The+Sky+Is+Gray

toc The Sky Is Gray By Ernest Gaines

=Brief Summary:= The story starts off with a young boy waiting for a bus with his mother on a winter morning. They are going into town to see a dentist, because the boy has a tooth ache. The boy, who’s name we learn is James, describes how he did not want to tell his family about how badly his tooth was hurting them, because he knows they can not afford the trip into town and the dentist fees. We learn that his mother works in a cotton field, and his father has gone to war, and the young boy is learning how to take care of his family as the “man of the house”. On the bus ride there, the boy and his mother have to sit in the “colored” section at the back of the bus, and once at the dentist, they are forced to wait a very long time while white people are called before them, and do not get called before the staff go on lunch. Instead of waiting for the staff to come back from lunch, the boys mother makes them walk around town in the freezing weather to find a place to eat and to buy meat. While in one shop, the boys mother is harassed by a white man, but in a shop where they buy meat, a white lady gives James food for free under the pretense of him moving heavy garbage bins that are actually empty. The story ends when the older white lady tries to sell them more meat than what his mother can pay for, but his mother is too proud to accept this offer and makes the lady cut down the size of the meat, and they leave the store.

=Author Biography:=

One aspect of Psychological Criticism is psychobiography. This type of analysis was used early on as psychoanalysis became more important and popular. Psychobiography aims to analyze the life of the author and get at their personality and life experience. In //Literary Criticism,// Bressler writes "such a devised theory... could illuminate an author's individual works, giving rise to the latent content in the author's text". Since background needs to be provided for this project, let's do as the psychoanalysts would do and reach into the life of Ernest Gaines! Well, as much as we can without being complete professionals. Below is a link to a Prezi for the biography of Ernest Gaines, but one that also includes interviews and insights into the text the way psychobiography would approach his life.

Prezi: Ernest Gaines
=Applying the Theories:=

Frye’s Monomyth
The Sky is Gray could be considered part of the anti-romance/winter phase, literally taking place in the winter time. James is frustrated because of his toothache, but fears telling his mother about it because he does not want to complain or waste money that he knows is needed for other things. They are both bound by their skin color, making their entire trip to the dentist harder because they do not receive top priority. His mother also gets harassed at one of the stores and James is forced to move empty garbage bins just because the elderly people refuse to let them eat for free. James is also frustrated with/afraid of having to become the man of the family at such a young age because his father is away, evident in the part of the story where his mother forces him to kill the small birds. The story never really leaves the anti-romance phase, the characters constantly living in a state of imprisonment because of their race.

Lacan’s Model of the Human Psyche
From the perspective of Lacan, James is a perfect example of someone who desires to return to his imaginary order. He loves his mother incredibly, admiring everything she does and respecting her above all else. However, James is currently in Lacan’s second developmental stage- the symbolic order. His father’s absence leaves a huge rift in the family, showing the cultural role and power the male has in society. James now recognizes that he is of a different gender than his mother and that it is now his job to be the protector and man of the house. During a scene in which a man whistle’s at his mother, he states, “I look back and I feel like hitting him in the mouth. If I was bigger, I say; if I was bigger, you’d see,”. Here, he recognizes that he is the male and he should defend his mother when she’s being disrespected, yet he’s still too young to do anything about it. Overall, his devotion to his mother and desire for her to live a happy life shows James’ deep desire to return to his imaginary order, the time when he was united with his mother as one.

Freudian Perspective
James is currently trying to work through his Oedipus stage. Even though he is the oldest child and therefore supposed to be the man of the house in the absence of his father, he is in love with his mother. He stated, “I love my mamma and I want to put my arm around her and tell her. But I’m not supposed to do that,”. He has yet to develop any hostile feelings towards his father, even missing him while he is gone, so it’s clear that James has not passed through the castration complex yet. With his father being gone, all he wants to do is please his mother and buy her things to make her happy. He doesn’t recognize that this is his father’s job, still feeling like he needs to earn her affection.

The fact that James’ teeth are hurting him could be a manifestation of neurosis. It is a physical abnormality that could potentially represent an internal struggle that has not been released. Seeing as he is currently working through his Oedipus stage, his ego and id could be battling to discover moral solutions to the struggles in his life, resulting in toothaches as a form of neurosis. In a way, Monsieur Bayonne takes on the role of psychoanalyst for James. He suggests that he pray in order to relieve himself of his ailment, attempting to return him to a state of well-being through meditation and focusing on his mind.

Jungian Perspective
The narrator of "The Sky is Gray", the young boy, is an archetypal character that symbolizes youth and innocence. The plot itself is also an archetype of a young person having to grow them self up in the absence of a parent.

The narrator is worried about pleasing his mother, so he tries his hardest to hide the pain in his tooth from his mother. Once him and his mother are on their journey, he is concerned with making sure his mother does not know he's cold or hungry. He says "I don't care if I don't eat. I been hungry before." . This desire to please his mother symbolizes innocence and touches the historical past readers are psychically connected to.

The narrator's journey is also an archetype that can be felt in the collective unconscious because the narrator is forced to grow up faster because his father is away in the military. The young boy is the oldest child in the family and is forced to start learning how to kill small birds at the age of around eight to be capable to taking care of the family if something happens. The reader is able to recollect this story from past ancestral experiences and comprehend and understand his experience.

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