A Gathering of Old Men
Ernest J. Gaines
Ernest J. Gaines Biography
 Born Jan. 15, 1933 on
River Lake Plantation ,
Point Coupee Parish ,
Louisiana
 Moved to Vallejo, Calif. in
1948
 Attended junior college
before being drafted into
army in 1953-1955
 Majored in English at San
Francisco State College;
graduated with a BA in
1957
 Studied creative writing at
Stanford 1958-59
 first novel Catherine
Carmier published in 1959
 Continued to publish short
stories and novels through
1971, when he published
his most well-known
novel, The Autobiography
of Miss Jane Pittman,
which received several
awards and was made into
a TV movie
Biography cont’d
 A Gathering of Old Men
was published in 1983
and made into a TV
movie in 1987.
 Published seven novels
and short story
collections, received
numerous honorary
doctorates from
outstanding universities
such as Brown, Denison,
Bard, and LSU
 In 1983 Gaines became a
professor of English and
writer in residence at the
University of
Southwestern Louisiana,
in Lafayette, LA
 His novel A Lesson
Before Dying published
in 1993 won a National
Book Critics Circle
Award for Fiction and
was nominated for the
Pulitzer Prize.
Novel Introduction
 AGOOM is about race
 Essential Questions:
relations in the American
South; it takes place over
the course of one day in
rural Louisiana.
 One white man has been
shot dead and eighteen
old, African-American
men gather to each claim
that he has killed the
white man.
 What is the definition of




a man?
How does past treatment
affect current behavior?
Why are there still racial
tensions in our country?
When, if ever, will racial
issues be resolved ?
How does point of view
affect a story?
Jim Crow Laws
 The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the
United States enacted between 1876 and 1965.
 They mandated de jure (concerning law) racial
segregation in all public facilities in Southern states
of the former Confederacy
 A "separate but equal" status for African Americans
led to conditions for African Americans that tended
to be inferior to those provided for white Americans.
 De jure segregation mainly applied to the Southern
United States. Northern segregation was generally de
facto (concerning fact).
Jim Crow Examples/End
 Segregation of public schools, public places, and p
 Segregation of restrooms, restaurants, and drinking
fountains for whites and blacks.
 The U.S. military was also segregated.
 Jim Crow laws were overruled by the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Cajuns versus Creoles

Cajuns - an ethnic group mainly living
in the state of Louisiana.


Descendants of Acadian exiles
(French-speakers from Acadia in what
are now the Canadian Maritimes).


Cajuns make up a significant portion of
south Louisiana's population, and have
exerted an enormous impact on the
state's culture.

Cajun French is a dialect of the French
language spoken primarily in the
Acadiana region of Louisiana.




Creoles -descended from the colonial
settlers in Louisiana, especially those of
French and Spanish descent.
term was first used during colonial
times by the early French settlers to
refer to those who were born in the
colony, as opposed to those born in the
Old World.
After the Civil War, some Creole
scholars began to assert that the word
Creole referred exclusively to people of
wholly European descent.
The term is now commonly applied to
individuals of mixed-race heritage.
Both groups have common European
heritage and the traditional use of the
French language and the continuing
practice of Catholicism.
Those of mixed race also have African
and sometimes Native American
ancestry.
Traditional
sharecropping declined
after mechanization of
farm work became
economical in the mid20th century.
As a result, many
sharecroppers were
forced off the farms, and
migrated to the
industrialized North to
work in factories.
Effects of Mechanization on the
Sharecropper
The story opens with
Candy, a young woman
who owns the land,
sending Snookum on a
errand to gather up the
older men in the area to
come to Mathu’s house ,
each bringing a 12 gauge
shot gun and some
shells.
Each character has his
or her own chapter to
tell a part of the story
and to claim credit for
shooting a white man,
long despised for his and
his family’s abusive
treatment towards the
African-Americans in
the town.
Plan your chapter activities around
the historical events and cultural
messages in the subtext of the
novel.
Plan your chapter activities around
the historical events and cultural
messages in the subtext of the novel.