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

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

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