Ernest J. Gainess A Gathering of Old Men tells the story of a group of old and racially oppressed African American men who have chosen to stand up to their white superiors in a dramatic fashion. Gaines’s use of theatrical conventions to dramatize this simple story of revenge, against a framework of lasting racial injustice in 1970s Louisiana, makes this a vivid and compelling story. His novel shows that the racial tensions remaining in the Deep South have eradicated black identity, and the results of such an environment lead to a situation that structurally parallels a Greek tragedy. The novel emphasizes the deepness of racial and social tensions in the South and provides an enhanced understanding of the realities that exist there.
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The African American stand against their white oppressors is centralized around the racial tensions existent within the Deep South. The elders are upset because these long remaining tensions have lead to the eradication of black identity in the town. In a society where such strains have created a hostile atmosphere, the murder of a white man by a black man immediately intensifies the racial anxieties that already subsist in this isolated southern town. Much of the existing anxiety is rooted to “[the] time period [that] allows blacks to be integrated with whites so their behaviors and attitudes can’t be isolated and judged (Hunter, “Contemporary Literary Criticism Vol. 300″ 44)”. These tensions are periodically seen throughout the novel in the most obvious ways. Any reader that has read this book will notice that the names of white characters, such as Candy Marshall, Lou Dimes, or Miss Merle, are always addressed formally while the names of black characters, such as Mathu, Charlie, or Clatoo, are addressed informally. It’s important to note that “Gaines gives all his characters formal and informal names, but the black characters’ informal names are nicknames, whereas white characters’ informal names are just diminutive forms of their formal name”(Hunter “Contemporary Literary Criticism Vol. 181” 68). The difference in the names of characters based on race displays the unimportance of African Americans in comparison to whites. The strength of this racial divide is upheld throughout the novel, even by characters that are trying to break stereotypes and social classes. Candy’s role is one that illustrates “[the] type of landowner laborer relationship, even when it involved people of good will who like and respected each other, promoted a strong sense of white superiority”(Moss and Wilson 129). Racial tensions throughout the town were not limited to blacks and whites. Much racism extended to the newer Cajun population and even existed within the African American population. The blacks often distinguished themselves amongst each other by the lightness/darkness of their skin tones. Mathu, for example, is referred to as “one of them blue-black Singaleese niggers. Always [bragging] about not having no white man’s blood in his veins”(Gaines 51). Although this isn’t directly related to the breakdown of black identity, it contributes to the racist atmosphere that leads to the demolition of the African Americans’ connections with history, contributions to the land, and family community and language. Much of the blacks’ connection to history is rooted to the graveyard and the quarters in the town. These “quarters and the Bayou culture to which Gaines’s folks belong constitute a sort of enclave where the social values of the Old South are still observed”(Hunter “Contemporary Literary Criticism Vol. 300” 22). They are also important because they “[the quarters] represent the black culture in the fields,” “(Hunter “Contemporary Literary Criticism Vol. 181” 35) a culture that dates back to the times of slavery. The graveyard contributes to the blacks’ connection with history by functioning as a location that illustrates the history of all the black people in the area. In the grand scheme of things, “the graves for these old men are a source of guilt, and that guilt spurs the confessions that are a major part of the symbolic action of the novel. This symbolic understatement is a great source of Gaines’s power in the novel”(“A Gathering of Old Men” 3227). These graves gave the blacks an emotional reason to stand up against the whites. In addition to the graveyard and quarters, the sugar cane fields add onto the buildup of black identity by coming to symbolize the African Americans’ contribution to the land. They are representative of a time when blacks worked the land. Black identity is also inclusive of the strong family community and language that encompasses the black culture. In A Gathering of Old Men this family community is seen in the graveyard and the names of blacks. As stated before, the graveyard evokes strong emotions within blacks by bringing back thoughts of their ancestors. This is evidenced when Jacob went to the graveyard “to make up for what he had done his sister over thirty years ago,”(Gaines 45) and eventually “knelt down at the head of the grave and made the sign of a cross”(Gaines 45). It is obviously an example of black familial ties within the town. The names by which blacks are referred to are a key example of “black language”. Although “Gaines gives all his characters formal and informal names, but the black characters’ informal names are nicknames,”(Hunter “Contemporary Literary Criticism Vol. 181” 68) these informal names actually contribute to establishing the black identity. Throughout the novel, blacks often refer to each other as “Aunt” or “Uncle” or by nicknames that show the strong familial ties within the African American community. When the racial tensions within the town went head to head with black identity, racial tensions came out as the victor and lead to the eradication of black identity. The Cajuns overran the graveyard, which symbolized the African Americans’ connection with history, to the point where “You had to walk in grass knee-high to reach some of the graves… you had grass, weeds everywhere. Pecans and acorns-you could feel them under your feet, you could hear them crack when you stepped on them”(Gaines 45). This overrunning of the graveyard is symbolic of the blacks push from ancestral lands and the eradication of the African American familial and language ties that make up the black identity. Besides the graveyard, other parts of the land that are key to the black identity have been destroyed too. Cherry notices, “The rows [of sugar canes] looked so naked and gray and lonely-like an old house where the people have moved from. Where good friends have moved rom, leaving the house empty and bare, with nothing but ghosts now to keep it company”(Gaines 43). This essential simile compares the bareness of the sugar canes to the bareness of the people in the area now, specifically black people. Since Cajuns have encroached upon African Americans’ lives, the African Americans’ contributions to the land have been lost. Much of the Cajuns’ takeover can be attributed to the machines they brought over with them. In the novel, mechanization plays a great role in the eradication of black identity from the land. The constant reference to the tractor shows that “the prominence of the tractor signif[ies] a changed means of production in A Gathering of Old Men”(Carmean 113). The tractor symbolizes the agricultural mechanization that has taken place with the growth of Cajun farmers. Its arrival altered the traditional means of African American life. The community of blacks who once cared for the land became unemployed, and most of them moved away. The tractor was the final blow to black identity and lead to the African American culture’s demise. The result of all these blows to the blacks’ identity caused the elder African Americans to choose “not to crawl under the bed like [they] used to”(Gaines 28).
The decision taken by the old African American men to stand up and fight the whites was made so the old men could achieve catharsis- a characteristic present in tragedies. Upon closer examination, it’s noticeable that Gaines structured much of this novel to be similar to a Greek tragedy. Tragedies often have characteristics such as catharsis, tragic flaw, theatrical action that are unique to tragedies and separate them different from other works of literature. Catharsis, by definition, is the purification or purgation of emotions primarily through art. Now traditionally catharsis is conveyed between the audience and the novel; however, in A Gathering of Old Men it is displaced onto the very action itself. In other words, catharsis is not found in the audience but in the plot. Oscar Mandel says that “the essential function of tragedy would appear to be the complicating and strengthening of the psyche by means of shocks from the outside: not, of course, violent and disorganizing shocks, but mild, preventive, reorganizing ones” (64 – 65). In Gaines’s novel, this definition seems deadly accurate since “the old men do not seek a definite effect – a shock treatment as it were – but a way to release repressed emotions as a step toward catharsis”(Lambert 116). Aside from catharsis, another characteristic of tragedy that is present in A Gathering of Old Men is a tragic hero with a tragic flaw. Tragic flaws are flaws in the protagonist that eventually lead to that character’s demise and ruin. Often times, these flaws aren’t necessarily bad things; they are just an excess of a good thing. The tragic hero is the character who has these tragic flaws and goes through the tragedy. In A Gathering of Old Men, the tragic hero is Big Charlie, a weak man who always runs from trouble and takes abuse dealt upon him. There is no doubt that Charlie is responsible for the murder of Beau Bauton. However, upon examination of Charlie’s motives to shoot Beau, it is clear that “what is tragic in Gathering is not that Big Charlie murdered Beau Boutan, but that… racism pushed him to commit an irreparable crime”(Lambert 116). Towards the end of the story, Big Charlie’s death comes to signify the ultimate price he paid for his crime-a crime he did not want to commit, but was forced too. Initially, the result of this crime not only affects Big Charlie’s moral, political and civic responsibilities, but also his family and community. The punishment for the actions of this one individual extends to several other individuals who took no part in the crime. Not only is this structurally similar to the end result of a tragedy, it also proves that black identity in the Old South has been eradicated and replaced with a single, large dehumanizing view of the African American community. As a result, the whites hold the entire group of African Americans accountable for the actions of a single individual. The end result of Charlie’s demise in A Gathering of Old Men would not be as dramatic and captivating if it weren’t for the theatrical action that took place throughout the rest of the story. The basic plot in the story is organized according to the basic plot of theatrical action in a tragedy. There is an exposition, complication, crisis, and resolution in the story. The exposition is the murder of Beau Boutan; it sets the story and influences the plot for the rest of the story. The complication occurs when all the old men gather around Mathu’s house, armed with shotguns, in hope of a deadly confrontation with Fix and his men. However, Fix won’t show up, and Big Charlie decides to confess to the murder. Immediately after his surrender, Luke Will shows up and there is a shootout between the two groups; this entire phase of the plot is comparative to the crisis in a tragedy. A resolution is ensued when both Luke Will and Big Charlie die. The trial that is held a week after the shootout acquits all the old men, who leave feeling as though they have accomplished their goal (Lambert 108). Since Greek tragedies were usually plays held in front of an audience, the general setting for most scenes was pretty consistent, and most major scenes took place in front of the same backdrop. When examining, Gaines’s A Gathering of Old Men, it is clear that the main backdrop/setting for most scenes is Mathu’s front yard. His yard is not only a visual backdrop for most scenes, it has also “become an improvised stage, a sort of public space halfway between an arena and a forum where the old people tell of their grief, past and present, re-enact traumatizing memories, and decry white injustice from slavery to the present”(Lambert 108). The use of theatrical characteristics to parallel the story to a Greek tragedy is only furthered by Gaines’s unique narration style and points of view. The multiple-perspective narration allows the voices of all sorts of characters to be heard. These different voices give varying viewpoints upon the same situation and also function as dialogues. The descriptions of the body movements and actions of characters act as a “script” to the story in the book. These different voices and actions work together in order to make A Gathering of Old Men a theatrical novel (Lambert 107). And although this book wasn’t intended to be used in theatre, its structure would not make it a difficult task to be used as such. The combination of a tragic hero and theatrical story indicates that Gaines’s intended to write this novel as a parallel to a Greek tragedy.
The meanings and symbolizations of objects/actions in A Gathering of Old Men ultimately depend upon the reader and their interpretation of the text. From a Marxist point of view, this novel has come to show that decades of white oppression on African Americans has resulted in an atmosphere of high racial tensions in the Deep South. These racial tensions in turn have lead to the abolition of black identity: African Americans’ connections with history, contributions to the land, and familial community/language. However, in a structuralist reading of A Gathering of Old Men, the story’s tragic ending, theatrical setting, and multiple-perspective narration demonstrates that Gaines intended to write the novel as a parallel to a Greek tragedy.
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