Social inequality in “A Gathering of Old Men”
by Omar García
“There comes a time when people get tired of being trampled
by the iron feet of oppression. There comes a time my friends…”
Martin Luther King Jr. (1955)
Subject: 20th Century Literature
(with professor María del Consuelo Santamaría Aguirre)
(with professor María del Consuelo Santamaría Aguirre)
In this essay, I will talk about how Ernest J. Gaines treats social inequality throughout his novel “A Gathering Of Old Men”, and how the attitudes of different characters show either conformity to or tiredness of a system of social injustice. These topics are constant in the modernist literary movements with social concerns, and they are ever-present in Gaines’ work.
First of all, we must mention that the story takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the Southern part of the United States. There, social diversity was mainly composed of three groups. The Caucasians (white landowners), who were obviously descendent of European immigrants; the African-Americans, descendent of black people who had been slaves in plantations during the 19th century; and the Cajuns, white French-descendent who live primarily in Louisiana (Abrams, 2010:74).
The context of the story is, however, placed in the second half of the 20th century, and the plot revolves around the death of a white Cajun named Beau, whose body has just been found in the yard of a black man called Mathus. As a reaction, Candy, who is a white girl, blames herself of the crime in order to defend Mathus. Since people see him as the main suspect of the murder, Candy summons a gathering of old black men in the scene, in order to confound the local sheriff and prevent a lynching. Candy, as well as the old men who gather at the yard, will end up claiming to have murdered Beau, and the black men will seize the moment to denounce the social injustice they have suffered throughout their lives.
In the novel, social inequality is displayed mainly in the form of racism, but the attitudes of characters show how injustice was present in a way not only within racial discrimination but also beyond it. One the one hand, for instance, we have Beatrice Marshall, a white Caucasian whose coldness and carelessness to the news of the murder represent the attitude of many people towards social injustice: they just don’t care. In contrast, we find Miss Merle, who shows certain concern towards the old men, although she’s particularly involved because she helped raised Candy.
Another issue related to social inequality has to do with the technological device of the tractor, which is as a factor that has contributed to economic inequality: it has made agricultural progress for Cajuns easier, but it has taken the jobs of African Americans away from the sugar cane plantations. Caucasians are also displeased due to the constant economic competition of the Cajuns.
Furthermore, Gaines denounces how the racist attitudes and social divisions are not only nurtured by the rejection of the color of the skin, but also by the rejection of a number of factors that despisers add to it, lacking any sense of respect to diversity. Either original nationality (whites who despised both African-Americans and the French-descendant Cajuns); social class (the landowners had a higher social class in comparison to the Cajuns, but the Cajuns in turn thought themselves of a better class than the black), language (in the exposure of Black English and the educated or uneducated speech from each narrator), religion (the religious mistress Janey is slapped about thrice by Merle, the Reverend Jameson is cruelly slapped twice by the sheriff Mapes, and Luke Will placing snakes in black churches) or even age (since they are old men who are unnecessarily hit violently when questioned by the sheriff).
In addition, let us consider that Mape’s statements about Candy’s boyfriend, Lou as someone who cannot control his girlfriend reflect a sexist tone. We also see that the old black men (although not sexist) go to Marshall against the will of their wives. One of them, Mat, even says: “woman, don’t try to stop me”, and the other men later recall how they decided not to listen their women when they told them not to go.
Thus, it is noteworthy that Gaines points out how certain divisions occurred even within the white community and the black community respectively. One the one side, Bea Marshal not only had shown indifference towards the injustice held against blacks, but also had referred to the Cajuns as people whom the landowners never liked: saying “why we ever let that kind on this land?”. This kind of attitude shows that there was a division even within the white community itself. Similarly, at some part of the story, Mathus is described as someone who considered himself superior to other blacks because he was “blacker”.
In addition, there were social tensions that included a form of violence, either implicitly ideological, or explicitly physical. This is seen with the Cajuns’ family of Fix, who had a reputation of a violent attitude. That was the very prideful violence which led Luke Will to rise up against Charlie, the real murdered of Beau. Charlie, in turn, stood up ready to revenge, and the outcome of this confrontation is just astonishing: the result of all this fight between each other is a mutual destruction.
Regardless of the prejudge and conformity that a number of characters retained, Gaines give us still a vision that shows how main characters have now started to take a different perspective which depart from unrighteous schemes and embrace an attitude of social equality. This, gives the reader a somehow hopeful notion about the possibilities for the future. Some people are praying for a change, and indeed, some people are beginning to change. We see how Miss Merle reappears with an act of empathy, bringing some food for all the gathered men. At the ending, an unbiased court, in its verdict, imposes an equal punishment to those who participated in the fight between Charlie and Luke. But more importantly, we see that Fix’s young son and Beau’s brother, Gil Bauton, is able to refuse his family record and adopt an attitude of interracial partnership with his friend Carl. Gaines suggests that, if together, these players who embrace harmony can be the “Salt & Pepper” of the game, and at the same time, offer a new perspective of the “All-American” lifestyle. After all, maybe a movement tired of social injustice is indeed “breaking down [unequal] social conditions”, as Gaines maintained. (Lowe, 1995:131)
References:
Abrams, Dennis. (2010), “Ernest J. Gaines”, Infobase Publishing. Retrieved in October 2013
Gaines, Ernest J. (1992). “A Gathering of Old Men.” New York. Vintage Books: A division of Random House, Inc.
Lowe, John (1995), “Conversations with Ernest Gaines”, University Press of Mississippi, p. 131. In the interview with Patricia Rickels, Gaines referred to Martin Luther King as “probably one of three men of this century that I'll call heroic. A fantastic man as far as I'm concerned, for all that he did”. He expressed sympathy saying that his movement “was aimed at breaking down social conditions.”
Luther King Jr., Martin (1955), “Montgomery Bus Boycott speech” delivered at Holt Street Baptist Church, on 5 December 1955. BlackPast.org. Retrieved in October 2013.
Further reading:
Interview with Ernest J. Gaines, at Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, February 18, 2011
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario