My heart tells me. Sure, My heart tells me. And as long as you listen to what your heart tells you, you will have only what the white man gives you and nothing more. The force implicit in the story is Octavias individualism, which threatens to deprive James of membership in the human community. In their introduction to Porch Talk with Ernest Gaines: Conversations on the Writers Craft they write: Gainess characters evoke laughter, joy, despair, grief, anger, sympathy, andperhaps most of allpride. 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. Source: William E. H. Meyer, Jr., Ernest J. Gaines and the Black Childs Sensory Dilemma, in College Language Association Journal, Vol.34, No. In response, later that year, 200,000 Americans, black and white, joined together in a freedom march on Washington to demonstrate. 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. Gaines's story "The Sky is Gray" similarly explores the differences between charity and justice within the segregated South. Awesome read. 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. Their thought process, social standing, and personality are the key aspects that influence their pathway to maturity. 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. . 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). It growls so loud you can hear it a mile. Moreover, it soon becomes clear that the black mother and son must accept the fact that they have now become the observed, not the observersthat they are the ones who dearly need to be seen for what they are, cold and hungry. It suggests at first the bleak mood of the story but also hints at hope in the future. 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. This is particularly useful in a story limited by the narrative point of view to the description of a young persons inner life. One means nothing more than the other. . 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. Futhermore, he is forced to wash dishes at night to finance his education. 4, June, 1991, pp. Regardless of the scope, however, Gaines . 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. Her alternative, however, creates an atmosphere which, for James, is potentially equal in the dangers it poses. ." This did not go unnoticed in the United States, particularly among black leaders who read with interest books like Jomo Kenyattas Facing Mount Kenya. 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. 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. Sets found in the same folder "If The Sky is Gray" by Ernest Gaines. With more than an hour to go before the doctors office will reopen and sleet starting to fall, Jamess mother decides to spend their bus money on something to eat and walk home. I was very much impressed, not only with form, but with how [the Russians] used their peasantry, how they used their serfs.. "The Sky is Gray" refers to the literal winter scene in which the story takes place. What is the allegorical meaning of the student turning the other cheek when the preacher hits him? But this state of affairs does not lasthis Auntie soon discovers that his tooth is rotten. 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. 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" 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. His 1993 novel, A Lesson Before Dying, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. . On the other hand, the student maintains a defensible position, but his egotistical stance exposes his feelings of alienation from his community. Mama tries to teach James that he is the man of the family now. 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. 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.. A strong offstage presence, Jamess father is most profound in his absence. Ernest James Gaines (January 15, 1933 - November 5, 2019) was an American author whose works have been taught in college classrooms and translated into many languages, including French, Spanish, German, Russian and Chinese. 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 distinction his mother makes between men and bums is both subtle and significant: bums pull their coat collars up, while men dont. The story occurs on a cold winter day in Louisiana, whose gray sky suggests the lack of hope for many African Americans. I've got a real bad feeling. The Sky is Gray is a heartbreaking story of James and his Mama. 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. Overall, however, the move away from colonial entanglements was stronger than the ties that bound African countries to their colonial powers, and the move toward home rule was unstoppable. 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. Style Theirs is an odyssey or journey that encompasses the major dilemmas blacks faced in this eraincluding a debate between a black preacher who embraces the Christian doctrine of suffering and acceptance and an angry young black man who advocates questioning and action. "- [] And as long as you listen to what your heart tells you, you will have only what the white man gives you and nothing more. https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/sky-gray, "The Sky is Gray Well, if I cant, to hell with it. But if one takes a step back from the more obvious reading another, more subtle, reading begins to emerge. Babb, Valerie Melissa. The first thing that James learns is to rein in his potential visualityto accept verbal blinders for his eyes: Mama tells me to keep my eyes in front where they belong (italics mine). 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. 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. Short Stories for Students. Get help and learn more about the design. 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 . Here, hiding her true feelings and motives, she makes use of the technique of masking and teaches her son a valuable lesson in pride and survival. 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 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. Random Word. The Sky is Gray Essay example. 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. James, in The Sky is Gray, is a somewhat older black youth who rightly faces a more complex dilemma concerning his ear and eye. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. . "The Sky Is Gray" is a story narrated by eight year old James which tells the events of a Louisiana morning in which James and his mother, Octavia, take a bus to Bayonne to have a dentist take a look at James' ailing tooth. The Sky Is Gray has been added to your Cart . But Jamess narration creates a rationale for reading the story as a moral story. 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. 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 Watch Online Streaming 123Movie. In 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated in New York and outbreaks of anti-black violence occurred in Selma, Alabama, including Ku Klux Klan shootings and Martin Luther King leading a procession of 4,000 in a protest march from Selma to Montgomery. In The Sky is Gray, the goal is not exactly reached. 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. But Im not supposed to do that. The title of the piece hints to the general dreariness which lingers throughout the story. Gaudet, Marcia G. Porch Talk with Ernest Gaines: a Conversation on the Writers Craft, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1990. 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. The Sky Is Gray Analysis. 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. But assume for a moment that Octavias world is not so simple. 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. The great fear here is not the capriciousness of white townfolk, but of being beholden, as a result of their poverty, to anyone. The Sky is Gray is fundamentally a story about the process of coming of age, of going from one state to another. 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. 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. The boy dont answer her no more. Bajo el cielo gris y nubes bajas, las olas oscuras ocultan su potencia bajo una aparente tranquilidad. Helena tries to give them a larger piece, but Jamess mother insists on an accurate measure. 29 terms. In the short story The Sky is Gray, Ernest J. Gaines shows the struggles, inflicted by poverty, in an eight-year-old boys life. 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 . Publisher Chicago : Perspective Films Language English. In Ernest J. Gaines "The Sky Is Gray", Octavia finds out the hard way. BIBLIOGRAPHY 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. The Sky is Gray by Ernest J Gaines; Learning in Focus, inc. 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 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. For example, he believes that Catholic and non-Catholic prayers heal differently, but one suspects that the distinction between the two would be lost on the clergy of both Catholic and Protestant faiths. As the argument between the student and minister in the dentists office clearly illustrates, there is a racial dimension present in the story. $18.75 + $3.99 shipping. Short Stories for Students. The feeling of community which permeates A Long Day in Novemberthat sense that whatever happens to Amy and Eddie is everybodys concernis conspicuously absent from the second story in Bloodline, The Sky Is Gray. James, the eight-year-old narrator of this story, struggles to understand his mother and her conceptions of manhood and dignity without aid from the community. 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. From a larger, more global viewpoint, these motions support and underscore Jamess own transformation. 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. RT @BuddhistCeo: Morning meditation The first day of Spring I look from the zendo window Hoping the world has changed Alas no There is frost on the ground And the sky is gray As I sit zazen I dream of summer flowers The bell rings I smile I bow #thebuddistceo #buddhism #poetry #meditation . With all of these facets, why would Gaines end the story with this quest unfinished? While gray literally represents the harmonious blending of black and white, its use in the story to describe the sky before a brewing storm symbolizes a potentially destructive force. 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 dramatic conflict endemic to the stories in Bloodline arises out of the efforts of various characters to reconcile their individual needs with community prerequisites. Gaines, Ernest J. They are struggling for survival after James' father is taken in the army. [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 . Dependency on the philanthropy and good will of others leads to vulnerability when that support is no longer forthcoming. 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). 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. It is also possible to rent "The Sky Is Gray" on Vudu, Amazon Video online and to download it on Amazon Video, Vudu. The Sky is Gray is told entirely from the point of view of the eight-year old narrator, James. Set during the 1940s, "The Sky is Gray" is narrated by James, an eight-year-old boy with a horrible toothache; the story focuses on the cold winter's journey he and his mother Octavia make to see the dentist in town. His father left his mother when Gaines was a small boy, forcing his mother to move to New Orleans to find work. On the other, he is one of only two sympathetic white characters in Gainess story (Helena is the other). two young boys, the resolution of the conflict resides with their parents. 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 stream The Sky Is Gray online for free | Watch online movies through best free 1080p HD videos on desktop, laptop, notebook, tablet, iPhone, iPad, Mac Pro and more. 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. The title of the story by Ernest Gaines is ironic. 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') 18, No. The storys protagonist, or main character, James is a young boy of about eight who lives with his mother, aunt, and their immediate family in the outskirts of Bayonne, Louisiana. While they wait for the dentist to reopen his office, Octavia must devise ways in which she can keep James from the cold and at the same time carefully adhere to strict rules of racial separation. James seems like anything but a childhood, his mind is plagued with worries and concerns that often belong in the adult realm. Critical Overview 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. She was preparing him to take care of himself in case she had to go away like his father did. 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. However, the trip to the dentist is weighty too because of the prejudice that exists outside his little community. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they cope with some harmful bugs inside their computer. 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? Roll the dice and learn a new word now! Though he can accurately recall the words of the student in the dentists office that lead up to the student being hit by the preacher, he cannot understand the argument in which they are engaged (She just looks at him like she dont know what hes talking bout. Their meal finished, James and his mother thank the woman for her hospitality. 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. Ed. 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? Gaines creates these moments with sufficient force and clarity both to explain his protagonists past and to anticipate his future. 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. Based on the story of the same title by Ernest Gaines, about a young Black farmboy's dawning of awareness about himself and society. Genre: . Monsieur Bayonne at the storys beginning is the superstitious complement to the preacher in the middle section. 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. Whatever the narrative gains by being told through Jamess eyes would need to add a great deal to offset these drawbacks. The narrator is James, an eight-year-old black boy living in rural Louisiana. Historical Context Me, I don't listen to my heart. 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. The fact that neither story offers a resolution to the underlying conflict apparent in the situations is indicative of the contemporary nature of the issue which Gaines raises. "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 Sky is Gray The purpose of the heart is to pump blood throughout the body, and nothing else. Although her primary goal is to project a model of strength for James through her own actions, her inability to make her sense of the world comprehensible to him leaves James vulnerable to the very forces from which she would shield him. Again, Gaines is shrewd enough not to let James end his ordeal at this point but forces him to confront the obstacles of bitter cold and hunger in order to accomplish his sensory rite de passage. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. Jamess vulnerability to this aspect of human nature is illustrated in the episode with an old couple who offer them food during their visit to town. Based on Gaines own experience, the character of Monsieur Bayonne is a mildly unsympathetic but still dangerous figurethough he acts without malice, his actions keep James from a dentist for several days. Added . Two of the stories in Bloodline, A Long Day in November and The Sky Is Gray, are particularly illustrative of the conflict between community perspective and individual needs. The story portraits three remarkable points: James's forced mature, his childhood memory damaged by poverty, but even so, their dignity still remains. On the other hand, James in The Sky Is Gray will never know the values of communal bonds if Octavia has her way. Consequently, the reader is limited to what James observes and understands. The purpose of the heart is to pump blood throughout the body, and nothing else.. 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. But this cure fails, too. Author Biography kui. 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. For Babb, Octavias intention is to teach her son a valuable lesson in pride and survival, but she doesnt interrogate the relationship between pride and survival, preferring tacitly to assume that her readers will infer a necessary relationship between the two where none in fact exists. The student, or the boy, is somewhat out of place in this story, but was certainly not out of place at the time the story was written. Characters 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. Author Biography This theory is supported by three specific events during the story. 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. 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. His choices should involve a conscious effort to integrate the extremes. The best-known version is by the Mamas & the Papas, who sang backup on the original version and released it as a single in 1965.The lyrics express the narrator's longing for the warmth of Los Angeles during a cold winter in New York City. It is because of his absence that Octavias moral teachings are both so important and so urgently imparted. Other Sellers on Amazon. As you may know, people have look numerous times for their favorite novels like this The Sky Is Gray , but end up in harmful downloads. Consequently, in attempting to communicate with the community, he feels frustration, which reinforces his belief in his own isolation. In this transformation, as he puts his collar down, the reader has taken a small but important step with James from childhood to adulthood. 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