The Struggle In Ernest Gaines A Gathering Of Old Men

The fiction novel by Ernest Gaines, A Gathering of Old Men, is set in the 1970s on a Southern Louisiana sugar plantation and portrays the hardships and struggles of the black community seen through the perspective of many different characters, black and white. During this time in the south, racial tensions were high and African Americans were treated very poorly because of the color of their skin. Candy is a white woman who was raised by Miss Merle, another white woman, and Mathu, a black man, something seen very rarely in this time period. Mathu has allegedly killed Beau Bouton, an upper-class white man. Since Mathu is family and in trouble, Candy does not hesitate to try to protect him. Because of the racial issues in the south during this

After discovering Beau Bouton’s dead body in Mathu’s yard, then seeing Mathu with the gun, Candy thinks Mathu has killed him and begins her plan to protect him from going to jail and being killed. Candy has Snookum go around telling people to “get to Mathu’s house!” (Gaines 7), so Candy can inform everyone of the plan. The old men are supposed to bring twelve-gauge shotguns and empty shells, so that when an authority comes to find who killed Beau, they would have a difficult time deciphering who did it because everyone has the same gun and an empty shell. Candy was not just overreacting, everyone in the town knew that something vile was coming there way. Once news began to spread, everyone in Marshall expected “to hear Fix and his drove coming in them trucks with them guns any minute now” (Gaines 11). The people gathering at Mathu’s house were anxious for the arrival of Fix, Beau’s dad and horrible racist, because of the bad things that he has done to the people of Marshall and their loved ones in the past. In order to rectify the issue of racism, Candy brings together all the old men in the town, so that they all protect Mathu and finally stand up against people who have treated them wrong all of their

With this newfound courage the men can fight against an everyday immoral occurrence; racism. All their lives the old men of Marshall have been mistreated, but now because of Candy they realise that God has given them “one more chance to do something with their lives” (Gaines 38). The old men of Marshall have this unspoken brotherhood and if someone is ever in trouble, like Mathu seems to be now, they do not hesitate to put their lives on the line for one another. As the men are gathered at Mathu’s house, Mapes, the sheriff, shows up to find out what happened, but his means of solving this mystery are unconventional as he begins to hit the men as they all confess to the crime. Old man after old man, as Mapes hits them “He did not like what he was doing, but he didn’t know any other way to get what he wanted” (Gaines 69). Mapes’s actions are a testament to the culture and racial issues present in southern Louisiana. Showing that even post Jim Crow Laws the African American community is still being treated in a cruel and inhumane fashion. Because of Candy’s reaction to the injustice seen in her community, the old men build up the courage to stand up for themselves against the cruelty and mistreatment that they receive on a normal