29 terms. Fifty cents left guess I get a little piece of salt meat with that. Though it is clear that money is scarce, it is just as clear that this family knows how to survive with dignitythat is, without charity. Drama - From Ernest J. Gaines, author of "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman," comes a deceptively simple, yet emotionally complex tale of a young boy's discovery of what it's like to be black in Louisiana during the 1940's. James, the boy in question, has a raging toothache that necessitates a trip to the dentist. His choices should involve a conscious effort to integrate the extremes. This theory is supported by three specific events during the story. This is particularly useful in a story limited by the narrative point of view to the description of a young persons inner life. He could have told it through the eyes of Jamess mother Octavia, or Val; he could have told it in epistolary form (as a letter) from Jamess mother to his father; or from an omniscient perspective, one that allowed him to describe the sensory and sentient world from all of these vantage points in turn. It is through Jamess eyes that the story is told; consequently, the story is heavily filtered through his sensibilities. 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. The Sky is Gray contains many of the themes and images Gaines returns to again and again in his work: themes of personal responsibility, grace under pressure, and moral behavior; images of strong mothers, mysteriously absent fathers, and families in which love is expressed more often in harsh words or silence than in overt praise or affection. The trip to town on the bus marked White and Colored represents the real rite de passage for the black youth in white Americathe blurring of his sensibilities into gray: The river is gray. Introduction 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. So it's probably not coincidental that I began planning another northern California trip a few weeks ago. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.com cannot guarantee each citation it generates. Young James (8 years old) mind is weighted down with guilt knowing his tooth has a big effect on the familythey might not be able to feed the family because of his tooth. If that is the reading one chooses, the more important, more striking, more interesting story disappears, while James and his mother become nothing more than sympathetic but uninteresting racial stereotypes about the lives of poor blacks long ago. And since his stories are set in the past, his African-American characters appear subservient and are not placed in the revolutionary poses favored by some of Gainess contemporaries such as James Baldwin, Ishmael Reed, John O. Killins, John Wideman, or David Bradley., In sum, while Gaines may not have had the wide recognition of other African-American writers early in his career, there is a broad critical consensus that he is an important writer, a good writer, and a writer who has perhaps been undervalued and may continue to gain increasing recognition in the years to come, in part because he was somewhat overshadowed by his contemporaries during his early years, in part because of the increasing importance of studies of masculinity in the literary canon. Robillard, the good dentist who takes care of the teeth of Bayonnes whites. Her alternative, however, creates an atmosphere which, for James, is potentially equal in the dangers it poses. Octavias skepticism and self-imposed isolation place her in a similarly antagonistic stance toward the community. The student wants very much to deny his auralityMe, I dont listen to my heartand he ends up sad and depressed over his liberalism and scepticism: I hope they arent all like me. My baby don't love me no more. 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. Sora Ga Haiiro Dakara summary: A collection of short stories. Sources Her final statement to James in the story is probably the most illustrative of her world view: You not a bum, she says. James seems like anything but a childhood, his mind is plagued with worries and concerns that often belong in the adult realm. Source: David Y. Kippen, An Overview of The Sky is Gray, in Short Stories for Students, The Gale Group, 1999. Though her presence in The Sky is Gray is minimal, Augustines presence in Gainess life can hardly be overstated: Unless you include her, he says, you cant write about me at all.. In thematic terms, two of the most important sections in the storysections seven and eightexplore the relationship between God, religion, knowledge, and ignorance. [Chorus 2] 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) If I didn't tell her (If I didn't tell her) I could leave today (I could leave today) California dreamin' (California dreamin') On such a winter's day (California dreamin') On such a winter's day, (California . Are the two related? 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). The reader only sees a small part of this process, a few hours one morning, a few more that afternoon, but these hours are important: they form some of the bedrock upon which the foundation of Jamess manhoodhis sense of personal dignity and worth, as well as courage and silence in difficultywill be built. The Sky Is Gray by Ernest J. Gaines is a poignant and thought-provoking short story about a young African American boy named James, who lives in rural Louisiana with his mother and grandmother during the mid-20th century. An elderly white woman and store-owner declares, I saw yall each time you went by. The blacks, now realizing they are not going to conquer the keen-eyed compassion of this woman and her husband, bow and accept food and a perhaps-too-generous supply of salt meat under the transparent pretense of Jamess doing some chores for the shopkeepers. I havent anything. 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. Dollar and a half to have it pulled. 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. It is also not possible, in a discussion of what Im calling moral readings, to avoid some necessary oversimplifications of the complex issues surrounding and clouding the idea of race. Just as the clouds clear after a storm, James finds out on his trip to Bayonne that the stormy clouds that are his life are parting to let some sunshine through. The title of the piece hints to the general dreariness which lingers throughout the story. And when, at the storys conclusion, his mother pronounces him a man, the reader who has been inside Jamess subjective world can take measure of both how far he still is from manhood and of what he has learned from the lessons meant to take him the rest of the way there. The importance of this distinction is difficult to overstate: it is nothing less than the difference between a story about people living in perpetual victimhood, on one hand, or a story about a mother trying to teach her son what it will take to become the sort of man she will respect, on the other. Currently you are able to watch "The Sky Is Gray" streaming on Hoopla, Fandor Amazon Channel or for free with ads on Tubi TV, Crackle. O Say, Can YOU See that in ones bloodline one may indeed rediscover the wise blood of his or her deepest cultural and aesthetic self? 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 argument between the men focuses on the existence of God. This time the trial is so severe that the verbal command is ineffectual: Mama tells me keep my eyes in front where they belong, but I cant helpfrom seeing (italics mine). The scene in which Jamess mother is toldor discoversthat her son must go to the dentist is skipped over, but the familys poverty, and the comparatively huge cost of having the tooth pulled, is not. The Individual and the Community in Two Short Stories by Ernest J. Gaines, in Black American Literature Forum, Vol. Sold by: Tidal Wave Group . Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. Critical Overview 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. Summary. The Sky is Gray. THE SKY IS GRAY by Ernest J. Gaines, 1968. For me, the wind is pink, the grass is black.. New York: Longman, 1997, 511530. kayeeaugust17. The woman wonders why the Lord allows people to suffer, saying that she doesnt understand it, but the preacher concludes that its something no human can understand. His father left his mother when Gaines was a small boy, forcing his mother to move to New Orleans to find work. This is neither a subjective nor an unimportant question. It suggests at first the bleak mood of the story but also hints at hope in the future. Babb seems to approach this realization when she writes that Octavias dissembling enables her to warm him without compromising her dignity by begging. Babb realizes that Octavias act is fundamentally about dignity, not about warmth, but she doesnt think through the implications of the point she has made, here or later. The Winter Soldier peers through the scope and adjusts his grip, his finger ghosting over the trigger. Due to the several barriers James and his mother, Octavia, encounter trying to get to the dentist, the theme of . A woman tries to engage Jamess mother in conversation, but a man James takes to be a preacher joins in instead. James, the narrator in Ernest Gaines' "The Sky is Gray" is an eight-year-old African American male who is still a child but being the oldest male in the household he faces more responsibility than a normal young boy would. As the day progresses, James shows us events from the past--from the time his mother whipped him because he could not kill . With nowhere to go, and no money to buy anything, James and his mother have no choice but to walk, aimlessly, until the doctors office opens again. This poor, Negro boy, James, lives with his mother and five other relatives while his father is away. As Gaudet and Wooton point out, Gaines has come to the fore in many critical studies lately because of his searching appraisal of the masculine search for identity, particularly that of African-American men., David Kippen is a doctoral candidate in world literature with an emphasis on the literature of southern Africa. The experiences of his early years, particularly the experience of paternal abandonment, provided the bedrock on which his fiction would later be built. In Gainess words, describing the type of person he depicts in the student to Carl Wooton in an interview reprinted in Porch Talk: you will have this rebellion against authority. -1 Likes, 13 Comments - Stephanie Wise (@girlversusdough) on Instagram: "It's literally pouring rain today on top of the 3+ feet of snow we had piled up and the sky is gray" Lowe, John., editor. 436-38. 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