H. G. Wells words of wisdom, “If you fell down yesterday, stand up today” can be seen throughout Ernest J. Gaines’ novel, A Gathering of Old Men. This novel takes place on a 1970’s Louisiana plantation where African-Americans are still suffering from the effects of slavery. Their dignity has been stripped away from them because of their color. After years of taking this abuse, the discriminated unite when an incident occurs in which the plantation’s boss, Beau Boutan, has been murdered by the hands of a black man. This incident would normally call for an execution but the old black men desire to gain their dignity and take a stand. They demonstrate that in spite of their tormented past, they still possess their bravery, power, and pride. …show more content…
The main role of flashbacks is to show the hardships and discrimination the African-Americans faced in that time. We are shown these flashbacks when Mapes the Sherriff questions the old men who are all claiming to have kill … ‘The way they beat him. They beat him till they beat him crazy…” (Gaines 80). Gaines introduced this flashback to show the brutality that blacks endured during the years following slavery. Not even a child was spared. Another flashback was by Johnny Paul, who remembered back to a time when they all lived together as a community until Beau Boutan and his tractor came and plowed it all up. Johnny Paul was referring to this time when he confused Mapes by saying “But you still don’t see. Yes sir, what you see is the weeds, but you don’t see what we don’t see.”(Gaines 89). Johnny Paul was referring to how the weeds and dilapidated houses replaced what was once a place of happiness, and brotherhood among the black families who lived there. Gaines uses this flashback to show what was taken from the African-Americans in the novel. It is the reason they must stand up for themselves. Another of the old men, Tucker goes into a flashback and remembers a time when his brother Silas and two mules, beat a white man and a tractor in a race. “…and because he didn’t lose like a nigger is supposed to lose, they beat him” (Gaines 97). This flashback portrays the obvious distinction between whites and blacks …show more content…
The tractor is a constant symbol that repeatedly came up throughout the novel. The tractor is what began to drive the African-Americans on the plantation out of work and away from their homes. It is also the tool that the Cajun, Felix Boutan rode when he was beat by Silas and the mules. Beau Boutan was riding the tractor when he went after Charlie. The tractor symbolizes one of the main tortures of the African-American community in Marshall. It not only drove them out of work and their homes but it also led to their dearth, especially in the case of Silas and Charlie. Gaines used the tractor as a motivator to the old men. It gave them more reason to take a stand. The shotguns that the old men carried also were symbols in the novel. The empty shells symbolized the weakness and ineffectiveness of the old men. They offered no resistance and let the Cajuns walk all over them. Their lives were as useless as the shotguns with empty shells that they held in their hands. However, when the time came to fight, the old men were ready for war. They decided to stand up for themselves and gain back their dignity. They went from useless old men to men who could make a difference. They had fully loaded shells, power, and pride which affected Luke Will, who “looked worried, real worried” when he realized their conviction (Gaines
Four black sharecroppers (Roger Malcom, Dorothy Malcom, George Dorsey and Mae Murray Dorsey) are brutally murdered by a group of white people. The murders attracted national attention, but the community was not willing to get involved. The community was not fazed by these brutal murders but, by the fact that this incident got national attention. They were even more astounded that the rest of the nation even cared. In this book Laura Wexler shows just how deep racism goes. After reading the book I discovered that Fire in a Canebrake has three major themes involving racism. The first is that racism obstructs progression. The second is history repeats itself. The last theme is that racism can obscure the truth. This lynching, in particular, marks a turning point in the history of race relations and the governments’ involvement in civil rights. In the end this case still remains unsolved. No concept of the
Mapes, the white sheriff who traditionally dealt with the black people by the use of intimidation and force, finds himself in a frustrating situation of having to deal with a group of black men, each carrying a shotgun and claiming that he shot Beau Boutan. In addition, Candy Marshall, the young white woman whose family owns the plantation, claims that she did it. As each person tells the story, he takes the blame and, with it the glory.
It also deals with the emotions that this black boy faces because he has been treated unfairly by the white people. Major Characters: Jefferson, black boy who is accused of a crime and sentenced to death; Grant Wiggons, teacher sent to help Jefferson. After he went and obtained a college degree, Grant Wiggins went back to live with his grandmother. Being that he is a very educated person, Grant was elected by his grandmother to try and get Jefferson to realize that he was a man and not an animal like the white people had led him to believe. Throughout the entire novel, Grant is battling this idea in his head because he doesn’t feel that even he knows what it is to be a man.
The book follows Dana who is thrown back in time to live in a plantation during the height of slavery. The story in part explores slavery through the eye of an observer. Dana and even Kevin may have been living in the past, but they were not active members. Initially, they were just strangers who seemed to have just landed in to an ongoing play. As Dana puts it, they "were observers watching a show. We were watching history happen around us. And we were actors." (Page 98). The author creates a scenario where a woman from modern times finds herself thrust into slavery by account of her being in a period where blacks could never be anything else but slaves. The author draws a picture of two parallel times. From this parallel setting based on what Dana goes through as a slave and her experiences in the present times, readers can be able to make comparison between the two times. The reader can be able to trace how far perceptions towards women, blacks and family relations have come. The book therefore shows that even as time goes by, mankind still faces the same challenges, but takes on a reflection based on the prevailing period.
Jordan has a lot of published work which allows him to make assumptions where Conner is not clear or there are no other sources to state what was going on at the time. Some of his past work includes “White over Black: American Attitudes toward the Negro, 1550-1812” a best seller of its time. “White over Black” mainly focuses on general trends seen throughout the time before the Civil War in America and how the black man was treated throughout that time period. While using his wealth of knowledge and sources Jordan is able to piece together the puzzle of Conner’s document and retell a rough estimate of what occurred more than a century and a half ago. Jordan makes the read easy, as he paints perfect images of what might have occurred throughout this time in Adams County and makes the vocabulary very understandable for an average
An OLD MAN tells a YOUNGER MAN, who has just been released from prison, a fantastic tale of a pond known at the Witch Creek Pond. The Old Man tells him that one day Young BEN was supposed to go fishing with his dad, but refused. Later, Ben and his mother learned that his father drowned in the pond. Years later, when Ben 's mother died, she made him promise to scatter her ashes in the same pond.
The chosen sequence I will analyze is the Production/Editing of the film No Country for Old Men. This film which came out in 2007 was based on the novel written by Cormac MaCarthy of the same name. The movie was written/adapted, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen (a.k.a. the Coen brothers). The film is often referred to as a neo-western thriller due to its degree of genre mixing as it tells the story of an ordinary man whom by chance stumbles on a fortune that is not his, and the ensuing cat-and-mouse drama as the paths of three men are brought together into the desert landscape of 1980s Texas.
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
The death of a black man, the attack of two children, and a man locked up for so long he cannot remember what life was like before all seem unrelated, however they are not. They are all examples of a common theme throughout the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, victims of what a main character implores his kids not to do. In To Kill a Mockingbird, two plotlines coincide; two children, Scout and Jem Finch are growing up with a fascination of their recluse neighbor, Arthur “Boo” Radley, and a black man named Tom Robinson is put on trial for the rape of a white woman. The book takes place in a small southern community during the Great Depression, and the scene heavily affects the events throughout the book. For example, in a modern, urban environment a man would not buy his children air rifles and allow them to shoot as they please. However, since it was a common thing at the time, this is precisely what Atticus does for his children. Before they are allowed to go out, Atticus does tell them one thing: that they must never shoot a mockingbird because it is a sin. When the kids question this, it is elaborated that mockingbirds are innocent, and never put anything but good into the world, so it is a sin to kill them. This theme continues to pop up in different ways throughout the book, and it is exemplified by major characters and events throughout the plotline.
...made farming more profitable and easier to run as a business. “The tractor was modern compared to the horse. The farmer did not have to pay as many hired men. There was more leisure time. But the tractor changed the social structure of rural life. The key position that farming held in American life vanished” (Carlson).
... the novel. Flashbacks are used to create a feeling of remembrance or revelation to past events that were not introduced to the audience. The introduction of the supernatural character of Beloved was not explained in the plot prior to her introduction. However, through flashbacks Sethe is enabled to narrate the ordeal between her and her daughter. By use of flashbacks, the audience is able to be informed on past events that help create the plot of the literature piece.
The idea of “beating back the past” creates an important and symbolic theme within the book. This notion can be seen through many of the characters; however, Morrison highlights this idea by slowly revealing parts of Paul D’s life that depict a crucial part of the story. Paul D beats back the past and buries it “where it belonged in that tobacco tin in his chest where a red heart used to be” (Morrison 86). The black tobacco is the abstract form of the past that seeks to come out, and the red heart within his chest becomes tainted as each day passes and the past locks itself further into his body. One of the reasons the past is treated as such as cancer is because it brings back the memories of the monotonous life slaves had on the plantations;
Specifically, the way in which Paul D and Sethe animate the nearly twenty-year-old memories of Sweet Home Planation in an attempt to correct their current status. This article focuses principally on what Sivaraj defines as “two temporal planes” of memories; one of the past in Kentucky and the other of which is unceasingly being created within present day Cincinnati. Sivaraj focuses her interpretation upon the methods in which the characters appropriate the act of re-remembering since “each and every flashback from different perspective adds some more information to the previous once” (Sivaraj). Also, revealing how the narrative drives the reader to unquestioningly absorb the fragmented memories constructed by Sethe, which expels the multifaceted layers of Beloved’s narrative. Much like my own interpretation, Sivaraj also dedicates most of her consideration upon not only remembering the past but how one can stitch together the fragments of the communal memory in an attempt to alter their destiny. Furthermore, exploring the ways in which slavery of the Sweet Home Plantation penetrates the memory of Sethe and Paul D, ever manipulating their present-day image. Moreover, the author of this article brings attention the narrative’s voice that guides the augmented fragments of the characters
Yet, the plot is thickened by the frequent flashbacks to the early 1850’s to Sweet Home Plantation in Kentucky. The setting shapes the book, being that it is set in 1873 about seven years after the end of the civil war, racial tension were still high in the states. The Fugitive Salve Act of 1850 had been passed decades before but still had precedence over many states. “It required that all escaped slaves were, upon capture, to be returned to their masters and that officials and citizens of free states had to cooperate in this law.” (Fugitive Slave Act of 1850." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia) This law was essentially the driving force behind the entire plot.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee depicts the variations of prejudice and discrimination of white people against black people, which identifies relationships among the novel’s characters. The racial intolerance towards Tom Robinson in the novel relates to the Scottsboro Boys, indicating injustice and iniquitousness in the different trials, portraying how ignorant the human race truly is to black people, how a white person can’t even feel what a black person’s motive is, which is to be brothers and sisters to white people, and that racial judgment prohibits the society’s hopes of an improved world.