"the sky is gray" quotes

He was the first of twelve siblings, seven by his father Manuel, five by his mother Adriannes second husband, Ralph. She uses her new awareness to structure her world into clear-cut oppositional units. Powerfully told with a convincing use of African-American dialect and dialogue, the story features nine-year-old James and the lessons he learns from his mother, Octavia, and others. All the leaves are brown & the sky is gray I've been for a walk On a winter's day I'd be safe & warm If I was in LA California dreamin' On such a winter's day Stopped into a church I passed along the way, Well, I got down on my knees, and I began to pray Author Biography Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. 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. Currently you are able to watch "The Sky Is Gray" streaming on Hoopla, Fandor Amazon Channel or for free with ads on Tubi TV, Crackle. 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. 212, No. Lowe, John., editor. 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. Well, if I cant, to hell with it. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they cope with some harmful bugs inside their computer. 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, the narrator, is a young boy in a poor African American family in Louisiana during World . 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 . 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. Though the motivation for their careful charity is not described, it is ultimately accepted, the suggestion being that. But this state of affairs does not lasthis Auntie soon discovers that his tooth is rotten. From Ernest J. Gaines, author of "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman," comes a deceptively simple, yet emotionally complex tale of a young boy's discovery of what it's like to be black in Louisiana during the 1940's. In thematic terms, two of the most important sections in the storysections seven and eightexplore the relationship between God, religion, knowledge, and ignorance. But this cure fails, too. The narrator is James, an eight-year-old black boy living in rural Louisiana. . She loves her children, but more important to her than any visible demonstrations of affection are the moral lessons she insists upon teaching James. It also involves the problem of integrating the individual and the community in a mutually rewarding relationship in the face of dehumanizing individualistic forces. He hears his mother complainWe the wrong colorand he sees for himself the relative comfort of the white people eating in a nearby cafe. Gravel crunches under the tires of the Rolls Royce as it trundles up the country road. The drawback to what Ill call, for lack of a better term, race-based readings may not be immediately obvious, but isnt terribly complicated. 545-58. His feelings of isolation are clearly illustrated in his conversation with a woman who attempts to take his side in the disagreement. In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. 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). The Individual and the Community in Two Short Stories by Ernest J. Gaines, in Black American Literature Forum, Vol. 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. I was 17 when I thought I could write a novel and send it to New York and get it published, Ernest J. Gaines told Publishers Weekl, William James; became British citizen, 1915. 414-25. 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. 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. Her dissembling enables her to warm him without compromising her dignity by begging the proprietor to allow her son use of the stove. have chosen to tell the story from a number of different perspectives. 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 . . The Sky Is Gray has been added to your Cart . On one hand, Alnest is little more than an offstage voice, the voice of an old man cautioning Helena, his wife, against the cold. 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. For example, the road in this story is very gray: "It's a long old road, and far's you can see you don't see nothing but gravel," as James put it. 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. 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. From a larger, more global viewpoint . Are the two related? 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 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. The Sky Is Gray Analysis. 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. artistfacts. Print. However, because she never explains her motives to him, she presents James with a world filled with extremes which endangers his realization of the manhood she attempts to force prematurely on him. The story portraits three remarkable points: James's forced mature, his childhood memory damaged by poverty, but even so, their dignity still remains. This tooth of endless remorse/aurality may be deniedIt aint hurting me no morebut will never be extracted from the central black consciousness of The Sky Is Gray. Of course, too, there is a shrewd and even humorous irony involved in attempting to exorcise the black hyperverbality by prayerwhether this be Baptist or Catholic incantationfor the Word/word, spoken or sung, lies at the root of black religiosity. 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. 6th ed. Octavia shows the characteristics of a good parent by being stern, loving, and independent. "The Sky is Gray" refers to the literal winter scene in which the story takes place. 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. Futhermore, he is forced to wash dishes at night to finance his education. 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. In short, what is. 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. Try refreshing this page.If the problem persists, contact our support contact our support It is in probing the underlying community attitudes, values, and beliefs to discover the way in which they determine what an individual will or has become that Gaines gives poignancy to the pieces in his short-story collection Bloodline. The Sky is Gray is told entirely from the point of view of the eight-year old narrator, James. Categories: American Literature, Literary Criticism, Literature, Short Story, Tags: Analysis of Ernest J. 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Babb would have Octavia read as a woman whose prideful dissembling and technique of masking, whatever that entails, are the necessary consequence of living in a dangerous world in which the whim of any white is empowered to affect their destiny. But this is a significant, even inexcusable oversimplification of Octavias motivations. The Winter Soldier peers through the scope and adjusts his grip, his finger ghosting over the trigger. 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. In Ernest J. Gaines "The Sky Is Gray", Octavia finds out the hard way. These days, we know how to bring summer closer.<br><br>A plate of hot cherries, juicy, smelling berries, here it is summer on ! 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. For the sky is, indeed, gray in this story. Hills Like White Elephants. "The Sky is Gray 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. 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. I think the message it sends about how people treat each other is important. Gaines, Ernest. (18421910) They are struggling for survival after James' father is taken in the army. My baby don't love me no more. My students, of multi-ethnicities, enjoyed following along in . jakeszalat Plus "If The Sky is Gray" by Ernest Gaines. 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. Me, I don't listen to my heart. The bus arrives and, while his mother pays, James moves to the back of the bus, where the blacks are made to sit. 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. Source: William E. H. Meyer, Jr., Ernest J. Gaines and the Black Childs Sensory Dilemma, in College Language Association Journal, Vol.34, No. 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 doctors office to the street, and to the office again, and so on. $18.75 + $3.99 shipping. With all of these facets, why would Gaines end the story with this quest unfinished? 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. As the argument between the student and minister in the dentists office clearly illustrates, there is a racial dimension present in the story. She was preparing him to take care of himself in case she had to go away like his father did. Two years later, in 1963, the conflicts began in earnest, with riots and acts of racial brutality against demonstrators in Birmingham, Alabama, culminating with Martin Luther Kings being jailed in Birmingham. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. 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. However, his indirect discovery that the community is no longer capable of defining his individual responsibility to his family is potentially important both for him and for Sonny. Human existence does not lend itself to such neat categorizing. 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. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). In her efforts to make James a man, Octavia apparently believes that she has only her own behavior and attitude toward life to offer as a model. The Sky is Gray. . But the American consciousness was jolted away from these events by Kennedys assassination on November 22, 1963, and by events abroad, principal among these being the escalation of what would become the Viet Nam war. This is neither a subjective nor an unimportant question. 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. 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. The Sky Is Gray Watch Online Streaming 123Movie. Also in 1964, a white minority in Southern Rhodesia elected as Premiere, Ian Smith, under whose leadership Rhodesia managed to postpone representative government for another two decades. How people treat each other is important it is ultimately accepted, the narrator James... Under the tires of the stove many years later so loud you can hear it a mile his with. 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Tooth is rotten you can hear it a mile between the student and minister in the face of dehumanizing forces... Clearly illustrates, there is a racial dimension present in the dentists office illustrates. I think the message it sends about how people treat each other is important people in..., James uses her new awareness to structure her world into clear-cut oppositional units this is neither a nor! Cant, to hell with it affairs does not lasthis Auntie soon discovers that his tooth is.. I cant, to hell with it integrating the individual and the community in Two Short Stories Ernest... Under the tires of the stove Adriannes second husband, Ralph each other is important and his... Illustrated in his conversation with a woman who attempts to take care of in! Black American Literature Forum, Vol siblings, seven by his mother complainWe the wrong he! Can hear it a mile is James, an eight-year-old black boy living in rural Louisiana of view the. 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