The fiction novel by Ernest Gaines, A Gathering of Old Men, is set in the 1970s on a Southern Louisiana sugar plantation and portrays the hardships and struggles of the black community seen through the perspective of many different characters, black and white. During this time in the south, racial tensions were high and African Americans were treated very poorly because of the color of their skin. Candy is a white woman who was raised by Miss Merle, another white woman, and Mathu, a black man, something seen very rarely in this time period. Mathu has allegedly killed Beau Bouton, an upper-class white man. Since Mathu is family and in trouble, Candy does not hesitate to try to protect him. Because of the racial issues in the south during this …show more content…
After discovering Beau Bouton’s dead body in Mathu’s yard, then seeing Mathu with the gun, Candy thinks Mathu has killed him and begins her plan to protect him from going to jail and being killed. Candy has Snookum go around telling people to “get to Mathu’s house!” (Gaines 7), so Candy can inform everyone of the plan. The old men are supposed to bring twelve-gauge shotguns and empty shells, so that when an authority comes to find who killed Beau, they would have a difficult time deciphering who did it because everyone has the same gun and an empty shell. Candy was not just overreacting, everyone in the town knew that something vile was coming there way. Once news began to spread, everyone in Marshall expected “to hear Fix and his drove coming in them trucks with them guns any minute now” (Gaines 11). The people gathering at Mathu’s house were anxious for the arrival of Fix, Beau’s dad and horrible racist, because of the bad things that he has done to the people of Marshall and their loved ones in the past. In order to rectify the issue of racism, Candy brings together all the old men in the town, so that they all protect Mathu and finally stand up against people who have treated them wrong all of their …show more content…
With this newfound courage the men can fight against an everyday immoral occurrence; racism. All their lives the old men of Marshall have been mistreated, but now because of Candy they realise that God has given them “one more chance to do something with their lives” (Gaines 38). The old men of Marshall have this unspoken brotherhood and if someone is ever in trouble, like Mathu seems to be now, they do not hesitate to put their lives on the line for one another. As the men are gathered at Mathu’s house, Mapes, the sheriff, shows up to find out what happened, but his means of solving this mystery are unconventional as he begins to hit the men as they all confess to the crime. Old man after old man, as Mapes hits them “He did not like what he was doing, but he didn’t know any other way to get what he wanted” (Gaines 69). Mapes’s actions are a testament to the culture and racial issues present in southern Louisiana. Showing that even post Jim Crow Laws the African American community is still being treated in a cruel and inhumane fashion. Because of Candy’s reaction to the injustice seen in her community, the old men build up the courage to stand up for themselves against the cruelty and mistreatment that they receive on a normal
The thesis of the book entails the accounts of racial tensions that took place in American in the 1920s and the emergence of civil rights movement based on the story of Ossian Sweet. The book depicts the story by a Detroit native, Boyle and how he tells the events of the city's most major civil rights episodes. The main event took place on September of 1925, when Ossian Sweet, his wife and a few friends protected their house with guns from an enraged mob of whites. After the tragic events of that night everyone in Sweet’s house were arrested and put on trial. Those events eventually led to Civil Rights Movement.
“He could see himself as a small boy again, listening to the terrifying stories of colored men mutilated and murdered at the phosphate pits just outside his hometown.” (1) Forever would these stories and memories of lynching, death, and abuse haunt the young doctor. Racism and violence like this were not just found in the South, however. These horrors followed Sweet into adulthood as well. “Ossian could see the gangs of white soldiers and sailors… looking for Negroes to maim and kill, marching up Seventh Street toward… the medical school, toward Ossian himself.
In the story, “A Gathering of Old Men” Ernest J. Gaines writes a story about a woman and her groups search for justice after a man was killed. After many hardships, the problem is resolved even though there are some punishments. The group's teamwork and drive for justice is shown many times throughout the book. There are many ways justice can be achieved and expressed in many situations.
n Ernest Gaines’s A Gathering of Old Men , Gaines brings up many examples of bildungsroman. The book largely focuses the coming of ages and how characters largely change after time. Gaines sets the story in a society where racism was tolerable and discrimination was accepted.
Justice In “A Gathering of Old Men,” Ernest J. Gaines’s character Candy Marshall develops a plan to protect long time plantation worker Mathu. The plan is to gather former or existing plantation workers to help Mathu with his case and lie explaining that each of them did the murder. Candy understands justice by organizing a plan, the justice is successful because none of the plantation workers are arrested, and justice is significant because the plan has worked but consequences will follow. The theme is the redefinition of black masculinity, the old men on the plantation had spent their days running from trouble.
The theme of racism is shown is The Help because the black maids of the white families are treated terribly because of their race. In the story, many of the white characters believe that blacks are dirty and carry diseases that white people are nonimmune to. Because of the oppression they face, every black character has a difficult time living their most fulfilled life. White children are taught from a young age that they are superior to black people. This is displayed when Aibileen, the maid of Elizabeth who takes care of Mae Mobley, when Aibileen says, "I want to yell so loud that Baby Girl can hear me that dirty ain’t a color, disease ain’t the Negro side a town.
Tucked next to a pristine lake, the part-Medieval Europe, part-Renaissance Faire hamlet of Whispering Pines, Wisconsin is a utopia . . . except for the recent murders. One month after arriving in the Northwoods, former detective Jayne O’Shea has settled comfortably into small-town life and is making good progress with her task of getting her grandparents’ house ready for sale. Then the shocking death of one of the carnies rocks the community, and the villagers look to Jayne for help, placing her in the impossible position of not wanting to get involved and needing to ensure justice is served.
Since the black community has been on the plantation for many years, Gaines reveals certain items and features on the farm that have sentimental value to the black men. By using powerful symbolism, Gaines is able reveal the black men's fight for their masculinity. Throughout the novel, Gaines uses powerful symbolism to reveal several aspects within the farm. Gaines uses guns and tractors to symbolize multiple themes and ideas that are present throughout the novel (Carmean 111).
The young prophet, Imam Hussein once said, “death with dignity is better than love with humiliation.” In Ernest Gaines novel A Lesson Before Dying, presents the importance of dignity through the journey of a young black man and his wrongful conviction. The lesson that dignity comes from loving and being loved through the actions and thoughts of Grant Wiggins, Reverend Ambrose, and Jefferson is taught. Who these characters love, who they care for, and how and individuals that love them, define the dignity they feel and experience in their lives.
In the play “A Raisin in the Sun,” the family explores many issues, both within their family and with outside conflicts. This play has a historical feel to it. In Chicago 's south side a black family is living in a run-down apartment. It takes the readers back to a time that many young people don’t know of, and a time that offers respect to older generations (1959). The play takes on a few social reforms.
In the 1950s Chicago, there was a black family known as the Younger family. This family is a small family with a boy Named Travis, his parents are Ruth and Walter, Walter’s sister is Beneatha, and Walter and Beneatha’s mom is Lena. The family is going through hard times financially, causing everyone stress. Walter worries about making something of himself, starting a business, achieving the life of the “American Dream.” They are waiting on a check of 10,000 dollars from the life insurance of Walter’s father, which could help them.
It was the years of built up frustration and the decades of disproportionate segregation. This segregation was geared toward perpetuating a situation of inequality for African Americans in the Coalesced States.
Humans live in a world where moral values are very clearly set determining what is good and what is bad. We know what scares us and how racism should be treated. Nevertheless, this was not the case back in Alabama during the 1950s. In the famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee narrates the lives of the people of Maycomb, Alabama, focusing on the story of Scout and Jem Finch, and the case of a said to be rape. In this emotion filled narrative, readers learn how life was back then not only in general, but for the separate social statuses that there was.
In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee teaches us about the town of Maycomb County during the late 1930s, where the characters live in isolation and victimization. Through the perspective of a young Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, readers will witness the prejudice that Maycomb produces during times where people face judgement through age, gender, skin colour, and class, their whole lives. Different types of prejudice are present throughout the story and each contribute to how events play out in the small town of Maycomb. Consequently, socially disabling the people who fall victim from living their life comfortably in peace. Boo Radley and his isolation from Maycomb County, the racial aspects of Tom Robinson, and the decision Atticus Finch makes as a lawyer, to defend a black man has all made them fall in the hands of Maycomb’s prejudice ways.
It’s not just the richness of the language that sets this book apart but how well it enables the reader to visualize; a vivid description of setting and events unfolding the story as you are reading ahead. Through this movement of skeeters, the author brings to us the prejudice and bias felt by the blacks in a racist environment. When we look at the relationship between a black servant and a white employer, initially the former is a cog in the wheel, but gradually the perspective changes.