melissa. Ill take coke, or Ill use any kind of profanity, I dont give a damn. On the other side are the preacher and the other woman the young man speaks to after the preacher departs. JAMES, WILLIAM In these stories, black folk culture, with its emphasis on community-defined values and behaviors, shows signs of deterioration, while Western individualism and the development of more personally-defined values appear as catalysts in the demise of the black folk world view. The reader is made aware that the act of having the tooth pulled is a large ordeal to the family. Genre: . Gaines, Ernest J. These days, we know how to bring summer closer.<br><br>A plate of hot cherries, juicy, smelling berries, here it is summer on ! Regardless of the scope, however, Gaines . His choices should involve a conscious effort to integrate the extremes. Style The feeling of community which permeates A Long Day in Novemberthat sense that whatever happens to Amy and Eddie is everybodys concernis conspicuously absent from the second story in Bloodline, The Sky Is Gray. James, the eight-year-old narrator of this story, struggles to understand his mother and her conceptions of manhood and dignity without aid from the community. "The Sky is Gray" should be a required literary experience for both adults and students who share Louisiana's educational complexity. Nor is it likely a coincidence that I . He is an eight-year-old African American, living in the south during the 1940's before the civil rights movement came into effect. With his degree in hand, Gaines won the Wallace Stegner Creative Writing Fellowship for Graduate Work which allowed him to begin work in Stanfords Creative Writing program, the first of many fellowships he has received. Nor can the mothers demands for stoicism keep James from nearly succumbing to the piercing chill of the sleeting gray sky. At this point, almost by deus ex machina, the black youths deepest self reasserts itself in all its visceral aurality: My stomach growls and I suck it in to keep Mama from hearing it . But the question remains whether or not in this blending of black and white into The Sky Is Gray there still may be too great a personal pain and sense of loss or self-betrayal for black youth or artist ever to transcend Gunnar Myrdals penetrating observation: The colored peoples are excluded from assimilation.. ." acquire the the sky is gray ernest gaines pdf belong to that we provide here and check out . Look up the phrase rite of passage. Does Jamess situation fit the definition? James has an advantage over the young man, however: The young man has lost both his parents, whereas James has a mother who teaches him the qualities of manliness, courage, self-confidence, integrity, and self-respect. Gates, Henry L, and Nellie Y. McKay. Conversations with Ernest Gaines, Mississippi: Mississippi University Press, 1995. The conflict in these two stories further illustrates the importance of the changes taking place within Southern black culture to the development of the social consciousness of children. Dollar and a half to have it pulled. Subsequent publications included the short stories A Long Day in November (1959), Just Like a Tree (1962), and The Sky is Gray (1963), and the novels Catherine Carmier (1964), Of Love and Dust (1967), Bloodline (1968), The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971), In My Fathers House (1978) A Gathering of Old Men (1983), and A Lesson Before Dying (1993). But if one decides to read the story as a more complex critique, not of racial relations, but of the valueand the costof dignity, one sees that even as an eight-year-old James understands her, Octavia is an interesting, fully-realized character. https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/sky-gray, "The Sky is Gray James' mother is "wearing that black . For the sky is, indeed, gray in this story. In The Sky is Gray, the goal is not exactly reached. Written during the most turbulent years of the Civil Rights movement, the stories in Bloodline describe a less turbulent but perhaps even more racially raw period: Louisiana in the late 1930s and early 1940s. He is the oldest of all the children. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. In these stories, black folk culture, with its emphasis on community-defined values and behaviors, shows signs of deterioration, while Western individualism and the development of more personally-defined values appear as catalysts in the demise of the black . Print. Estes, David C., editor. 4, June, 1976, pp. . The limitations imposed on the narrative by an eight-year-old narrator are more obvious when he tries, unsuccessfully, to understand his mothers frequent mood changes or her mysterious decisions to fight or flee at each of the stations of mood the narrative visits. The advantages of episodic form, when relating the experiences of a young boy, are obvious, and have been used with great success in works as different as Mark Twains Huckleberry Finn and Rudyard Kiplings Kim. I havent anything. Mama tries to teach James that he is the man of the family now. This is neither a subjective nor an unimportant question. What this suggests is that in the highly polarized world in which James is growing up, external appearance can be more significant that internal realityafter all, whether Jamess collar is up or down, hes clearly not a bum, but a boy, and even a man can be permitted, under conditions as cold as those James and Octavia find themselves in, to pull his collar up around his throat. . 6th ed. Other awards he has received include the Joseph Henry Jackson Literary Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Study Award, a Rockefeller Foundation Grant-in-Aid, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a MacArthur Fellowship, and honorary doctorates from Denison University, Brown University, Bard College, Whittier College, and Louisiana State University. In the following essay, Roberts looks at the communal bonds found in Southern black communites, especially those as described by Gaines in The Sky is Gray. Along with this, he describes the dangers inherent in a community where tradition and change interact. So it's probably not coincidental that I began planning another northern California trip a few weeks ago. This tooth of endless remorse/aurality may be deniedIt aint hurting me no morebut will never be extracted from the central black consciousness of The Sky Is Gray. Of course, too, there is a shrewd and even humorous irony involved in attempting to exorcise the black hyperverbality by prayerwhether this be Baptist or Catholic incantationfor the Word/word, spoken or sung, lies at the root of black religiosity. Criticism James instinctively knows that he would like to imitate the young man rather than the old preacher. Never one to waste words, she knows how to protect herself: When a pimp tries to molest her, she throws him against a wall and threatens to stab him with the knife she carries. Gravel crunches under the tires of the Rolls Royce as it trundles up the country road. He states that Gaines was shockingly underrated at the beginning of his career. The Sky Is Gray is a great portrayal of racial differences. Later, the whole family is at hand when Octavia and Jamess aunt count out the cost of a trip to the dentist: She say: enough to get there and get back. Action is the only thing. If one reverts to the easiest sort of race-based reading, one will invariably decide to read the story as one about victimhood. It suggests at first the bleak mood of the story but also hints at hope in the future. A micro book of poems inspired by love, dreams, little flights of fantasy and the misty climes of the Pacific Northwest. ." My heart tells me. Sure, My heart tells me. And as long as you listen to what your heart tells you, you will have only what the white man gives you and nothing more. Being told that he must return after lunch, James goes with his mother out into the sleeting streets of Bayonne. And a reading focussed exclusively on the storys racial dynamic misses this completely. They briefly duck into a hardware store to warm up, but must soon leave. XIX, No. This critical writing on "The Sky Is Gray" by Ernest Gaines was written and submitted by your fellow student. What exemplifies the American national narrative in the story "The Sky is Gray" by Ernest J. Gaines? You have remained in right site to start getting this info. For example, he believes that Catholic and non-Catholic prayers heal differently, but one suspects that the distinction between the two would be lost on the clergy of both Catholic and Protestant faiths. Helena tries to give them a larger piece, but Jamess mother insists on an accurate measure. The Sky Is Gray Analysis. Ernest J. Gaines was thirty in 1963, the year in which "The Sky is Gray" was first published, but it was not until five years later, in 1968, that the story was published as the second story in Bloodline, the thematically interwoven collection with which readers associate it today. Her alternative, however, creates an atmosphere which, for James, is potentially equal in the dangers it poses. This comment incites a young mana teacher, James thinks, or a studentto join in. Based on the story of the same title by Ernest Gaines, about a young Black farmboy's dawning of awareness about himself and society. Again, Gaines is shrewd enough not to let James end his ordeal at this point but forces him to confront the obstacles of bitter cold and hunger in order to accomplish his sensory rite de passage. James soon finds himself walking through the cold of Bayonne. All the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray. Twenty-five for me to come back, twenty-five for him. If ones analysis of this scene stops here in attempting to understand this odd end point for the story, the reading which suggests itself is quite straightforward, something like, external appearance is essential because Jamess person will always be identified and understood first by his external blackness, then, perhaps, if he is lucky, by his innate character by the world in which he lives, a world in which the white gaze is the most significant threat a black man faces. This reading is reinforced by other stations in the text, and indeed, most critics have read James and Octavia as Ive suggested. Their meal finished, James and his mother thank the woman for her hospitality. But Jamess narration creates a rationale for reading the story as a moral story. Through the stories of the many fascinating people who touch Jane's life, Gaines presents not only a moving perspective on the struggles of African Americans but also a social history of the United States since the Civil War. He was the first of twelve siblings, seven by his father Manuel, five by his mother Adriannes second husband, Ralph. . The student, or the boy, is somewhat out of place in this story, but was certainly not out of place at the time the story was written. 964 Likes, 78 Comments - Juha (@rough_curiosity) on Instagram: " when the sky is gray cold wind blow and raindrops play you bring sunshine in my day" With all of these facets, why would Gaines end the story with this quest unfinished? Therefore, its best to use Encyclopedia.com citations as a starting point before checking the style against your school or publications requirements and the most-recent information available at these sites: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. He just reads in his book. In 19, Writer, educator Whatever the narrative gains by being told through Jamess eyes would need to add a great deal to offset these drawbacks. This theory is supported by three specific events during the story. kayeeaugust17. It suggests at first the bleak mood of the story but also hints at hope in the future. that the Negro in America has been able to tell his story and Ralph Waldo Emersons assumption that the eye is final; what it tells us is the last stroke of nature; beyond color we cannot go. This hyperverbal/hypervisual trauma or rite de passage forms the real theme or subject of both black childrens accounts in A Long Day in November and The Sky Is Gray. . The minister accepts God unquestioningly, while the student rejects God because belief in Him alleviates the need to question: Show me one reason to believe in the existence of a God, the boy says. Based on Gaines own experience, the character of Monsieur Bayonne is a mildly unsympathetic but still dangerous figurethough he acts without malice, his actions keep James from a dentist for several days. Set during a time of segregation and racial inequality, the story explores themes of poverty, family, identity, and the . His publication record is not extensive, but his works have been well received. Because his fiction focuses on the peculiar plight of black Americans in the South, Gaines must consider an additional level of significancethe strong communal bonds characteristic of Southern black folk culture. Characters It is a testimony to Gaines's skill as a writer and storyteller that many people believe Jane Pittman was a real person. Can I get a job tomorrow? A strong offstage presence, Jamess father is most profound in his absence. James, in The Sky is Gray, is a somewhat older black youth who rightly faces a more complex dilemma concerning his ear and eye. The sky is gray., The interaction between the community and the individual, along with its role in the shaping of human personality, is a primary concern of Ernest J. Gaines in much of his fiction. It also involves the problem of integrating the individual and the community in a mutually rewarding relationship in the face of dehumanizing individualistic forces. Though he can accurately recall the words of the student in the dentists office that lead up to the student being hit by the preacher, he cannot understand the argument in which they are engaged (She just looks at him like she dont know what hes talking bout. Lets hope that the ones who come after will have your faithif not in your God, then in something else, something definitely that they can lean on. Add to Cart . Supporting these ideas is Gainess keen awareness of the all-pervasive and profoundly formative influence of race on virtually every aspect of life in the rural South of this era. In 1964, for example, Zanzibar and Tanganyika came together to form Tanzania, expelling a sultinate, while Zambia was formed out of Northern Rhodesias ashes by Kenneth Kaunda the same year that Kenya became a republic under Jomo Kenyatta. But she is important for another reason besides her human decency: it is paradoxically her kind gesture that represents the greatest potential threat to Jamess manhood, at least in his mothers eyes. What exemplifies the American national narrative in the story "The Sky is Gray" by Ernest J. Gaines? The purpose of the heart is to pump blood throughout the body, and nothing else. It is not possible, within the scope of this essay, to survey all of Gainess works, or to make more than a cursory pass through The Sky is Gray. 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