The integration of the white and black races is the most remarkable event of the second half of this century, surpassed only by two world wars in its significance. A Gathering of Old Men is a remarkable mystery about a young white woman and seventeen old black men in an isolated Louisiana township, each of whom confess to the murder of a brutal Cajun farmer. The simple symbols used in A Gathering of Old Men have a great impact on Gaines' audience. These symbols are the tractor and the sugar cane. The tractor symbolizes an image of the present, whereas the cane represents the days of the past when the blacks worked the land. The old black men are strong-minded, but the Cajun farmers' changes are huge and demoralizing.
             The Cajuns farmers' changes to the way of life means the destruction of the sugar cane fields. This is turn destroys the old men's pasts. The old men's ancestors cultivated the cane fields long before any of the present characters were alive. On their way to Mathu's home, they recall the plentiful acres of cane fields; instead, they notice the destruction of the sugar cane fields. It was when they "saw an empty cane field, it always made [them] feel lonely" (43). The destruction of the sugar cane fields also showed the prominence of the Cajun farmers and their domination. The sugar cane fields began to look like "where good friends have moved from, leaving the house empty and bare" (43).
             Just as the sugar cane fields began to disappear, so did the familiar days. The Cajun farmers' farming tactics changed as time went on. The tractor was introduced and that is what began to destroy the cane fields. This is parallel to the old men's way of life that has been destroyed by the Cajun farmers' hatred. The tractor is a symbol of the progression of time from past to present. None of Marshall's residents that feel the affect of the chan...