A Gathering of Old Men
Ernest J. Gaines
Ernest J. Gaines
• Born 1933 on a plantation in Louisiana.
• Moved to California with his mother and
stepfather in 1948.
• Went into army and attended several colleges.
Ernest J. Gaines Cont.
• His work has been widely acclaimed for the
accuracy with which he captures the language
of rural African Americans in the South.
Ernest J. Gaines Cont.
• Novel: A Lesson Before Dying was nominated
for a Pulitzer Prize
– Surprise! Was also an Oprah Book Club selection.
Summary of A Gathering of Old Men
• A novel about race relations in the American
South, the action takes place over the course of
one day in rural Louisiana. A white man has
been shot dead and lies in the yard of a Black
man’s house. Eighteen old, Black men gather
at the house and each claims that he is
responsible for the killing.
Summary Cont.
• The white sheriff conducts an investigation as
the old men await the revenge of the dead
man’s relatives. By the end of the day, there
are many surprises and many characters have
changed in ways that they could not have
predicted when they work up that morning.
Structure/Point of View
• 20 short chapters
• 15 different narrators (10 Black characters, 5
white characters)
• Uses Black dialect and standard English
• Uses direct and indirect characterization
• Primarily first person narration
Historical Context
• Lynching:
– 2,805 documented lynchings between 1882
and 1930 in 10 southern states.
– 90% of the victims were African Americans.
• Averages to about 1 per week during the years
mentioned.
• Many victims were tortured and mutilated before
their deaths and parts of their bodies were sold as
souvenirs.
Lynching Cont.
• The 4 states with the worst records were:
– Mississippi (463)
– Georgia (423)
– Louisiana (283)
– Alabama (262)
*In Pointed Coupee parish, where Gaines grew
up, there were 6 lynchings between 18811908. The last recorded lynching in the U.S.
was in 1968.
Lynching Cont.
• Reasons:
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Murder, robbery and rape
Acting suspiciously
Gambling, quarreling, adultery
Acting improperly with a white woman
Arguing with a white man
Being obnoxious
Insulting a white man or woman
Demanding respect
Trying to vote
Voting for the wrong party
Decline of lynching/mob violence
• Declined after World War II (1945)
• Ku Klux Klan membership declined
– By 1950, Klan consisted mostly of poorly
educated white people
Civil Rights: 1950-1960
• New era of race relations in the South
• Secured voting and other rights
• Made discrimination illegal
– However, in rural South, change was VERY slow.
– And, African Americans did not always have full
protection of the law.
Today
• Racial Justice: Alabama and Mississippi are
now the two states with the highest number of
African Americans elected to government
office.
Today Cont.
• Capital Punishment: experts regard death
penalty as unfair because it affects black
people disproportionately.
– Those executed for interracial murder, only 11
were white people who killed Black people
– 167 were Black people who killed white people.
Today Cont.
• Lynching/racial violence:
– Although rare, incidents of racial violence still take
place.
• In 1998, James Byrd, a black man in Jasper, TX, dies
after being chained to a truck and dragged behind it by
three white men.
Themes: Racism
• Racism:
– Novel takes place in late 1970’s.
– Many still suffered from discrimination and
abuse for several generations.
– White people use “nigger”.
– The law looks the other way or accepts “white”
version of events.
Theme: Attaining Manhood
• When the old Black men decide to stand up for
themselves after a lifetime in which they have
endured humiliation and abuse, they finally
become men in their own eyes, earning their
own dignity.
Theme: Interdependence
• Races cannot succeed working independent of
each other.
Theme: Race inside of Race
• The white people separate themselves from the
Cajun white people.
• The Black people separate themselves based
on the darkness of their skin.
Theme: Change
• Change habits of a lifetime
• Almost all characters go through some form
of change
Symbols
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Tractor
Sugar Cane
Guns
Graveyard
Main Characters
• Candy Marshall: Protagonist, tries to protect
the accused (Mathu)
• Beau Bauton: Dead, important due to his
symbolic role; represents social order that has
subjugated Black people throughout history;
linked to the violence of the past.
Main Characters Cont.
• Sheriff Mapes: 60 yrs old, white, seems to be
a classic racist, but is more complex; capable
of understanding and change.
• Mathu: lives on property, accused of crime,
most believe he killed Beau.