Throughout history, racial prejudice has always been a factor in our everyday lives, either on the giving or receiving end. Since I was about seven years old, my mother has spoken to me about racial prejudice and how it operated when she was growing up. It is similar to the way it operates in this story. In the short story “The Sky is Gray” written by Ernest Gaines, the author tells a story about a boy being raised in a racist society and how he coped with it.
In “The Sky is Gray”, racial prejudice operates in the typically unfair and organized manner. Decades ago, blacks always had to sit in the back of the bus while the whites sat in the front. Skin color was and continues to be an unfair disadvantage. It is appalling that a country whose basic tenet is freedom organized a system of racial segregation. Each race had to shop in different stores. Black people were limited in their choices for medical care while white people had more choices available to them. This is part of James dilemma.
In this book, as in the real world, racial prejudice operates as a form of social control. Throughout this story we find examples of the white man limiting the opportunities of black people.
In the story, James and his mother are walking in the cold by a “white” store and they are hungry. The old woman stops them and asks if they would like to come in and grab something to eat. James’ mother hesitates for a second to go in, and then finally makes her way in after a moment of stalling. The white couple has adopted an attitude which does not condone racial prejudice. It seems to me that the old white woman and her husband represent the “gray” area where there is no color; there is no black and white. The couple sees two human beings who are having a hard time surviving in this biased world. However, charity is not well received by many, especially the proud. It seems as if Octavia’s efforts to show James the hard reality of this world will have been for nothing if she accepts the extra meat from the lady and her husband. His mother beat him when he didn’t kill the bird to teach him that he must show no mercy, no emotion; survival for a black man depends on this and therefore James must depend on himself for his own survival and that of and his family. Had the gift been expected, James might’ve been led to believe that sometimes you get lucky and can lay back and relax. His mother wants him to depend on himself and always be in survival mode, so she refuses the kindness
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