A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest J. Gaines
Ernest J. Gaines' brilliant literary career was rewarded in a verypublic and prominent way recently, when President Bill Clinton and FirstLady Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the 2000 National Humanities Medalistwinners, with Gaines among the honorees. Gaines, a professor of Englishand "writer-in-residence" at the University of Louisiana, won the 1994National Book Critics Circle Award for A Lesson Before Dying; the novel wasalso a 1997 selection of "Oprah's Book Club. The 1999 HBO adaptation ofthat novel won two Emmy Awards, and the TV movie adaptation of his novel,The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman won nine Emmys, according to thebiographical materials on Gaines (Black Issues in Higher Education, 2001). Other honors which have been bestowed on Gaines include selection as aMacArthur Foundation fellow (1993) for a lifetime of historical writing;selection as Humanist of the Year by the Louisiana endowment for theHumanities (1989); and was chosen as a Guggenheim Fellow in 1971. In 1998,Gaines was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Gaines' characters are not just created for the sake of literaryentertainment; and, too, Gaines is not ju
The situation (54-57) in this scene is a worthy scene to access, inthe context of blacks and their own brand of Christianity. "Eventhe good people have flaws," Brown points out, "and the bad folks havetheir moments of grace. " Through this process the characters in Gathering break outof the pattern of accepting religion on terms "imposed by the community andthrough institutional Christianity," Papa explains. " In Gathering, the character Charlie Biggs is actually interpretingreligion "on personal terms," Papa asserts, and those personal terms"undergo some act of martyrdom," which helps in the achieving of a"communal vision. "You think I ought toshoot him, Dirty Red' "No, let him slide," said Dirty Red. But moreover, A Gathering of Old Men is a powerful story not just ofthe south, not just of Black men VS. ) "Maybe I ought to shoot him," said Rooster. " (A looking glass of course is whatone uses to search for or magnify something; but until that object isviewed, there's nothing in a looking glass. It's interesting toconsider that while Black folks in this setting are obviously seeking theirfreedom from Jim Crow laws and the scourge of racism and poverty itself,they are also seeking freedom from the shackles of the white powerstructure, not so subtly imposed by the dogma of the Church. Meanwhile, the interviewer in the Sojourners piece (Dale Brown), notedthat Gaines doesn't really have "heroes and villains" in Gathering. "That was the day that the people would get up and sing. And in his statement,he's using "religion as a tool for self-definition," Papa writes, which isby way of "reinterpret[ing] Christianity from the African-Americanperspective.
Common topics in this essay:
Reverend Jameson,
Christianity Papa,
Brown Luke,
Jim Crow,
Award Gaines,
Dirty Red,
Jameson Black,
Clatoo Mathu,
Black VS,
Black Gaines',
gaines' characters,
reverend jameson,
christian church,
blacks whites,
white man's,
beau boutan,
black folks,
looking glass,
white man's god,
man's god,
creating own unique,
text religiosity,
african american review,
dogma christian church,
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Acceptance Essays
