Gaines was left in the care of his great aunt, Augustine Jefferson, a woman he preferred to call his aunt and whom he considered one of the most powerful influences on the formation of his character. Historical Context The only way that James can truly understand his world is by authoritarian explanationthe tongue and ear forming the eye: Auntie and Monsieur Bayonne talked to me and made me see (italics mine). It is a testimony to Gaines's skill as a writer and storyteller that many people believe Jane Pittman was a real person. ." 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. In Los Angeles, race riots in Watts resulted in 35 deaths, the arrest of 4,000, and $40 million in property damage. 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. Though the events in this story take place well before what is commonly called the Civil Rights era, one cannot read The Sky is Gray without a keen awareness that the writer is writing at the historical moment during which the Civil Rights movement exploded onto the national stage and that, surprisingly, given this context, the story somehow manages to describe but not to overplay the protagonists suffering in terms of prejudice and inequality. As a result, she has made protecting James from becoming vulnerable her primary goal in life. The sky is gray, the clouds are low and the dark waves are hiding their power under a more neutral appearance. Monsieur Bayonne at the storys beginning is the superstitious complement to the preacher in the middle section. She say thats weakness and crybaby stuff. Time and time again, the black youth must simply take itmust see the advantages of the whites or the sufferings of himself and other blackswhile saying nothing and offering no complaints. 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.. 29 terms. 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. With James' toothache at the central point of the plot, the story takes us through the obstacles this black family faces in terms of safety, racism, hunger, cold and money. All the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray. 2324- 2333. She offers them food, but though James is hungry, his mother will not accept any charity, so Helena has James move some empty trash cans to the street as a face-saving gesture for his mother. The sky is gray. From henceforth, Jamess own long day will be comprised of this struggle between black blood and white blood within a cerebral sky of graya terrifying and chilling confrontation with ones own senses and sensibilities. i love Gaines' use of symbols senses in this story it is one of hope I think. And the sky is gray, the sky is gray Ah, hah But that don't mean little brother that you Have to feel the same way Look the sky is cryin' see the Tear rollin' down on the ground Down on the ground Ah, hah but that don't mean little brother That your life can't turn around Cover up your body but the cold Steady rubbin' on your skin Rubbin' on . 110-13. Sold by: Tidal Wave Group (2138 ratings) Publication date 1979 Topics Feature films, Feature films, Short Stories., Blacks. 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. Due to the several barriers James and his mother, Octavia, encounter trying to get to the dentist, the theme of . Roll the dice and learn a new word now! Themes It is important to recall that the Civil Rights era coincided with the casting off of imperial control by a series of African countries. Other Sellers on Amazon. Gaines's prose is stark, spare, unrelenting in its precision and honesty. The first strong character trait James possesses is that he . Babb, Valerie Melissa. Not surprisingly, the lions share of critiques fall into the first camp, and even the structural readings include didactic (instructive) digressions in almost every case. 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. On the other hand, James in The Sky Is Gray will never know the values of communal bonds if Octavia has her way. In the following essay, Meyer describes how The Sky is Gray is a coming of age story not just about coming to terms with growing up, but also dealing with the sensual orientation of ones body. - "The Sky is Gray" 9 terms. The Sky is Gray is told entirely from the point of view of the eight-year old narrator, James. This theory is supported by three specific events during the story. The reader is made aware that the act of having the tooth pulled is a large ordeal to the family. With all of these facets, why would Gaines end the story with this quest unfinished? The Sky Is Gray Photos View All Photos Movie Info. Here, the key episode occurs between the liberal black student and the conservative black preachera paradoxical conflict between Word and word, between faith and sight. As they wait, his mother thinks about homeabout his aunt, the other children, the farm animals and the weatherthe narrative follows Jamess thoughts back to the origins of his toothache. Education: The Richard Pulling Jenks School, New York; traveled with his family in Europe from an early, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Faced with the necessity to act and finding traditional solutions no longer viable, the characters in Gainess stories struggle desperately to restore some semblance of normalcy to their worlds. In The Sky is Gray, by Ernest J. Gaines and Mr. Parker, by Laurie Colwin, James and Janie are no exception. In 1968, the same year that Gainess Bloodline was published, Reverend Martin Luther King himself was assassinated in a Memphis hotel. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. 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. By forcing James to sublimate his emotions and accept them as signs of human weakness, she fails to provide him with a means of dealing with the emotional responses of others in a way consistent with her philosophy. His writings reproduce the communal nature of storytelling in his rural parish while accenting the historicity that joins members of the African-American diaspora to larger American society. Indeed, the tooth with the aching root here is Jamess own Afro-American tongue and earthe dilemma of finding that his deepest roots are at odds with hypervisual America. From a larger, more global viewpoint . He is a sincerely religious faith healer/musician, but his religion is heavily tinged. 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. James does not betray the kind and heartfelt offer of the couple although his mother would want him to. With the exception of Auntie and Mr. Bayonne, who attempt to explain his mothers cold, dispassionate treatment of him on one occasion, James is alienated in his effort to come to grips with both the social and personal forces governing his life. Rather than explaining his position to her in such a way that she will be able to understand it, he raises his argument to a metaphysical level and alienates her: You really dont believe in God? the lady says. And a reading focussed exclusively on the storys racial dynamic misses this completely. I havent anything. Try refreshing this page.If the problem persists, contact our support contact our support 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. 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. Me, I don't listen to my heart. 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. . She loves her children, but more important to her than any visible demonstrations of affection are the moral lessons she insists upon teaching James. Short Stories for Students. "California Dreamin'" is a song written by John Phillips and Michelle Phillips and first recorded by Barry McGuire. . 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. In The Sky is Gray, the goal is not exactly reached. 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. The reader only sees a small part of this process, a few hours one . It suggests at first the bleak mood of the story but also hints at hope in the future. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they cope with some harmful bugs inside their computer. His father left his mother when Gaines was a small boy, forcing his mother to move to New Orleans to find work. James seems like anything but a childhood, his mind is plagued with worries and concerns that often belong in the adult realm. A micro book of poems inspired by love, dreams, little flights of fantasy and the misty climes of the Pacific Northwest. Analysis: "The Sky Is Gray". Put another way, if Gainess stories were set in the India of 1946, two years before partition, if the primary groups described were Muslim and Hindu, rather than black and white, would the stories still merit reading? 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. As they ride in the back of the bus reserved for blacks and walk the streets of . jakeszalat Plus "If The Sky is Gray" by Ernest Gaines. Critical Overview Home American Literature Analysis of Ernest J. Gainess The Sky Is Gray. 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. 28 terms. 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. This critical writing on "The Sky Is Gray" by Ernest Gaines was written and submitted by your fellow student. 4, June, 1976, pp. Being told that he must return after lunch, James goes with his mother out into the sleeting streets of Bayonne. Told in a series of thirteen more or less chronological episodes, Jamess narrative is punctuated by frequent flashbacks to past events, each of which provide the reader with a more complete picture of the moral forces pulling at and shaping James. James is sympathetic without being an object of sympathy; the reader feels his cold, his confusion, his hunger directly, authentically, without the intrusion of another character or narrators impressions or observations. 1. Not wanting to be a crybaby and knowing well that his mother cannot afford a trip to the dentist, James recalls his efforts to disguise his pain from the rest of his family. Furthermore, the story implies that the community can continue to provide the individual with emotional support in his efforts to fulfill his individual needs. The Sky Is Gray W. W. Norton & Company "Race and Repast: Foodscapes in Twentieth-Century Southern Literature examines how race relations are expressed through struggles over the meaning of food and access to food in Southern literature. The Sky is Gray is a heartbreaking story of James and his Mama. A strong offstage presence, Jamess father is most profound in his absence. 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 . This is puzzling, because a childs perspective is considerably narrower than an adults. From a larger, more global viewpoint, these motions support and underscore Jamess own transformation. In short, what is. It's been an unusually cold and cloudy winter and, while I'm grateful for the accompanying moisture, I'm also ready for some green in the world. Even the clothing that they wear is very dull-colored! The drawback to what Ill call, for lack of a better term, race-based readings may not be immediately obvious, but isnt terribly complicated. My baby don't love me no more. 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. . In this case, consciousness raising of blacks should not lead to an alienation from the community as it has for the student and Octavia; it should provide the basis for bettering the community. You have remained in right site to start getting this info. It made me tear up mutiple times and shook me out of the comfort of privileges. It made my poor heart skip a beat. On one hand, Alnest is little more than an offstage voice, the voice of an old man cautioning Helena, his wife, against the cold. She was preparing him to take care of himself in case she had to go away like his father did. She feels her first duty to her children is to toughen them up and show them how to live and survive. The action in The Sky is Gray is broken up into thirteen short sections which describe a half day or so in the life of James, an eight-year-old black boy in the rural South of the late 1930s. The action in "The Sky is Gray" is broken up into thirteen short sections which describe a half day or so in the life of James, an eight-year-old black boy in the rural South of the late 1930s. 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') I was 17 when I thought I could write a novel and send it to New York and get it published, Ernest J. Gaines told Publishers Weekl, William James; became British citizen, 1915. This comment incites a young mana teacher, James thinks, or a studentto join in. The dramatic conflict endemic to the stories in Bloodline arises out of the efforts of various characters to reconcile their individual needs with community prerequisites. This poor, Negro boy, James, lives with his mother and five other relatives while his father is away. [Instrumental Bridge] [Verse 3] I've got a bad feeling. But the counter to this argument is that one should, if Gaines is successful, be able to see how James will turn out, that the creation of a characterization sufficient to demonstrate that the child is father of the man is a demonstration of a naturalism like Zolas, and worthy of similar respect. This did not go unnoticed in the United States, particularly among black leaders who read with interest books like Jomo Kenyattas Facing Mount Kenya. His narrative begins as he and his mother wait for a bus to take them to a dentists office where James is to have his tooth pulled and ends that same day, sometime shortly before (the reader presumes) that tooth is finally pulled. 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. 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.. Human existence does not lend itself to such neat categorizing. Style What is the allegorical meaning of the student turning the other cheek when the preacher hits him? 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" Gravel crunches under the tires of the Rolls Royce as it trundles up the country road. Kept completely offstage except for his terrifying effect on Little John Lee, who screams bloody murder on receipt of his dental ministrations, Dr. Basset exists in the narrative not for what he is, but for what he isntDr. What might be complex, three-dimensional people with equally complex motivations threaten to become two-dimensional caricatures with obscure, even uninteresting motivations when seen through the eyes of a child. For me, the wind is pink, the grass is black.. However, the trip to the dentist is weighty too because of the prejudice that exists outside his little community. For Further Study Add a gift receipt for easy returns. As the day progresses, James shows us events from the past--from the time his mother whipped him because he could not kill . Her final statement to James in the story is probably the most illustrative of her world view: You not a bum, she says. Author Biography 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. Whatever the narrative gains by being told through Jamess eyes would need to add a great deal to offset these drawbacks. You have these kids, you know: Ill stick a goddamned needle in my arm, Ill sniff coke, to hell with anybody telling me what to do. Author Biography In response, later that year, 200,000 Americans, black and white, joined together in a freedom march on Washington to demonstrate. On one side is a heretical young black student who has not only renounced his religious beliefs but argues that words like Freedom, Liberty, God, White, Colored are meaningless. Critical Reflections on the Fiction of Ernest J. Gaines, Athens: Georgia University Press, 1994. Jamess absent father is serving the country, which expects its African-American citizens to fight for freedom abroad while it denies them those same freedoms at home. James, the narrator, is a young boy in a poor African American family in Louisiana during World . Sometimes itd stop long enough to let me get little rest. Washington Irving, The Sky is Gray by Ernest J. Gaines, 1968, The Slavery Issue: Western Politics and the Compromise of 1850, https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/sky-gray. 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. On the street again, James turns his collar up to keep his neck warm; his mother tells him not to, because only bums turn their collars up, and he is not a bum, he is a man. Gaines, Ernest J. Although he claims to have a solution for the black community, he refuses to consider its level of comprehension. Critics have been kind to Gaines, but his reputation has not risen with such meteoric speed as have the reputations of some of the other contemporary black writers of his generation. Whatever their struggles, their successes and failures, they move toward a perception of their dignity. Describing the events that led to the set of oral interviews which comprise Porch Talk they write through our association with him we have discovered that dignity and pride are not only themes that pervade his art, but qualities that characterize him as a teacher and a man., John Lowe, editor of Conversations with Ernest Gaines provides a somewhat more rounded, though still uniformly laudatory, response to Gainess works. Never know the values of communal bonds if Octavia has her way first duty to her is! Inspired by love, dreams, little flights of fantasy and the misty of... Short Stories., Blacks dreams, little flights of fantasy and the other side are the preacher departs told he! 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