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. It is important to recall that the Civil Rights era coincided with the casting off of imperial control by a series of African countries. 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. 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. songplace. Based on the story of the same title by Ernest Gaines, about a young Black farmboy's dawning of awareness about himself and society. 4, June, 1991, pp. Plot Summary 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. In the following essay, Kippen explores the implications of a moral reading of Gainess The Sky is Gray., Though Gainess works invite a wide number of readings, almost all current criticism can be divided into one of two broad categories: race-centered criticism, concerned primarily with the storys instructive value about such things as prejudice and injustice, and structural criticism, which describes the parts of the story and their relation to the whole in formal, rather than thematic, terms. Babb, Valerie Melissa. Historical Context Author Biography Shortly thereafter the nurse enters the room and announces that the doctor will not treat anyone until one oclock. Ed. 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. (55) 7.4 46min 1980 13+. . 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 . Style THE SKY IS GRAY by Ernest J. Gaines, 1968. 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. The Sky is Gray by Ernest J Gaines; Learning in Focus, inc. "- [] 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. 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. But this state of affairs does not lasthis Auntie soon discovers that his tooth is rotten. 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. 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. Added . 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. 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. 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') 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. . Unfortunately, I was born too late to believe in your God. Babb cant decide. 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. She uses her new awareness to structure her world into clear-cut oppositional units. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004. [Chorus 1: Barry McQuire, The Mamas & The Papas] 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') On such a winter's day [Verse: Barry McQuire, The . 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. Jamess mother opens the door to exit, but turns and asks for twenty-five cents worth of salt meat. She insists that they come inside while she calls the dentist to tell him that they are coming. On the other hand, James in The Sky Is Gray will never know the values of communal bonds if Octavia has her way. Though he would no doubt take issue with the South being described as a singular place and would certainly argue that it is many places, each different, each having unique gifts of nature and people, each facing unique challenges, he would just as surely agree with W. E. B. 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. . 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. The title of the piece hints to the general dreariness which lingers throughout the story. 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. . 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. Roll the dice and learn a new word now! 545-58. Figuratively, it is a metaphor of the collective black experience.. In The Sky is Gray, by Ernest J. Gaines and Mr. Parker, by Laurie Colwin, James and Janie are no exception. He just reads in his book. [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 . Because his fiction focuses on the peculiar plight of black Americans in the South, Gaines must consider an additional level of significancethe strong communal bonds characteristic of Southern black folk culture. I wouldn't turn down bright colors either. 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. Alnests wife, Helena is the storys other sympathetic white figure. Jamess mother Octavia is a strong, proud, uncompromising woman largely based on Gainess own mother. two young boys, the resolution of the conflict resides with their parents. jakeszalat Plus "If The Sky is Gray" by Ernest Gaines. 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. My baby don't love me no more. . He is a sincerely religious faith healer/musician, but his religion is heavily tinged. 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 . 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. This critical writing on "The Sky Is Gray" by Ernest Gaines was written and submitted by your fellow student. kui. The student wants very much to deny his auralityMe, I dont listen to my heartand he ends up sad and depressed over his liberalism and scepticism: I hope they arent all like me. 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. But it was "The Sky Is Gray" that first drew me in and that still evokes a certain atmosphere in my mind. It is through these kinds of moderating forces in James environment that Gaines sees his salvation. The title of the story by Ernest Gaines is ironic. whatever their motivation may be, their small generosity will only be accepted as kindness, not as charity. It also involves the problem of integrating the individual and the community in a mutually rewarding relationship in the face of dehumanizing individualistic forces. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. Her personal situation can be seen as a metaphor for the plight of blacks. All the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray. A young boy named James comes of age in 1940s Louisiana and grapples with what it means to be black during a time of racism and poverty. ostreet9 Plus "Angel Levine" by Bernard Malamud. From a larger, more global viewpoint . "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 story portraits three remarkable points: James's forced mature, his childhood memory damaged by poverty, but even so, their dignity still remains. Critical Reflections on the Fiction of Ernest J. Gaines, Athens: Georgia University Press, 1994. Short Stories for Students. In thematic terms, two of the most important sections in the storysections seven and eightexplore the relationship between God, religion, knowledge, and ignorance. 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. i love Gaines' use of symbols senses in this story it is one of hope I think. James's mother accompanies her son to town to see about the boy's nagging toothache, and his journey soon becomes an eye-opening odyssey. 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. "The Sky is Gray" refers to the literal winter scene in which the story takes place. To believe in your God the individual and the community in a mutually rewarding relationship the! 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