A Gathering Of Old Men Character Analysis

In the novel A Gathering of Old Men, by Ernest J. Gaines, there exists a narrative relating the tensions of racial division in the modern South exists. It describes the effort of a wealthy white woman to protect her father figure by assembling a large group of elderly African American men. It is delivered through the perspectives of many different characters. However, as the novel progresses, the seemingly philanthropic, white protagonist, Candy Marshall, is revealed to be somewhat selfish and inspired by motives that are inherently prejudiced. The protagonist of the novel is Candy Marshall. She is a wealthy, white landowner, who owns a majority of the novel’s setting, the Marshall Plantation. In fact, Candy’s ancestors used to operate the plantation with the use of slave labor. Currently, it employs sharecroppers on the lands, including Candy’s father figure

Her identity as a round character, or one that develops throughout a novel, is evidnced by clear transntions of thought. From the beginning, to well into the middle, Cnady is protryaed as somehwt adulterated by negative concepts, siuch as racism, superiroty, and selfishness. However, by the end of the novel she is depicted to have reliqnushed some of the past’s ties. The most notable scenes is where Chandy firimls grpas the hand of her boyfriend when the elderdly men, with Mathu, leave to live their own lives. The embrace reveals Candy’s chsnign attidutde toward the sutbborness or strgnth of her past character, since she is emotionally telling hjer boyfriend, Lou Dimes, she is ready to begin a new life with him, somewhat diustat formthe events that transpired in the novel. Ultimately, in the novel Candy beings to realize that she may have faults. This is paramount for the novel giving insight to the prospect of racial reltions in Amwerica, since Candy’s character symbolizes white America and its usual