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Racial Tensions In Ernest J. Gaines A Gathering Of Old Men

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Most people think that murder is something that would never happen to themselves or anyone they know. They think of murder as a very serious and awful event that is not a common thing in life. Ernest J. Gaines takes a different perspective and makes murder a common part of life in his book, A Gathering of Old Men. In A Gathering of Old Men, Ernest J. Gaines desensitizes readers to murder to expose racial tensions in the South through characters talking about their murdered relatives, characters discussing murder, and characters being murdered. In A Gathering of Old Men, Ernest J. Gaines desensitizes readers to murder to expose racial tensions in the South through Jacob Aguillard remembering his sister Tessie being murdered. Tessie was killed, and her death …show more content…

Gaines desensitizes readers to murder to expose racial tensions in the South through the murder of Beau Boutan. The racial tensions continue to grow and be expressed throughout the day by a number of African Americans, because “The catalytic event is the murder of an abusive Cajun” (Sullivan 1640). Beau’s murder shows that racial conflicts were so bad even people who were not involved in his murder wanted to stand up to the Cajuns. The African Americans come together to take a stand for what they believe in “the murder of a son of a prominent Cajun in the black quarters precipitates their stand.” (Davis, 259-260). The cause for Beau’s murder was eventually revealed, “I was doing my work good. Cussed me anyhow. I told him he didn’t need to cuss me like that. I told him I was doing my work good. He told me he wouldn’t just cuss me, he would beat me, too.” (Gaines 190). Charlie was being disrespected, and mistreated because Beau thought that it was acceptable to randomly mistreat African Americans and take away their dignity. The murder of Beau Boutan exemplifies just how horrible the conditions were in the South if one was African American, and worked for a

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