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A Gathering of Old Men Unit of Study
The Relationships Between the Races Lesson Plan
By Marshall Surratt
Overview
This lesson examines the intricacies of relationships in A Gathering of Old Men. In the activities section, students will have a chance to examine closely the way characters deal with each other because of race, skin color, ethnic origin, and status in the household. Most of Gaines' main characters in A Gathering of Old Men are African Americans, but he understands that there is intertwining of the lives of blacks and whites. The relationship between Candy and Mathu is an example. Candy is heir to what had been the Marshall plantation. However, because of the failings of her own family, for the most part she has been brought up by Mathu, an African-American man now suspected of killing a white man. The relationship between Candy and Mathu represents the complicated relationships between white children and the black slaves given care of the children. Mathu is like a father to Candy. She sincerely loves him, but she also believes that he needs her protection. Through the character of Candy, Gaines examines attitudes toward African Americans that, though perhaps well intentioned, are paternalistic.
Note to Teacher:
Share the following information on the analysis of Gaines' work with students:
In reviewing A Gathering of Old Men, the writer Alice Walker noted that Gaines "cannot bear to reduce even the ugliest, cruelest, and most loathsome redneck to a stereotype" (The New Republic, December 26, 1983, p. 38). Even the worst racist is given some human qualities. In fact, Gaines has said that he seeks to capture the mixing of the different peoples of his regions:
I wanted to see on paper those Louisiana black children walking to school on cold days while yellow Louisiana busses passed them by. I wanted to see on paper those black parents going to work before the sun came up and coming back home to look after their children after the sun went down. I wanted to see on paper the true reason those black fathers left home not because they were trifling or shiftless but because they were tired to putting up with certain conditions. I wanted to see on paper the small country churches (schools during the week), and I wanted to hear those simple religious songs, those simple prayers that true devotion ... And I wanted to hear that Louisiana dialect that combination of English, Creole, Cajun, Black ... I wanted to read about the true relationship between whites and blacks about the people I had known.
[from Gaines, "Miss Jane and I," Callaloo No. 3 1:2338 (May 1978): 28]
Nor is there just prejudice or misunderstanding between races. There is also a "pecking order" among whites. Those who had come from plantation families now enjoy material success derived from those plantations and the work of slaves and sharecroppers. Through his characters, Gaines suggests that they, in turn, now look down on other whites, too, particularly the Cajun farmers who had come after them. (With mechanization of the cane fields, the Cajun farmers, in turn, are displacing rural African-American families.)
Finally, some African Americans feel a sense of superiority over other African Americans. This is true of both those lighter skinned and those darker skinned. Early in the story, Matt notes that "Jacob and his kind didn't have much to do with darker people, but he was here today" (39). The reverse is also true. Mathu has assumed a position of superiority in the quarters and, others learn, has access to information. As the reader comes to understand, this is due in no small part to his feeling that his being pure black (his ancestors were Senegalese) makes him superior. Clatoo describes Mathu's feelings:
He acted like he didn't care if we was even there. Mathu was one of them blue-black Singaleese niggers. Always bragged about not having no white man's blood in his veins. He looked down on all the rest of us who had some, and the more you had, the more he looked down on you. I was brown skinned--
my grandpa white, my grandma Indian and black, and both my parents black; so he didn't look down on me quite as much as he did some others, like Jacob or Cherry, or the Lejeune brothers. With Clabber and Rooster, he just shook his head. Rooster was yellow, with nappy black hair, Clabber was milk white, with nappy white hair. Mathu just shook his head when he saw either of them. (51)
[Pages are cited from the paperback edition of A Gathering of Old Men from Vintage Books.]
Over the course of the novel, the other men's stories help Mathu see his self-isolation. By the end, Mathu has learned to recognize the worth of each man. Mathu announces: "I been changed....I been changed by y'all. Rooster, Clabber, Dirty Red, Coot--
you changed this hardhearted old man" (182).
The Lesson
Reading assignment
Make sure students have read through Chapter Ten (p. 109) of A Gathering of Old Men.
Activity Suggestions
Select from the choices below to address relationships in the novel.
- Examine the ways in which Gaines shows interdependency between the races and the cost of the old ways (slavery and vigilantism) to everyone. (There is an economic and psychological cost to the African Americans, a psychological cost to the whites.) You could compare this with the themes and characterizations in William Faulkner's short story "Barn Burning." In a key scene, the character Johnny Paul tries to explain to Sheriff Mapes, who has never recognized them as individuals, why they are there (A Gathering of Old Men, 88):
He wasn't looking at Mapes, but he was looking toward the tractor and the trailers of cane out there in the road. But I could tell he wasn't seeing any of that. I couldn't tell what he was thinking until I saw his eyes shifting up the quarters where his mama and papa used to stay. But the old house wasn't there now. It had gone like all the others had gone. Now weeds covered the place where the house used to be. "Y'all look," he said. "Look now. Y'all see anything? What y'all see?"
"I see nothing but weeds, Johnny Paul," Mapes said. "If that's what you're trying to say."
"Yes, sir," Johnny Paul said. He didn't look at Mapes; he was still looking up at the quarters. "Yes, sir, I figured that's all you would see. But what do the rest don't see? What y'all don't see, Rufe?" he asked me. He didn't look at me, still looking up at the quarters. "What y'all don't see, Clatoo? What y'all don't see, Glo? What y'all don't see, Corrine, Rooster, Beulah? What y'all don't see, all the rest of y'all?"
- Have students find Senegal on the Slave Trade map, then research the Atlantic passage of slaves brought from Africa to the Americas.
- If the classroom or school library has Internet access, have students explore web sites about slavery in the United States. This exercise could be completed by individual students or by small groups. Ask the students to select two or three facts or experiences they find that add to their understanding of slavery. Explain that later they will share their choices and explain why they have selected them.
- Examine the different cultures in Louisiana: blacks, French settlers, Cajuns, and Creoles. How did they interact? These topics could be assigned to different groups or individual students.
- Assign students to small groups (three or four students each). Give each group a brief character profile of someone who might have lived during the time of slavery or Reconstruction: a plantation overseer, abolitionist, child born into slavery, etc.
Have each group use the research from the previous activities to develop a "background story" for that group's character, then write a dramatic monologue for the character. If students are not familiar with the dramatic monologue form, review the elements with them. Encourage students to use voice (diction and vocabulary), tone, selection of detail, and point of view in developing their dramatic monologues.
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