Franklin Harris
Mr. Henley
English III/ First Block
18 May, 2018
Racism in A Gathering of Old Men A poor Louisiana plantation, like other poor plantations, suffered considerably during the 1980s. Racism and poverty reach from the privileged families, like the Boutans, to the Negroes and “White Trash” Fix who live on the outskirts of town. Ernest J. Gaines paints a vivid picture of life in this humid Louisiana town where tempers and racism explode into conflict. Since Racism is so immense, there are always problems in the town. In A Gathering of Old Men, Gaines uses symbolism as unifying device for racism. Many African-Americans were affected by racism in the 1980s. People didn’t realize how bad racism was in the …show more content…
This Fact is easily explained by looking in the book about the racism effect on African Americans. Which states that Racism strongly affected how black people lived. This explains this statement by showing how strongly racism was in the 1980s. Racism has always been a terrible problem in the Deep South. Gaines describes the problems that Black people went through during A Gathering of Old Men. “ Mapes grunted. That's where you're wrong. I admire the nigger. He's a better man than most I've met, Black or white. But he killed a man—and she's not getting him out of it. If she had any sense at all, she would have taken him to jail hours ago. Because if Fix doesn't show up, others may. And they won't be coming here to talk”(Gaines 174-175). Power in the 1980s was an essential thing to have back then. If you had power, you had a good chance of living in a nice place and have a better education than other people. If you didn’t have power back then you were basically poor. Cajuns had a large Cajuns had a large advantage over black people because the Cajuns were really the only one who had power back then.
Mr. Henley
English III/ First Block
18 May, 2018
Racism in A Gathering of Old Men A poor Louisiana plantation, like other poor plantations, suffered considerably during the 1980s. Racism and poverty reach from the privileged families, like the Boutans, to the Negroes and “White Trash” Fix who live on the outskirts of town. Ernest J. Gaines paints a vivid picture of life in this humid Louisiana town where tempers and racism explode into conflict. Since Racism is so immense, there are always problems in the town. In A Gathering of Old Men, Gaines uses symbolism as unifying device for racism. Many African-Americans were affected by racism in the 1980s. People didn’t realize how bad racism was in the …show more content…
This Fact is easily explained by looking in the book about the racism effect on African Americans. Which states that Racism strongly affected how black people lived. This explains this statement by showing how strongly racism was in the 1980s. Racism has always been a terrible problem in the Deep South. Gaines describes the problems that Black people went through during A Gathering of Old Men. “ Mapes grunted. That's where you're wrong. I admire the nigger. He's a better man than most I've met, Black or white. But he killed a man—and she's not getting him out of it. If she had any sense at all, she would have taken him to jail hours ago. Because if Fix doesn't show up, others may. And they won't be coming here to talk”(Gaines 174-175). Power in the 1980s was an essential thing to have back then. If you had power, you had a good chance of living in a nice place and have a better education than other people. If you didn’t have power back then you were basically poor. Cajuns had a large Cajuns had a large advantage over black people because the Cajuns were really the only one who had power back then.