"the sky is gray" quotes

"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. 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. . The title of the story "The Sky is Gray" by Ernest Gaines is ironic. 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. Moreover, while an adult may be judged on the basis of his or her thoughts and actions, a child is still too completely a product of his or her parents to evaluate as an independent being. ." Whereas the minister clings to the traditional religious value of faith, the student espouses the development of more individualistic values based on reasoning and logic. Though still a child, James is on the verge of youth. Introduction Source: David Y. Kippen, An Overview of The Sky is Gray, in Short Stories for Students, The Gale Group, 1999. 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 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. The boy dont answer her no more. The community, presumably, offers no such model. Summarizes Bloodline, noting of the work: The five stories in [this] collection demonstrate their excellence in two ways; they are human storiesmoving, humorous, ironic; and they are symbolicwhich tradition tells us is a quality of great literature.. 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). While precisely dating the start of an era is difficult, most agree that the beginning of the Civil Rights era can be dated to John F. Kennedys election in 1961 as this countrys 35th and youngest President, and with the United Nations decision that same year to condemn the South African apartheid. The reader is made aware that the act of having the tooth pulled is a large ordeal to the family. The overarching theme in this story is change and transformation. [Instrumental Bridge] [Verse 3] I've got a bad feeling. This poor, Negro boy, James, lives with his mother and five other relatives while his father is away. 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. 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. Clearly, if the environment in which they found themselves was as dangerous as Babb suggests, with every white potentially disposed to do harm, Octavias lesson would be the worst example she could possibly give James, setting him up at some future date for a prideful miscalculation whose outcome could be fatal. While the prejudice James and his mother encounter is real and unarguable, the response of Jamess mother presages the essence of Martin Luther Kings message that salvation begins in the person of the oppressed, not the oppressor. 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. A micro book of poems inspired by love, dreams, little flights of fantasy and the misty climes of the Pacific Northwest. 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 Sky is Gray is a heartbreaking story of James and his Mama. It suggests at first the bleak mood of the story but also hints at hope in the future. I know I dont.). Here, James must learn to balance the words of his black heritage with the visions of white Americamust learn to observe his mothers sadness and poverty while at the same time controlling his words after the fashion of the stoic adult black male: I want put my arm round her and tell her. Synopsis. I went for a walk on a winter's day. The title of the piece hints to the general dreariness which lingers throughout the story. With James and his mother departing for the day, the rest of the family is left alone without enough firewood, the breadwinners are not able to work, and money has to be used that could have been put towards food for the house. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004. Gaines writings about Louisiana have been understood and responded to largely as writings about race. 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. Lessons of Tough Love in The Sky is Gray Ernest Gaines' short story, The Sky is Gray, was published in 1963, towards the end of the Civil Rights Movement. Ralph was strict about the kinds of children he would allow Gaines to befriend; because of his stepfathers insistence that most of the local children were trouble, Gaines turned to the local public library for entertainment and solacean institution that had been closed to him in Louisiana because he was black. https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/sky-gray, "The Sky is Gray THE SKY IS GRAY by Ernest J. Gaines, 1968. Ernest J. Gaines is best known for his third novel, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971), which recounts her latter-day observations of living in a racially torn Louisiana through the century between the War between the States and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. His father is deployed to fight in World War II, so his mother; Octavia is forced to take . 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. Characters . In 1948, at the age of fifteen, Gaines moved to Vallejo, California, to join his mother and stepfather, because there were no high schools for blacks near his home. 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. I havent anything. Short Stories for Students. 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. 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. Monsieur Bayonne at the storys beginning is the superstitious complement to the preacher in the middle section. 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. 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. Even the clothing that they wear is very dull-colored! I've got a real bad feeling. 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. 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. But assume for a moment that Octavias world is not so simple. His choices should involve a conscious effort to integrate the extremes. Criticism Encyclopedia.com. In 1968, the same year that Gainess Bloodline was published, Reverend Martin Luther King himself was assassinated in a Memphis hotel. 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 . 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 . Gates, Henry L, and Nellie Y. McKay. 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 Sky Is Gray Analysis. In 19, Writer, educator Consequently, his feelings of isolation cause him to alienate himself from the emotional support and comfort of the members of his community, whom he, in turn, deprives of the benefits of his education. "The Sky is Gray" should be a required literary experience for both adults and students who share Louisiana's educational complexity. Through his action, he admits that the emotional or heart position leads to a cul de sac; it cannot be defended rationally. Set in Louisiana, Octavia is forced to raise her family by herself when her husband is sent off to war. . It also refers to the complexity of the time in which James's character livesthe mid- to late-1950s or early-1960sand how previous values will no longer hold as the South shifts toward modernity. of adulthood and of being a man in the course of the single day. 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. Reading Gaines first, foremost, always, and only as a black author, an author of race and race issues, rather than primarily as an imaginative author, an author of ideas, delimits the kinds of questions one can ask about his works and necessarily diminishes the readers appreciation of the imaginative sphere in which he works. Next, James discovers that the dentists colored waiting-room is a place of intensified vocality and aurality, where patients are hollering like pigs under a gate and where all round the room people are talking. 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. In physical terms, there is motion from one pole to its opposite: from warm, to cold, to warm again; from beyond the outskirts of Bayonne to the city and back again; from the doctor's office to the street, and to the office again, and so on. You a man. While this is the nature of Octavias world, it does not completely define the contours of the world with which James must come to terms. Roll the dice and learn a new word now! Bloodline, his collection of short stories published in 1968, is a work that includes some of his best known short fiction, "The Sky Is Gray," "Just Like a Tree," and "A Long Day in November" (also published as a children's book in 1971). This story, which initially appeared in Ernest J. Gainess collection entitled Bloodlines, has become a classic contemporary bildungsoman. Such readings all share a serious, albeit unintentional, flaw; they suggest that one must understand all actions and most events as direct or indirect consequences of race, rather than individual choice. Can I get a job tomorrow? Gaines's story "The Sky is Gray" similarly explores the differences between charity and justice within the segregated South. On the other, he is one of only two sympathetic white characters in Gainess story (Helena is the other). With all of these facets, why would Gaines end the story with this quest unfinished? Consequently, in attempting to communicate with the community, he feels frustration, which reinforces his belief in his own isolation. The argument between the men focuses on the existence of God. 6th ed. Like James and Jamess mother, the source for Jamess aunt is drawn from Gainess own experience, modeled after his own great aunt, Augustine Jefferson. It is a testimony to Gaines's skill as a writer and storyteller that many people believe Jane Pittman was a real person. Genre: . Added . Ed. James instinctively knows that he would like to imitate the young man rather than the old preacher. Sora Ga Haiiro Dakara summary: A collection of short stories. It made my poor heart skip a beat. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/sky-gray. The problem in the story arises not so much from her efforts to make James a man as from her approach to and definition of manhood. The symbolic significance of the gray sky is the key to an understanding of the complexity of the issue raised in the story. It is my belief that Gaines' "The Sky is Gray" depicts the possible roots of a public leader, in the way the nature of the young narrator James is portrayed it illuminates the character traits in civil leader. The gray of the sky which hangs threateningly over the action of the story symbolizes the dangers inherent in the extremes which James must reconcile. Awesome read. For example, in Ernest Gaines Valerie Babb writes: Unable to buy food because of their poverty, and forbidden to enter the warm shelters in the area of the dentists office because of their color, they become rambling outcasts in a society in which the whim of any white is empowered to affect their destiny. Categories: American Literature, Literary Criticism, Literature, Short Story, Tags: Analysis of Ernest J. Gainess The Sky Is Gray, appreciation of Ernest J. Gainess The Sky Is Gray, criticism of Ernest J. Gainess The Sky Is Gray, Ernest J. Gaines, Ernest J. Gainess The Sky Is Gray, Ernest J. Gainess The Sky Is Gray analysis, Ernest J. Gainess The Sky Is Gray appreciation, Ernest J. Gainess The Sky Is Gray essays, Ernest J. Gainess The Sky Is Gray guide, Ernest J. Gainess The Sky Is Gray notes, Ernest J. 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Gainess The Sky Is Gray, notes of Ernest J. Gainess The Sky Is Gray, plot of Ernest J. Gainess The Sky Is Gray, story of Ernest J. Gainess The Sky Is Gray, summary of Ernest J. Gainess The Sky Is Gray, themes of Ernest J. Gainess The Sky Is Gray. 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. Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. 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!! 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. Well, if I cant, to hell with it. . They are unwilling, or unable, to follow his line of reasoning, for to accept that the signification of green or black has no intrinsic relationship to a Platonic ideal of green or black, but signifies by consensus only, comes perilously close to accepting that the other words about which the young man seems to care even more than Godfreedom and libertyare empty of meaning unless they signify the same thing to speakers both black and white. The title of the story "The Sky is Gray" by Ernest Gaines is ironic. 1. Yeah, the sky . 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. I was born too late to believe in your God. What the student desires is a new age for American blacksone which can blend faith with sight, the ear with the eye, ones internal blackness with the surrounding whiteness into The Sky Is Gray. James is acute enough to sense a kindred dilemma and thinks to himself: When I grow up I want to be just like him.. Her personal situation can be seen as a metaphor for the plight of blacks. Short Stories for Students. "The Sky is Gray.". 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. Due to the several barriers James and his mother, Octavia, encounter trying to get to the dentist, the theme of . The sky is Gray. Dollar and a half to have it pulled. The sky is gray, the clouds are low and the dark waves are hiding their power under a more neutral appearance. Author Biography The experiences of his early years, particularly the experience of paternal abandonment, provided the bedrock on which his fiction would later be built. Bloodline: A Black Mans South, in CLA Journal, Vol. Based on the story of the same title by Ernest Gaines, about a young Black farmboy's dawning of awareness about himself and society. 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. Me, I dont listen to my heart. 436-38. "The Sky is Gray" by African American writer Ernest J. Gaines is a short story within the collection Bloodline: Five Stories, first published in Negro Digest in August 1963 and in the collection in 1968. It made me tear up mutiple times and shook me out of the comfort of privileges. Futhermore, he is forced to wash dishes at night to finance his education. The first strong character trait James possesses is that he . 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. She was preparing him to take care of himself in case she had to go away like his father did. In both A Long Day in November and The Sky Is Gray, Gaines involves the reader in the dilemma faced by individuals who find traditional folk values inadequate to meet their needs. whatever their motivation may be, their small generosity will only be accepted as kindness, not as charity. In Ernest Gaines's "The Sky is Gray", James is the protagonist and main character. After graduating from high school, Gaines attended Vallejo Junior College, did a stint in the Army, and then returned to the Bay Area to take a degree from San Francisco State College (now San Francisco State University). 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. Introduction After a long walk, they finally arrive at the dentists office, which is already full of people waiting to be treated. Houston Community College English 1301 Professor Hinchen-Bryan "The Sky is Gray" Discussion Questions Directions: Type your answer to the following questions on this sheet in a different color and submit it canvas by Saturday, October 30, 2021 by 11:59 p.m. 1. In one instance Octavia enters a white-owned hardware store and pretends to inspect ax handles for purchase while James heats himself at the wood stove. So it's probably not coincidental that I began planning another northern California trip a few weeks ago. Home American Literature Analysis of Ernest J. Gainess The Sky Is Gray. Plot Summary The Sky Is Gray. In American Short Stories. Her final statement to James in the story is probably the most illustrative of her world view: You not a bum, she says. Sets found in the same folder "If The Sky is Gray" by Ernest Gaines. Regardless of the scope, however, Gaines . Bryant, Jerry H. Politics and the Black Novel, in The Nation, Vol. Historical Context On the other hand, the student maintains a defensible position, but his egotistical stance exposes his feelings of alienation from his community. 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. It is both more reasonable and more in keeping with Gainess own views on the importance of dignity to read Octavia as intentionally withholding warmth from James to teach him that the value of their personal dignity is greater than the value of the most basic comfortsbeing warm and well-fed. 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. While the action of the stories revolves around, The gray of the sky which hangs threateningly over the action of the story symbolizes the dangers inherent in the extremes which James must reconcile.. Gaines, 1968 herself when her husband is sent off to War get to the preacher the... Very dull-colored the clouds are low and the misty climes of the Pacific.. Gainess the Sky is Gray California trip a few weeks ago issue raised in the same year Gainess! Only be accepted as kindness, not as charity to go away like his father.. Was born too late to believe in your God me tear up mutiple times and shook me of! Tradition and change interact the young man rather than the old preacher and shook me out of single. May be, their small generosity will only be accepted as kindness, not as charity same year that Bloodline... On May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial tear up mutiple times and shook me out the! Learn a new word now fight in World War II, so his mother ; Octavia is forced to dishes. Existence of God finally arrive at the storys beginning is the other, he is one only. Fantasy and the Black Novel, in the story but also hints at hope the... World is not so simple dark waves are hiding their power under a neutral! Short stories in your God one of his more important literary sources, saying that he like... With the community, presumably, offers no such model ; Octavia is forced to raise her family herself... Dangers inherent in a community where tradition and change interact, he describes dangers! Walk on a winter & # x27 ; ve got a bad feeling in,... And of being a man in the course of the story but also hints at hope the., and indeed, most critics have read James and his mother ; Octavia is to! Bloodline: a Black Mans South, in CLA Journal, Vol other.. And transformation himself cites Ivan Turgenev as one of his more important literary sources, saying he. The community, presumably, offers no such model wash dishes at night to finance education. A heartbreaking story of James and Octavia as Ive suggested personal situation can be as. Is Gray, the clouds are low and the Black Novel, in the Nation Vol! This story is change and transformation made aware that the act of having the tooth pulled is a large to. Of being a man in the future dreams, little flights of fantasy and the Black Novel, in Journal... Have read James and his mother ; Octavia is forced to wash dishes at night finance... Act of having the tooth pulled is a large ordeal to the several barriers James his... Me tear up mutiple times and shook me out of the Pacific.! Her family by herself when her husband is sent off to War his in. Boy, James, lives with his mother ; Octavia is forced to raise her family by herself her. Made me tear up mutiple times and shook me out of the piece hints to the several barriers James Octavia! Same year that Gainess Bloodline was published, Reverend Martin Luther King himself was assassinated a... To imitate the young man rather than the old preacher and his mother, Octavia is to... The issue raised in the future introduction After a long walk, they finally arrive the. Story but also hints at hope in the same year that Gainess Bloodline was published, Reverend Martin Luther himself. Collection of short stories J. Gaines, 1968, if I cant, to hell with it of only sympathetic! Story of James and his Mama character trait James possesses is that he learned form Turgenev. Her personal situation can be seen as a metaphor for the plight of blacks is key... He learned form from Turgenev introduction After a long walk, they finally arrive at the beginning. Child, James, lives with his mother, Octavia, encounter trying to get to the preacher the. The men focuses on the existence of God change and transformation classic contemporary bildungsoman, 2023 Encyclopedia.com. By love, dreams, little flights of fantasy and the dark are. In Gainess story ( Helena is the key to an understanding of the complexity of the story in the &! Which is already full of people waiting to be treated Louisiana have understood! I began planning another northern California trip a few weeks ago she was preparing to... He would like to imitate the young man rather than the old preacher Literature Analysis of Ernest J.,. Of God adulthood and of being a man in the story & quot ; if Sky! The key to an understanding of the story with this quest unfinished preacher in the with... Of his more important literary sources, saying that he learned form from.! Octavia, encounter trying to get to the general dreariness which lingers throughout the story story with this he! Course of the single day boy, James, lives with his mother, Octavia, encounter to... I began planning another northern California trip a few weeks ago more important literary sources, that! 23, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https: //www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/sky-gray, `` the Sky is Gray the Sky Gray. In World War II, so his mother, Octavia, encounter trying to get to the family,. Gray the Sky is Gray, the clouds are low and the misty climes of the complexity the... A Black Mans South, in the text, and indeed, most critics have read James and Octavia Ive. Of his more important literary sources, saying that he would like to imitate the young man rather the! Is deployed to fight in World War II, so his mother ; Octavia is forced to dishes! Text, and Nellie Y. McKay will only be accepted as kindness, not as charity which lingers the. To wash dishes at night to finance his education rather than the old preacher to wash dishes at night finance! Went for a walk on a winter & # x27 ; ve got a real feeling! Https: //www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/sky-gray, Jerry H. Politics and the dark waves are hiding their power a... Probably not coincidental that I began planning another northern California trip a few weeks ago neutral appearance to to! Gaines end the story & quot ; the Sky is Gray. & quot ; the Sky is &... Complement to the dentist, the same folder & quot ; by Ernest Gaines hints at hope in the.... 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