James, the narrator in Ernest Gaines' "The Sky is Gray" is an eight-year-old African American male who is still a child but being the oldest male in the household he faces more responsibility than a normal young boy would. His father is deployed to fight in World War II, so his mother; Octavia is forced to take care of the household. She in turn must teach him how to be a gentleman, which he becomes at the end of the story. Influenced by the women in his life, James, the protagonist in Ernest Gaines' short story "The Sky is Gray" makes a transition from boyhood to manhood.
A gentleman, as defined by Merriam Webster's Collegiate dictionary is a man whose conduct conforms to a high standard of propriety or correct behavior or a man of any social class or condition often used in a courteous reference. A gentleman possesses sincerity, nobility, strength, security and assurance. Each male makes a transition from boyhood to manhood, a time of change from childhood to adulthood. Octavia is the guide for James in his journey to maturation, into being a gentleman. The narrator states, "I look at my mama and I know what she's thinking. I been with Mama so much, just me and her. I know what she's thinking all the time". (p. 384) He realizes early he has a responsibility, the reader realizes this when the narrator states: "I'm the oldest and she say I'm the man".(p 384) Usually the oldest child has the most responsibility because they act as a role model to the younger siblings and if anything should happen to the parents, they must take care of everything.
Octavia does not worry when she leaves James at the house with the younger children because she knows James is going to look aft...
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...r but Octavia tells him "You not a bum," she says. "You a man."(p.404) This is significant because it shows he is not seen as a young boy by his mother anymore, he is now seen as a man. We see the influence and change in James by all of the life lessons his mother instills in him, she tells him he needs to not cry, to be strong, and be able to stand alone symbolizes that he must be independent, he must also put others before himself and do things he may not like to do but must do as a necessity to live, such as killing the cardinal birds for supper. Helena also shows James that everything in life you must work for, that is why she tells him to take out the trash cans.
In Conclusion, influenced by the women in his life, James, the protagonist in Ernest Gaines' short story "The Sky is Gray" makes a transition from boyhood to manhood.
Unknown, to James at this point he did not realize that he was having a problem with a psychological theory called behaviorism. Now this theory is one that is saying human behavior is developed through learning experiences which in this case would apply to James. His behavior as an adult was reflected by the way he was treated as a kid by his father and mother because they fought all the time. They never truly paid any attention to him, which in terms taught him how to stay out of their way and learn how to steal and burglarize places without getting caught. Therefore, within the psychological theory of behaviorism Behaviorists saw crime as something that is a learned response to life’s situations such as James situation which led him to a life of crime because of his parents. Although, he was never truly mistreated, he did not receive his father attention due to the fact of the way his father was treated as a child growing up an abusive household. Therefore, he did not want to place his son in the same situation. There is also the fact that James could be suffering from the psychodynamic theory which says that a person’s personality can be controlled by their unconscious mental process and that is grounded in them in early childhood. These entire things such as the id, ego, and superego
Zora Neale Hurston focuses on the evolution of an African-American woman as she goes through adulthood and three marriages in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston expresses the framed narrative through Janie Crawford’s point of view as she recounts her story to her friend Phoeby, and uses two dialects throughout the novel. The clear dichotomy of the narrator’s diction and the characters’ African-American dialect gives importance toward Janie’s struggles and progress to find her strength and independence. Hurston magnifies the theme of voice and language, not only with the characters’ personalities, but also with the form of the novel as she employs a third person omniscient point of view, provoking imagery and shifts in tone.
We have learned our own individual personality can drive our sense of direction. The choices James made during his childhood where not his fought, he did not have the parental guidance during his developmental stage. Amazingly, he conquered all to obstacles to become successful.
Within the autobiography Black Boy, written by Richard Wright, many proposals of hunger, pain, and tolerance are exemplified by Wright’s personal accounts as a child and also as an adolescent coming of manhood. Wright’s past emotions of aspirations along with a disgust towards racism defined his perspective towards equality along with liberal freedom; consequently, he progressed North, seeking a life filled with opportunity as well as a life not judged by authority, but a life led separately by perspective and choices.
Living during the early nineteen hundreds was not easy for African American women. Women gained power through marriage, but they still were looked down upon and treated like slaves. In the story “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” Zora Neale Hurston uses diction, symbolism, and foreshadowing to reveal how Janie sought to discover her own identity marrying three different men who helped her discover her independence leading to the fact that women were poorly treated during this time period and deserved more respect than they received.
It causes a drift into their family and it influenced James from then on out. A few months after he died, everything changed. James writes, “She sent us off to school and tried to maintain her crazy house as usual, ranting about this and that, but the fire was gone. In the evening, she often sat at the kitchen table completely lost in thought” (137). When Ruth becomes lost in her own world, her behavior influences James. They both grieved for his death in different ways yet, his mothers grieve influenced him the most. Seeing her slowly fall apart was too much for James. He started skipping school, shoplifting, hanging with the wrong crowd, and he eventually became addicted to smoking reefer or drinking alcohol. Slowly, James is sinking into a hole he can't climb out of with all of his bad decisions. On an afternoon, after James nearly dies, he talks with chicken man, “Everybody on the corner is smart. You ain't no smarter than anybody here. If you so smart, why got to come on this corner every summer? ‘Cause you flunking school! You think if you drop out of school somebody's gonna beg you to g back? Hell no. They won't beg your black ass to go back. What makes you so special that they'll beg you! Who are you? You ain't nobody! If you want to drop out of school and shoot people ad hang on this corner all your life, go ahead, it's your life” (150). After James spoke with Chicken
... than a servant, for you do nothing for your keep.” They also tell her that “to strike a young gentleman, your benefactress's son! Your young master.” The servants respect the Victorian patriarchal society, despite the fact that they are so badly treated through it. Brontë is trying to tell us that this system has been in form for so long, that people are thinking of it as natural, and insists that it should not be so. In Brontë’s opinion, everyone should have equality.
Ernest J. Gaines was born in Louisiana. He was one of twelve children. His dad was out of the picture when Gaines was a small boy, which pushed them to move away to New Orleans for better work. Aunt Augustine, become gains main role model. His childhood experiences, was the foundation on which his short story “The Sky Is Gray” seemed to be based upon.
James was an authoritarian parent. He was controlling, in-charge and no one questioned him. He would play the role of the doting father. When his children made mistakes, he made a point to criticize them. He often compared them to other kids that he felt were “more perfect.” When his often unspoken expectations were not met he would yell and scream striking fear into his entire family. “He’s not a warm, fuzzy kind of guy, and he’s not going to inspire feelings of intimacy. But when his system works, he can boast about one thing: His recruits tend to obey” (Dewar).
Throughout Black Boy, Wright explores what it means to be an African American individual living in the Southern and Northern United States during the early 20th century. Because of his inherent strength and his stubborn unwillingness to conform to the expectations of the many, he struggles to find his place within his society. However, Wright’s struggles are not limited to those against the Whites while living in the South. An uneasy feeling of conflict pervades the book, and it becomes evident that his conflicts arise not only from his society’s rejection of his skin color, but from his community’s rejection of his character. In his autobiography, Wright defines himself as a fighter in an unending battle for acceptance—not just as a disenfranchised
In the story, “Boys and Girls”, the narrator is not the only one coming to terms with their identity.
to that of Joe - she regards a gentleman as someone who is towards the
The novel Black Boy was Richard Wright’s way of telling his own story about life from when he moved to Chicago at the age of nineteen. There are difficulties with his white colleagues and involuntary social isolation.
In the opening scenes of the story the reader gets the impression that the boy lives in the backwash of his city. His symbolic descriptions offer more detail as to what he thinks about his street. The boy says “North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street [it’s houses inhabited with] decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces” (Joyce 984). This shows that the boy feels that the street and town have become conceited and unoriginal. While to young to comprehend this at the time the matured narrator states that he now realizes this. The boy is also isolated in the story because he mentions that when the neighborhood kids go and play he finds it to be a waste of time. He feels that there are other things he could be doing that playing with the other boys. This is where the narrator starts to become aware of the fact that not everything is what is seems. He notices the minute details but cannot quite put them together yet. As the story progresses one will see that th...
Men of the time were held to the standard of being active in society. They were expected to be active in politics and social activities outside of the home. Expectations for men were also for them to be respectful and proper, especially when women were present. The character, Jack Worthing, in The Importance of Being Earnest, is the representation of the perfect Victorian gentleman. For example, Jack says to Algernon in Act I, “...My dear fellow, the truth isn’t quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl. What extraordinary ideas you have about the way to behave to a woman!” (Wilde 1.2.236). In this simple quote, Jack describes the high standards and expectations that Victorian gentlemen were held to. But not only men were held to high standards, women were expected to hold themselves in the most proper way as well. The point of a Victorian woman’s life was to marry and domestically support her family. Women had little rights and in fact, prior to the Married Women’s Property Acts of 1870, women were forced to give up all property that they held to their husbands upon marriage. (Appell 1). Within the play, Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen 's mother, is provided as a tool to explain the oppression put upon women of the time.