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. Sold by: Tidal Wave Group . After a long walk, they finally arrive at the dentists office, which is already full of people waiting to be treated. "The Sky is Gray" should be a required literary experience for both adults and students who share Louisiana's educational complexity. . However, because she never explains her motives to him, she presents James with a world filled with extremes which endangers his realization of the manhood she attempts to force prematurely on him. His choices should involve a conscious effort to integrate the extremes. Encyclopedia.com. Are the two related? $18.75 + $3.99 shipping. Doing. The Sky is Gray is episodic in formthat is, the story is not told as a sequence of events, but as a sequence of events punctuated by narrative flashbacks and broken up into numbered segments. Human existence does not lend itself to such neat categorizing. It suggests at first the bleak mood of the story but also hints at hope in the future. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. 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. For me, the wind is pink, the grass is black.. whatever their motivation may be, their small generosity will only be accepted as kindness, not as charity. Critical Overview Rather than reading a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they cope with some harmful bugs inside their computer. The story occurs on a cold winter day in Louisiana, whose gray sky suggests the lack of hope for many African Americans. The text of The Sky Is Gray subtly brings out this painful aurality: Id just lay there and listen to them, and listen to that wind out there, and listen to that fire in the fireplace. Add to Cart . Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). 28 terms. 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. 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. In short, the unfortunate consequence of exclusively race-based readings is that they narrow the readers scope of inquiry, inviting the reader to ask fewer questions and questions of a more particular nature than one would ask of an author like James Joyce, Salman Rushdie, or J. M. Coetzeeeach of whose writings are intimately concerned with different conceptions of race and their ramifications. 10 terms. The Sky Is Gray. In American Short Stories. In short, what is. The Winter Soldier peers through the scope and adjusts his grip, his finger ghosting over the trigger. 110-13. Plot Summary Their meal finished, James and his mother thank the woman for her hospitality. i love Gaines' use of symbols senses in this story it is one of hope I think. 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.. 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. Yet James, for all his acuteness of perception, can never follow Emerson into the parody of the Biblical command, Pray without ceasing: the New-England sage demands, Observe without ceasing (italics mine). 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. 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. Added . His first bona-fide publicationsThe Boy in the Double-Breasted Suit and The Turtleswere published in San Francisco State Colleges Transfer magazine in 1956. The sky is gray Its like this everyday The town is full of predators Dont turn into the prey I Flip a million out of nothing Make them feel a certain way Hoping that this swisher Puts me in a purple haze I got my eyes on the money The only reason I'm gonna keep goin' And I am back in the zone and its funny Chronic bag the cologne Another half . Understanding The Sky is Gray requires that one not only understand something about the Louisiana of the 1930s and 1940s but also understand what was happening with regard to race in the United States during the 1960s, because the events of what later came to be called the Civil Rights era made a substantial and lasting impression on Gaines, one that can be seen not too far beneath the surface of The Sky is Gray in the person of the student and in the storys preoccupation with racial inequality. The Sky Is Gray Watch Online Streaming 123Movie. But assume for a moment that Octavias world is not so simple. "The Sky is Gray His father is deployed to fight in World War II, so his mother; Octavia is forced to take . How? It is through Jamess eyes that the story is told; consequently, the story is heavily filtered through his sensibilities. jakeszalat Plus "If The Sky is Gray" by Ernest Gaines. Awesome read. I know I dont.). His father left his mother when Gaines was a small boy, forcing his mother to move to New Orleans to find work. Being told that he must return after lunch, James goes with his mother out into the sleeting streets of Bayonne. James, who begins the story as a boy more conscious of his feelings and inner life than of the world in which he lives, moves far along the path toward understanding the moral complexity. 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. Lowe, John., editor. Ernest J. Gaines was born on River Lake Plantation in Oscar, a hamlet of Pointe Coupee Parish in rural Louisiana. Education: The Richard Pulling Jenks School, New York; traveled with his family in Europe from an early, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. 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. 4, June, 1976, pp. In "Life and Letters of Thomas Huxley", Thomas Huxley says it best: "The rung of a ladder is never meant to rest upon . The story occurs on a cold winter day in Louisiana, whose gray sky suggests the lack of hope for many African Americans. . He is an eight-year-old African American, living in the south during the 1940's before the civil rights movement came into effect. 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. Me, I dont listen to my heart. Although her relationship with this absent husband is only briefly mentioned, one senses in her attitude and behavior that his departure left her vulnerable. The overarching theme in this story is change and transformation. The Sky is Gray is a heartbreaking story of James and his Mama. (55) 7.4 46min 1980 13+. Alnests wife, Helena is the storys other sympathetic white figure. Like Monsieur Bayonne, the Preacher is little more than a foilhe exists only to become angered by the student on behalf of the other people in the dentists office, to strike him on their behalf, and to pity him. 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. This innovative investigation oers new perspectives on the history of racial conict in the Whatever the narrative gains by being told through Jamess eyes would need to add a great deal to offset these drawbacks. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004. Action is the only thing. Roll the dice and learn a new word now! Words, he says, mean nothing. . 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. The Sky Is Gray. This story, which initially appeared in Ernest J. Gainess collection entitled Bloodlines, has become a classic contemporary bildungsoman. In 1968, the same year that Gainess Bloodline was published, Reverend Martin Luther King himself was assassinated in a Memphis hotel. His publication record is not extensive, but his works have been well received. In the microcosm of black society represented by the dentists office that morning, he offers an indictment of religion and of its opiate-like effect on the downtrodden that Gaines himself seems to share. Helena tries to give them a larger piece, but Jamess mother insists on an accurate measure. In The Sky is Gray, by Ernest J. Gaines and Mr. Parker, by Laurie Colwin, James and Janie are no exception. Although he claims to have a solution for the black community, he refuses to consider its level of comprehension. Critical Reflections on the Fiction of Ernest J. Gaines, Athens: Georgia University Press, 1994. Each of the first two stories in Ernest J. Gainess BloodlineA Long Day in November and The Sky Is Gray describes a black boy or youth attempting to come to terms not just with the world in which he lives, his parents problems, and the racism which circumscribes him but, more importantly, with the sensory orientation of his own body, the struggle between what William Faulkner called a black blood and white blood. It is this private or internal struggle more than any public or external debate that creates the real identity crisis for the young black and for the artist or writer who would contend with an America which has painted the senses white! Both Sonny in A Long Day in November and James in The Sky Is Gray have to resolve the conflict between their African/aural roots and their American/visual reorientationbetween James Baldwins declaration that it is only in his music . Though the motivation for their careful charity is not described, it is ultimately accepted, the suggestion being that. Though it is indeed difficult, particularly for Americans, to step far enough back from the late 20th century American present to see the world Gaines describes with the same dispassionate clarity as one might see the Ireland, India, or South Africa that Joyce, Rushdie, and Coetzee respectively describe, nothing is lostand much is gainedif one makes the effort. Summary. 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. 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. The story begins with James and his mother waiting, on a painfully cold morning, for the arrival of a bus which will take them to nearby Bayonne. Indeed, one of the storys more disturbing episodes, during which his mother tries to make James kill two captured birds, is drawn from Gainess own experience. Introduction 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. One means nothing more than the other. My heart tells me, the boy says. The sky is gray, the clouds are low and the dark waves are hiding their power under a more neutral appearance. 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. My students, of multi-ethnicities, enjoyed following along in . The Sky Is Gray portraits both the ugly and beautiful experiences that James and his mother get on their way to the dentist. JAMES, WILLIAM It made my poor heart skip a beat. Ivan Turgenevs The District Doctor. Gaines himself cites Ivan Turgenev as one of his more important literary sources, saying that he learned form from Turgenev. 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? Can I live here tomorrow? . 18, No. To see gray merely as the integration of black and white on a literal level, and as a metaphor for racial integration on a symbolic level is, I think, to misunderstand Gainess real intent in the story. Encyclopedia.com. I wouldn't turn down bright colors either. 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. . 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. I went for a walk on a winter's day. 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. allivarnell13. Author Biography From a larger, more global viewpoint, these motions support and underscore Jamess own transformation. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/sky-gray. Even the clothing that they wear is very dull-colored! If one reverts to the easiest sort of race-based reading, one will invariably decide to read the story as one about victimhood. 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. Conversations with Ernest Gaines, Mississippi: Mississippi University Press, 1995. On the other hand, the student maintains a defensible position, but his egotistical stance exposes his feelings of alienation from his community. Print. Their thought process, social standing, and personality are the key aspects that influence their pathway to maturity. All the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray. In 19, Writer, educator Characters The drawback to what Ill call, for lack of a better term, race-based readings may not be immediately obvious, but isnt terribly complicated. 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. For Eddie in A Long Day in November, the ability to solve the enigma created by Amys decision to leave him is compounded by his already established communal world view. Octavia shows the characteristics of a good parent by being stern, loving, and independent. When aspirin fails to work, Auntie wants to tell Jamess mother; James convinces her not to, so they turn instead to a neighbor, Monsieur Bayonne, for a prayer cure. He states that Gaines was shockingly underrated at the beginning of his career. The Sky is Gray is a heartbreaking story of James and his Mama. Pressure continues to mount on the government over a number of events that allegedly took place in Whitehall and Downing Street while COVID-19 restrictions were in force. "California Dreamin'" is a song written by John Phillips and Michelle Phillips and first recorded by Barry McGuire. The Sky is Gray. 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. 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. kayeeaugust17. The effect of the storys episodic discontinuity is to emphasize the particular moment James is living, whether he is reliving a memory or moving through present events, while de-emphasizing the storys overarching structure. . 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. 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. Mama tries to teach James that he is the man of the family now. 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. of adulthood and of being a man in the course of the single day. James does not betray the kind and heartfelt offer of the couple although his mother would want him to. 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. The Sky is Gray is told in the first person by an eight-year-old child, James, on the cusp of youth, and describes a half-day in Jamess life. Shortly thereafter the nurse enters the room and announces that the doctor will not treat anyone until one oclock. Gaines is best-known for his novel, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, published in 1971 and adapted into a television movie starring Cicely Tyson in 1974. Turgenev as one about victimhood being told that he must return after lunch, James with! 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