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The Sky is Gray

             "The Sky is Gray" by Ernest Gaines, tells a story of a mother, her son, and their trip to get one of his teeth pulled. It takes the reader through their journey from their home, to the town and the dentist's office, then to get a meal and meet a shop owner couple.
             Racism is the most major idea discussed in this story. When James and Mama board the bus there are signs directing the "white" and "colored" people where to sit. Another example is when the younger and older black men are arguing about whether things should be questioned. It shows that the older man is content to live with the racism he has had to deal with all his life, whereas the younger black man wants to challenge those that suppress him.
             James is protrayed as older int he film than as in the text. He appears to be about twelve years old instead of eight. He is still young and somewhat naive to the ways of the world though. Octavia is still as hard nosed in the film as she is in the text. She is a woman who knows what is best for her and her child and she will not accept less. She has a sense of diginity evidenced in that whe will not take the extra salt meat offered by the shopkeeper.
             The film is enlightening. It shows how people of different backgrounds view race. The difference in the text from the film is when James and his mother board the bus and the signs directing the "white" and "colored" people where to sit are not shown. The remainder of the story is congruent in both the text and the film.
             The scene of the two men arguing in the dentist's office is major. It shows how one man is complacent to live his life the way he always has and not deal with the issues that surround him. The other shows that he does not believe he should have to accepts the abuses of others just because he is black or for any other reason. The lighting in htis film was too bright. The setting is cold and wintry with an overcast sky.


Essays Related to The Sky is Gray

1. So This Is Winter

So this is Winter The winter day, as if to mourn the death of summer, was gray and sullen. The trees, once happy in their multicolored autumn coats, stood void against the pale sky, and the last flowers of summer hung their heads in resignation, the frost haven stole their wills to live. Brown, brittle grass, that cracked and crunched with every step, replaced the green carpets of grass ... , converting them into a rather pretty sight. Only the stately pine tree had resisted the change in seasons. Standing tall and erect, its sturdy branches bristled with bundles of stiff needles, each covered...

  • Word Count: 514
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

2. Look Into "The Sky Is Gray"

... and keep his eyes forward in the white side of town, the rude way he is treated at the colored dentist office, and the difficulty he endures waiting for the dentist office to reopen in the cold are all examples that show James he must find pride and respect within himself because society will not grant it upon him. Meyers explains: "The river is Gray. The sky is gray. From henceforth, James" own "long ... day" will be comprised of this struggle between "black blood" and "white blood" within a cerebal 'sky" of gray"(417). This is what the world is to James not black or white oriented but...

  • Word Count: 1070
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

3. C/C Revalation and The Sky is Gray

... male writer from Louisiana, give us a look on how spiritual issues can evoke violent emotional reactions in certain individuals whether young or old. O"Connor's "Revelation" and Gaines" "The Sky is Gray" both demonstrate that verbal altercations can cause disrespect and violent behavior in upper white class communities as well as in lower class black communities. Both settings take place in a doctor ... emotional reaction in a younger disbelieving person. In contrast, in Gaines" "The Sky is Gray" we see a young non-believing black, who evokes violent reactions from the older black spiritu...

  • Word Count: 956
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

4. The Use of Grey in Book and Film

... the traditionally the white man has power over the black man. Melville uses the color gray to depict the atmosphere as blurry and unclear: "The sky seemed a grey mantle. Flights of troubled grey fowl, kith and kin with flights of troubled grey vapors among which they were mixed, skimmed low and fitfully over the waters, as swallows over meadows before storms" ( Melville 1). The sky is colored gray and the sea is a misty gray with gray ... birds overhead. This grayness foreshadows the uncertainty and haziness that lies ahead as social order changes due to the slave revolt and the impendin...

  • Word Count: 1327
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography

5. The Sky is Grey

... 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 ... ...

  • Word Count: 886
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

6. CONTRAST ON THE SKY IS GRAY AND THE MAN WHO WAS ALMOST A MAN

There are many struggles that a man faces throughout life. The journey to manhood is one of the hardest. In a comparison and contrast of "The Sky Is Gray", by Ernest Gaines and " The Man Who Was Almost A Man", by Richard Wright we experience the hardships two adolescents face on the road to manhood. Through their differences and similarities with maturity, family structure, and socio-economic status you will see which character succeeds ... in becoming a man. Growing is an essential function of life. Sometimes people mature faster than others. For instance, in the story of "The Sky Is Gray", ...

  • Word Count: 1095
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

7. The Sky Is Gray

"The Sky Is Gray" Deals With Racism and Offers a Courageous Solution That Challenges The Rules of Society. In a society that is divided by the polarities of black and white, all citizens must abide by the strict rules of separation. However, there are some, and usually only a few, who realize that this ominous society in which they live must not dictate such terms. Eight-year-old ... James from rural Louisiana travels with his mother to a white-dominated town, in order to visit the dentist: James narrates Ernest Gaines" story "The Sky Is Gray." The author proposes that those refusing to accep...

  • Word Count: 1528
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

8. The Use of Makeup

... represent luck, so the Japanese will adopt a different attitude. The significance of the color gray5; gray is a color which is rarely preferred. It is timeless, practical and solid. A favorite gray suit can go with any color. Gray is associated with a loss, depression or sadness. Gray denotes people using granite and cement, being the contrast of the green term that is used to describe people who prefer the ecological environment. In the moral sense, gray is used to describe ... with something established, representing rebellion. It does not necessarily mean depression or the Gothic cul...

  • Word Count: 11511
  • Approx Pages: 46
  • Grade Level: High School

9. The Scarlet Letter

... studded with iron spikes." First describing the prison, the first scene of the book sets the expression for the first parts of the book, a gray and gloomy environment with a multitude of people to match the mood. The crowd is apparently waiting in front of the prison door for someone to come out of the imposing building. The only light in the dark atmosphere is a rosebush growing by the prison door. The narrator uses this rosebush to symbolize ... his own pouring like a torrent into his heart, and hurrying through all his veins, as if the mother and the child were communicating their vi...

  • Word Count: 3653
  • Approx Pages: 15
  • Grade Level: High School

10. A Good Man is Hard to Find

... seems as if facing the woods (and consequently what that represents) is more than the characters can bear. In addition, the description of the gray naked pine trunk is in itself a symbol of the vulnerability and exposed state of the characters who are about to be executed. Finally, the last statement in the story that refers to the woods signals to the reader that there is no escape for the grandmother, no matter how ... much she pleads with the Misfit, "there was not a cloud in the sky, nor any sun. ... There was nothing around her but woods"(131). This final description, in effect, se...

  • Word Count: 1495
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

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