A Gathering Of Old Men Summary

456 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: The role of racism in american literature

Author Review: Earnest Gaines, A gathering of old men According to Earnest J. Gaines “There will always be men struggling to change, and there will always be those who are controlled by the past.”(Gaines). This quote is a significant representation of the major themes in most of Gaines well known and popular short stories and novels. A little background information on Gaines is he was a part of the post slavery generation and had the opportunity to witness the transition from devastating effects of slavery to blacks being emancipated from all they have ever known and pushed to make it on their own as sharecroppers and free blacks. He was the oldest of 12 siblings and was raised by his great aunt, who was a strong woman and he was able to emulate many of his novel characters from such as …show more content…

Gaines, his novel full of descriptive language and intriguing story line gives the reader an opportunity to grasp the main theme and evoke the feelings and emotions that the reader can relate to. Although Gaines was raised being introduced to the civil rights movement spreaded to the south he writes more about the maintenance of white supremacy and the characters having the opportunity to face the oppression of slavery they have been going through for their whole entire lives(Tucker, 2011). In each paragraph Gaines shifts narrators that represent different man collectively telling their claims of racism as being individual acceptances instead of a systematic design of the states. Figurative language Gaines uses in his writings is symbolism as he portrays the characters with similar characteristics to the states principles and what he has seen in his lifetime. Gaines likes to describe his writing of being more like African-American history that has not been told sharing the registries of the African American perspective. With the little reading and research that I have done I am very fond of Gaines writings and his chosen genres, many African American children forget

Show More
Related

  • Separate Pasts by author Melton McLaurin

    1165 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...eir lifehave felt and seen themselves as just that. That’s why as the author grew up in his southerncommunity, which use to in slave the Black’s “Separate Pasts” helps you see a different waywithout using the sense I violence but using words to promote change in one’s mind set. Hedescribed the tension between both communities very well. The way the book was writing in firstperson really helped readers see that these thoughts , and worries and compassion was really felttowards this situation that was going on at the time with different societies. The fact that theMcLaurin was a white person changed the views, that yeah he was considered a superior beingbut to him he saw it different he used words to try to change his peers views and traditionalways. McLaurin try to remove the concept of fear so that both communities could see them selfas people and as equal races.

    Read More

  • Mathu And Charlie In A Gathering Of Old Men

    549 Words  | 2 Pages

    In his novel, A Gathering of Old Men, Earnest Gaines summons the readers into has world. Based in the 1970s, this coming of age novel talks about how the death of a white man, somehow bring old black men to come together. Two characters, Mathu and Charlie, encounters a major change or realization that results from a shooting. This situation occurs during the times of extreme racial tension, Mathu stands firm his ground in a land full of whites. Charlie, om the other hand, is nothing like Mathu, in

    Read More

  • How Does Malcolm X Writing Change

    1485 Words  | 3 Pages

    The central ideas of: Racial tensions, racial identity, and systemic oppression, all assist in revealing the author’s purpose. As Malcolm changes throughout the story, his wordhoard and usage of various terms changes as well as the structure of sentences. From half-sentences to long blocks of text, Malcolm’s status also affected the style and structure of his writing; If Malcolm was in a party, the structure would consist of small half sentences as opposed to if Malcolm was telling scenery of a bar in which he would use long descriptive sentences of the setting. Throughout all the chapters, the author was capable of placing vivid images and allowing the reader to experience all the problems and threats Malcolm had to deal

    Read More

  • Jasper Jones Racism Quotes

    918 Words  | 2 Pages

    Racism and Segregation is a strong recurring theme in the novel Jasper Jones. Silvey has used Jasper, Charlie, and Jeffrey to convey the themes of racism through the book and to send an important message to the audience. He has shown us that making assumptions about someone based on rumours and appearances is wrong and that racism can rise out of ignorance. Silvey’s main message was that anyone can overcome racism and that it is just

    Read More

  • The Relationship Between Malcolm X and Song of Solomon

    1188 Words  | 3 Pages

    The plight of the civil rights movement stands as one of the most influential and crucial elements to African-American history. We can accredit many activist, public speakers, and civil rights groups, to the equality and civil rights that African-American men and women are able to have in this country today. We see repeated evidence of these historical movements describes in fiction, plays, TV, and many other forms of media and literature. An artistic license is provided to many authors developing these concepts amongst their writing. When examining specific characters and literary works you can see an indirect comparison to the personality traits, actions, decisions, and journey to that of real-life historical figures.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Leon Litwack's Trouble In Mind

    1160 Words  | 3 Pages

    Leon Litwack’s Trouble in Mind paints an extensive picture of life for black southerners in, and after, the Jim Crow era. Litwack takes the reader through the journey of a black youth, then slowly graduates to adulthood. As the chapters progress, so do the gruesome details. The reader is exposed to the horrors of this life slowly, then all at once. The approach Litwack utilizes is important, because he needs the reader to stick with him even through the tough chapters. By utilizing firsthand accounts of raw, emotional experiences, Litwack successfully communicated the daily struggles of black southerners in the late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century South.

    Read More

  • Racism In A Lesson Before Dying

    949 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the end, it should be clear that the book, “A Lesson Before Dying” uses race to show how it was used against the characters. Gaines does this very well. It gives the readers a very eye opening experience to how life was like during this time period. “Well, then I'd write for the white youth of the South, to let him know that unless he knows his neighbor for the last 350 years, he knows only half of his own history, that you have to know the people around you. And his neighbor, of course, was the blacks, African Americans." Gaines said this in an interview and I think this is one reason he put race in “A Lesson Before Dying.” He wanted to teach the readers the history of their people, whether the reader is black or white. In my opinion, Ernest J. Gaines does a great job at doing this.

    Read More

  • Prejudice in "King of the Bingo Game"

    949 Words  | 2 Pages

    The main character is completely alienated from the world around him. He is a black man living in a white world, a man who was born in the South but is now living in the North, and his only form of companionship is his dying wife, Laura, whom he is desperate to save. He is unable to work since he has no birth certificate—no official identity. Without a job he is unable to make his mark in the world, and if his wife dies, not only would he lose his lover but also any evidence that he ever existed. As the story progresses he loses his own awareness of his identity—“somehow he had forgotten his own name.” The author emphasizes the main character’s mistreatment in life by white society during a vivid recollection of an event in his childhood when he was chased by a train filled with “white people laughing as he ran screaming,” a hallucination which was triggered by his exploration of the “old scars” on his body. This connection between alienation and oppression highlight Ellison’s central idea.

    Read More

  • The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: The Formation of Identity

    2136 Words  | 5 Pages

    The reader is first introduced to the idea of Douglass’s formation of identity outside the constraints of slavery before he or she even begins reading the narrative. By viewing the title page and reading the words “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, written by himself” the reader sees the advancement Douglass made from a dependent slave to an independent author (Stone 134). As a slave, he was forbidden a voice with which he might speak out against slavery. Furthermore, the traditional roles of slavery would have had him uneducated—unable to read and incapable of writing. However, by examining the full meaning of the title page, the reader is introduced to Douglass’s refusal to adhere to the slave role of uneducated and voiceless. Thus, even before reading the work, the reader knows that Douglass will show “how a slave was made a man” through “speaking out—the symbolic act of self-definition” (Stone 135).

    Read More

  • Black Boy1

    741 Words  | 2 Pages

    Frederick Douglass and Richard Wright wrote memoirs recounting their experiences with racism. Though their writing styles are completely different from one another, the subjects they discuss are similar. After reading each piece they have both made me empathize with their feelings, however different their lives are from mine. Their memoirs, My Bondage My Freedom and Black Boy, provide insightful images of the racist and cruel treatment these writers experienced. Despite all of their stylistic differences, after both excerpts I understand the passion they felt for the hatred they endured.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis: The Color Purple

    1382 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are numerous works of literature that recount a story- a story from which inspiration flourishes, providing a source of liberating motivation to its audience, or a story that simply aspires to touch the hearts and souls of all of those who read it. One of the most prevalent themes in historical types of these kinds of literature is racism. In America specifically, African Americans endured racism heavily, especially in the South, and did not gain equal rights until the 1960s. In her renowned book The Color Purple, Alice Walker narrates the journey of an African American woman, Celie Johnson (Harris), who experiences racism, sexism, and enduring hardships throughout the course of her life; nonetheless, through the help of friends and family, she is able to overcome her obstacles and grow into a stronger, more self-assured individual. While there are numerous themes transpiring throughout the course of the novel, the symbolism is one of the strongest prospects for instigating the plot. In The Color Purple by Alice Walker, numerous symbols influence and drive the plot of the novel.

    Read More

  • The Linkage Between Structure And Racial Changed By Frederick Douglass

    737 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout Douglass’ autobiography, readers grapple with the rise and creation of slavery as a racial formation but also witness the distinct features that detail its crumbling for the near future. It is a process that offers a linkage between structure and racial representation. Douglass touches base that “it was not color, but crime, not God, but man, that afforded the true explanation of the existence of slavery” (69). He already knows that the slave masters are the individuals who developed this categorization of race and embedded into the societal perception of today. Omi and Winant attempt to give an outline in their piece on the foundations of racial meaning. In other words, it was man who decided to develop distinct characteristics to separate individuals into inferior and superior. Douglass states that “what man can make, men can unmake” (69). In other words, Douglass does not see himself as any different than his peers and instead focuses on the theorizing of resistance in literature. The power of knowledge

    Read More

  • GATHERING OF OLD MEN

    410 Words  | 1 Pages

    Gaines technique allows the characters to reveal themselves and their relations with others. We hear the story through the voices of the old black men, a black woman, a child, and the white narrators. We not only see the conflicts of the blacks, but also the conflicts of the Cajuns as well.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Leon Forrest's A Tree More Ancient Than Eden

    1515 Words  | 4 Pages

    By using figures such as Louis Armstrong, Abraham Lincoln, and Harriet Tubman, the author deals to provide a relevance to the readers. Some characters within the novel are old enough to remember slavery and their presence lets Nathaniel be influenced by their experiences. The author introduced us Jericho who was half-white; yet, his own father treated him as a slave. The history of his family and other African Americans pushes the narrator to develop a perspective of being disliked because of his race. The incorporation of slavery in his ancestor by the author revives history and its effects on the narrator. The novel deals with the 1960’s as well as connecting to the past through Sweetie’s letter to the president. We are introduced to issues such as the War on Poverty and student revolts, along with African American concerns. In addition, Forrest’s indulgence of various historical events are purposed to evoke the moods of darkness and fear. The detailed episodes of the Great Flood, Middle Passage, and the migration of African-Americans, along with the vision of a black Mary under a tree more ancient than Eden, invokes the conscious acknowledgement of the suffering of the black race from centuries ago. The author injects such episodes into Nathaniel’s stream of consciousness to suggest the continuity

    Read More

  • The Wolf of Wall Street

    1300 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...you in your past, you are not your past, you are the resources and the capabilities you glean from it. And that is the basis for all change.” In conclusion, learn from your mistakes, remember what talents got you where you are today and success will eventually come along the way.

    Read More

More about A Gathering Of Old Men Summary

Open Document