Manhood In Ernest J. Gaines A Gathering Of Old Men

In the novel, A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest J. Gaines, there are fifteen different narrators, and they all play an important role in the story. Each of the narrators interprets the murder of Beau Bauton in a different point of view, expressing feelings and experiences. The impactful themes of manhood and taking action embodies the word “Change”; the ongoing struggle for social equality, casting away their slave mentality, and the methods of agricultural production that affects the plantation as a whole.
On the Marshall plantation, the coming of tractors has altered the way of life for everyone. Further, this has contributed to economic imbalance between the Cajuns and Blacks. “After the plantation was dying out, the Marshalls dosed out the

land for sharecropping, giving the best land to the Cajuns, and giving us the worst—the bottom land near the swamps” (Gaines 94). This made economic opportunities for blacks nonexistent. But as Johnny Paul says, "We stuck together, shared what little we had, and loved and respected each other" (Gaines 91-92). For the blacks, helping your fellow brother was nothing new. Candy, a white plantation owner, can also be characterized as a neighbourly person who is blind to her own social position and cares for people of all races during a time of extreme rigidity when she tried to take the blame to protect Mathu, an African-American man. However, she starts threatening the sharecroppers as they listened to Clatoo, which is hypocritical.
The process of time has been heart-rending to the blacks on the plantation.

After years of tragedy at the hands of the whites because of racism, the old men gather at the plantation. Each man arrives, gun in hand, admitting to the killing of Beau to tell their own story of how tragedy affected their existence, realizing one day I’m going to die and I’ve never stood my ground for myself or my lineage. Deciding to settle the score and reclaim their humanity by not "[crawling] under the bed like [they] used to" (Gaines 28). For example, Tucker reveals how they beat his brother because he wins against them in a contest between mules and a tractor. Tucker states, “How can flesh and blood and nigger win against white man and machine? So they beat him. They took stalks of cane and they beat him and beat him. I was there, and I didn’t move” (Gaines

96).
Fix represents the ways of the old South. His ways of violent behavior toward local blacks; lynching and killing. However, Gil understands racial violence is pointless. This is what sets him apart from his family and as a result he is rejected. He is a football player at Louisiana State University, along with Cal. They’re known as Salt and Pepper because Gil is white, and Cal is black. As the reader, I can infer it is a racial slur used on the campus without restraint or it can be a playful nickname that causes amusement. This nickname can have collective meanings, which confuses the reader. “Gaines has found structures and values best suited to give a voice to his people - the people among whom he grew up in the old slave quarters of rural Louisiana…. In tragedy, we are reminded that we live in a world that is not of our own making or control and yet a world to which we are answerable” (Lambert 115).
The characters appear as a stereotype, blacks, because of slavery and segregation.

Change has come, but they’re unable to cope with their past. “Gaines emphasizes the interdependence of white and African American people in Louisiana while simultaneously acknowledging social structures that maintain the concept of white superiority.” (Hebert-Leiter 95). The character, Charlie awaken the community to stand and tell their story, but the sense of manhood came when he returns to take responsibility for the killing of Beau Boutan. “I want the world to know it. I ain’t Big Charlie, nigger boy, no more, I’m a man. Y’all hear me? … A nigger boy run and run and run. But a man come back. I’m a man” (Gaines 187). After hearing their life experiences, it would be expected for the old men to think the same while standing up for their race. “To underscore the risk the African American men take in op-posing the Boutans, Gaines emphasizes the fact that, even in the 1970s, civil rights had not come to Bayonne and that a black man who killed a white man could expect to be lynched” (Hebert-Leiter

108).
The novel is set during the 1970‘s on a Louisiana sugarcane plantation. Racism still played a huge role in the south during that time. This shows how hate towards blacks still exist. “Now ain’t that just like white folks? Beulah said to us, but still looking at Mapes. Black people get lynched, get drowned, get shot, guts all hanging out—and here he come up with ain’t no proof who did it. The proof was them two children laying there in them two coffins. That’s proof enough they was dead” (Gaines 108).
In conclusion, Gaines used different narrators take on racism to allow them to interpret the book themselves. He does this through his use of storytelling. He defines concepts of black masculinity and manhood.