Say"Richard Wright" to most students and they'll answer, Native Son. Most readers have never heard of or read Wright's short stories, which is unfortunate. One of Wright's most powerful stories is "Long Black Song," which he wrote in 1938, a few years before publishing Native Son. The story begins on a hot, summer evening with Sarah tending to her daughter, Ruth, and missing her husband, Silas, who has been gone for nearly a week. An African-American farmer, Silas has gone to market to sell the cotton he's harvested and to bring home the family's money for the year. As Sarah waits for his return, she's interrupted by a White salesman who tries to sell her a clock and a graphophone. Assured that Sarah's husband is out of town, the salesman asks for a drink of well water, and in the darkness his hands travel to places that they don't belong. Sarah protests, but they end up in bed. Shortly thereafter, the salesman leaves but says he will return the next day to speak to Silas and be paid for the now discounted clock and graphophone. Silas returns that night and after discovering evidence of his wife's infidelity, he throws out the items and threatens to whip Sarah who promptly runs away to an adjacent field. The next morning, the salesman returns with a friend; Silas becomes so incensed that he hits and kills one of the white men. The other man drives away. Sarah returns home and Silas reflects upon his life and his actions. He knows that if he stays, he will be killed but if he leaves, he will leave behind his home and farm to be a fugitive forever. He chooses to stay and fight, but he sends Sarah and the baby away. Naturally, the white man returns with an angry posse who demand that Silas come out and take his punishment. Silas answers with gunfire and the mob shoots back before setting the house afire with Silas trapped inside.
On the face of it, the story seems a fairly straightforward tale of anger, infidelity, and retribution. However, it's really much more complex. It's the story of a Black man seeking the American dream and realizing that he has never had a chance in h-e-double-hockeysticks of getting it. So, what is the American Dream? People from all over the world know it and seek it. It is the belief that in America, a person can start with absolutely nothing, but if s/he works hard and follows the rules, that person can gain financial security and the good life: a house with a White picket fence, a spouse and children, a nice car, and maybe a dog. But perhaps there's a reason we call it a dream--because for so many people, it will never come true.
At first, Silas believed he could achieve this dream. As a man in the South in the 1930s, he believed in the importance of a patriarchal society, which was the foundation of the American Dream. Under a system of patriarchy, men and women had distinct roles. Women cared for the home and family. They were considered delicate creatures who should be domestic, pious, faithful, and submissive. Men, on the other hand, should be providers, protectors, and heads of the household. Together, if a husband and wife each worked hard in his or her roles, they could achieve the American Dream. For ten years, Silas tried to hold up his end of the bargain. He worked hard on his farm. And each year, he used a little of his earnings to buy more land so he could make even more money. He even built a home for his family, and delighted in bringing Sarah special gifts. Provider.....check! Though he hated Whites, he primarily stayed out of their way and observed the unspoken rules of the Jim Crow South. He even tried to imitate White behavior by hiring help to work the farm, "the way the white folks do." Rule follower....check! And based on his violent reaction to the White salesman who disrespected his home, his wife, and their marriage, Silas tried to be a protector, as well. In short, Silas did everything he was supposed to do and yet he still ended up dying, alone, in the house that was supposed to have been the first installment of his American Dream.
Some readers would say that Silas sabotaged his chances of achieving the American Dream when he killed the salesman. That's true, but like the baby's symbolic name, it's only partially the truth. Whether he had killed the salesman or not, whether he provided for his family or not, Silas never had a chance of achieving that dream because the American Dream in the 1930s was really meant for men, and no Black man could be a man in the South during that time. He could not protect his wife; no Black man ever could. During slavery, a male slave could only marry a female slave if he got the owner's permission and even then, the marriage was not legal because slaves were property, like lamps or cows. Worse, no slave could protect his woman from being beaten or sexually abused. Frederick Douglass tells the story of having to sit idly and helplessly by while his Aunt Hester was stripped naked, tied down, and beaten until her blood ran across the kitchen floor. Other female slaves were sexually abused. Regardless of whether she was "married" or in love, regardless of her age, if the overseer or master wanted his female slave to have sex with him--or with any other slave--she was compelled to do so, and no man could protect her from it. (Just ask Harriet Jacobs; her master began pursuing her doggedly when she was only 15 years old. So desperate to escape his sexual advances was she that she hid in her grandmother's attic for seven years! Though slavery ended in 1865, its ghosts certainly hovered in the 1930s. The sexual exploitation of Black women in America had been a long song, one which Silas probably knew well. This history might have been what Silas was thinking of as he tried to imagine his wife, alone at the homestead, and seduced or raped by a smooth talking salesman.
That seduction emphasized to Silas that Black women were nothing, and neither were Black men. While White women were put on pedestals and treated with respect, Black women were often treated like prostitutes. After having his way with Sarah, the salesman announces, "You can have [the graphophone] for forty instead of fifty." It's unlikely a White woman would have been treated this way. Indeed, Silas tells the story of a Black soldier beaten for supposedly "sassing" a White woman--because White women were too good and too delicate to even be spoken to harshly (or at all) by Black men. Emmett Till and so many others learned the fatal way that even an improper look could land a Black man at the bottom of a river or burned and dangling from a tree branch. Yet, this White salesman thought, in spite of the fact that she was married, that it was perfectly fine for him to grope Sarah and then follow her into her bedroom and have sex with her. Worse, he had the audacity to believe that he could drive up to Silas' home the next morning and ask for a ten dollar deposit on the clock without any fear that Silas would harm him. And why wouldn't he believe that? Black men had no authority to protect their Black daughters, sisters, or wives against the advances of a White man.
And maybe I should be using the present tense...not had, but have. We still see examples of Black male impotence in contemporary literature! Remember the scene in the movie Crash where two White police officers stop an affluent Black couple. During the stop, one officer molests the Black woman while her husband (played by Terrence Howard) looks on silently and helplessly. It's a police officer, after all. Frightened and confused, his wife looks over for his protection and intervention. Knowing that this police officer could kill him and rape his wife anyway, the husband says in desperation, "Just do what he says" and another American Dream is shattered. If society says that a man must provide for and protect his family, but this man can't protect his wife from a policeman's sexual advances, then is he a man? No. And if he isn't a man, how can he achieve the American Dream? He can't.
See the Crash movie trailer here:
So, if a wealthy man in the 21st century could not stop his wife from being sexually assaulted, what chance did poor Silas, an uneducated farmer, have? None. What choices did he have? None. All his life, Silas had told himself that "'Ef youhs gonna git anywheres, youh gotta do just like they [White people] do.'" Standing in his bedroom looking at a White man's handkerchief in his bed and then later standing over that man's dead body, Silas finally realized the bitter truth, that no matter how well he provided for his family, he could never "do just like the White people do." He could not do the most important thing of all. He could not protect his wife, as a White man protects his. So, Silas had two choices. Choice 1: he could follow the Terrence Howard path and allow this man to have sex with his wife without consequences. Or, choice 2: he could defend his wife's honor, as a White husband would. He could let the world know that his wife was worthy of the same respect as any White woman. If he chose the first option, he would never be a man in the fullest sense of the word. He would be shamed and emasculated, but he would live. If he chose the second option, he would be a man but only for as long as it took the White men to kill him--because no Black man could live in the 1930s in the South. For Silas, the choice was as obvious as the "bangbangbang" throughout the story. On a literal level, the "bangbangbang" represented the baby beating the broken clock like a drum. But on a symbolic level, it represented the ways in which Black men are beaten down, repeatedly and constantly. It symbolized the sound a gun makes, foreshadowing Silas' act of murder. And sadly, the fact that the baby creates the sound symbolizes that this bitter truth; this long, black song will continue to play well into the next generation.
Chances are that if this act of adultery had not happened, Silas might have lived his entire life thinking it was possible for him to be a Black man in America, thinking it was possible for him to live the American Dream. It took infidelity and a price tag marked down ten dollars for Silas to realize that he lived in a world where Black men and women could be treated like objects to be used or bought and sold, to learn that it was impossible for a Black man to do what a White man could. Thus, what had amounted to essentially a business transaction for the salesman was a life-altering and life-ending lesson for Silas.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Monday, July 19, 2010
"homecoming" by Sonia Sanchez
Sonia Sanchez wrote during the Black Arts Movement, and one of the philosophies of that movement was that two worlds existed--one world which Whites inhabited, and a second world which Blacks inhabited. “homecoming” addresses those two worlds and the two perspectives people have when they try to live in both worlds.
We can begin our exploration of the poem by looking at it before we read it. One of the first things we notice about the poem is that it uses nonstandard American English. Even the title of the poem is not capitalized, and we can see that there is very little punctuation within the poem. As well, line 1 shows us that I is not capitalized. The Black Arts Movement encouraged writers to reject all things White, and so it’s likely that Sanchez’s use of nonstandard English was a way of rejecting the White power structure which decides how words will be spelled and capitalized.
As we read the poem, one of the things we want to ask ourselves is “Who is speaking?” Of course, we never want to assume that the poet is the speaker. Rather, we must assume that the speaker is a creation of the poet. So, what can we say about the speaker? First, we know she is a woman. Line 16 says, “now woman.” We also know that she is college educated, based on line 3. And we know that she is Black. We can also guess that she is older than 22 since college is a thing of the past for her.
So next, we want to figure out, “What’s going on in this poem?” This is actually a somewhat narrative poem. The speaker is in the present but reflecting upon her experiences and is sharing with us the story of her awakening. She tells the story of two visits home, the second of which taught her an important lesson which is the message of the poem. The overall message of the poem seems to be that we should not judge who we are and where we live based on an external yardstick. Instead, we should strive to appreciate our own culture.
One of the things the poet wants us to think about is how we know what we know. White culture values “book” education (college). It also values the written word, such as the newspapers referred to in the last line of the poem. As such, many Black people have adopted that same value and believe that the only worthwhile knowledge is what is written in books and taught at college. Historically speaking, however, Black culture has valued nontraditional ways of knowing. A Black woman might walk outside, look at the sky, and say, “It’s going to rain. I better go back and get my umbrella.” She doesn’t need a meteorologist to tell her this. She just knows. Likewise, a Black man might say, “My palm itches. I’m gonna get some money soon.” What White culture dismisses as superstition, Black culture is more accepting of. However, some Black people believe that in order to “get ahead” or to put it another way, in order to achieve the American dream, they must abandon Black cultural values and adopt White ones. This is what the speaker did when she went to college. Have you ever known someone who went to college and came back home a completely different person—in a negative way? In some ways, the speaker is saying that college turns one into a “tourist” (line 4). A college student absorbs “book” knowledge and becomes an outsider to his own culture. The college student can no longer understand his or her culture but rather looks at the culture through the eyes of an outsider, the eyes of a tourist. In doing so, that Black college student becomes judgmental and negative because he or she is seeing through the eyes of a White person. During that first visit, the speaker even adopts the language of White culture and refers to “niggers” (line 6).
Can you relate to this concept? Can you think of something or someone that you saw through an outsider’s eyes and felt ashamed about? Perhaps you love your grandmother dearly but when you think of taking her to the mall, you think about her mismatched blouse and skirt and old fashioned shoes, and you decide not to take her out. You’re concerned about what people will think when they see her dressed this way. Maybe at church you hoop and shout but if you brought a co-worker of another race to your church, you might be a bit quieter. Or perhaps you have heard outsiders (the media, students at other schools, even high school teachers) say that MATC is an “easy” school, and you believed it (until you took this course, that is!) This is what Sanchez is writing about in the first stanza, the experience of seeing your world through someone else’s eyes and feeling shame.
By the middle of the poem, the speaker has experienced a change. She says she returned home as a “woman” (line 16) capable of seeing through her own eyes. She has left behind her aspirations of assimilating into White culture. She has left behind the double consciousness and the “hide and/seek” (lines 19-20) experience of being one person when she is with Whites and being a different person when she is with Blacks. Now, she is an insider again and she can see the beauty of her culture. She’s learned that “ it/ ain’t like they say/ in the newspapers” (lines 27-9). Notice the pronoun “they.” At first, the speaker herself was a “they,” an outsider. Now, enlightened, she understands that she is part of her Black community. She realizes that as long as she feels hate and shame for other Blacks, she is really hating and feeling ashamed of herself because black beauty is her beauty (line 25). Conversely, black shame is her shame.
You should also notice that the speaker uses the word “nigger” again in reference to this second visit. But this time, the word is not used in a negative way. This is the debate of the 21st century—about how Whites use the word and how Blacks do. This time, she is using it the way Black people do.
In conclusion, Sanchez wants us to question the judgments and assumptions we make. She wants Black people to think about the ways in which they have become outsiders to their culture, the ways in which they have accepted White views about what is beautiful, or what is right, or what is normal. She wants us to know that just because it is written somewhere doesn’t make it true or right. In the end, she wants all Black people to have a homecoming, a point at which they realize the beauty within their own culture and they stop trying to emulate White culture.
If you are African American, have you had your own personal homecoming about Black culture? What precipitated it? Second, in what ways have you rejected your culture and adopted White values—whether it is in the color of your hair, the texture of your hair, the color of your contact lenses, the neighborhood you live in or feel safe in, etc.
We can begin our exploration of the poem by looking at it before we read it. One of the first things we notice about the poem is that it uses nonstandard American English. Even the title of the poem is not capitalized, and we can see that there is very little punctuation within the poem. As well, line 1 shows us that I is not capitalized. The Black Arts Movement encouraged writers to reject all things White, and so it’s likely that Sanchez’s use of nonstandard English was a way of rejecting the White power structure which decides how words will be spelled and capitalized.
As we read the poem, one of the things we want to ask ourselves is “Who is speaking?” Of course, we never want to assume that the poet is the speaker. Rather, we must assume that the speaker is a creation of the poet. So, what can we say about the speaker? First, we know she is a woman. Line 16 says, “now woman.” We also know that she is college educated, based on line 3. And we know that she is Black. We can also guess that she is older than 22 since college is a thing of the past for her.
So next, we want to figure out, “What’s going on in this poem?” This is actually a somewhat narrative poem. The speaker is in the present but reflecting upon her experiences and is sharing with us the story of her awakening. She tells the story of two visits home, the second of which taught her an important lesson which is the message of the poem. The overall message of the poem seems to be that we should not judge who we are and where we live based on an external yardstick. Instead, we should strive to appreciate our own culture.
One of the things the poet wants us to think about is how we know what we know. White culture values “book” education (college). It also values the written word, such as the newspapers referred to in the last line of the poem. As such, many Black people have adopted that same value and believe that the only worthwhile knowledge is what is written in books and taught at college. Historically speaking, however, Black culture has valued nontraditional ways of knowing. A Black woman might walk outside, look at the sky, and say, “It’s going to rain. I better go back and get my umbrella.” She doesn’t need a meteorologist to tell her this. She just knows. Likewise, a Black man might say, “My palm itches. I’m gonna get some money soon.” What White culture dismisses as superstition, Black culture is more accepting of. However, some Black people believe that in order to “get ahead” or to put it another way, in order to achieve the American dream, they must abandon Black cultural values and adopt White ones. This is what the speaker did when she went to college. Have you ever known someone who went to college and came back home a completely different person—in a negative way? In some ways, the speaker is saying that college turns one into a “tourist” (line 4). A college student absorbs “book” knowledge and becomes an outsider to his own culture. The college student can no longer understand his or her culture but rather looks at the culture through the eyes of an outsider, the eyes of a tourist. In doing so, that Black college student becomes judgmental and negative because he or she is seeing through the eyes of a White person. During that first visit, the speaker even adopts the language of White culture and refers to “niggers” (line 6).
Can you relate to this concept? Can you think of something or someone that you saw through an outsider’s eyes and felt ashamed about? Perhaps you love your grandmother dearly but when you think of taking her to the mall, you think about her mismatched blouse and skirt and old fashioned shoes, and you decide not to take her out. You’re concerned about what people will think when they see her dressed this way. Maybe at church you hoop and shout but if you brought a co-worker of another race to your church, you might be a bit quieter. Or perhaps you have heard outsiders (the media, students at other schools, even high school teachers) say that MATC is an “easy” school, and you believed it (until you took this course, that is!) This is what Sanchez is writing about in the first stanza, the experience of seeing your world through someone else’s eyes and feeling shame.
By the middle of the poem, the speaker has experienced a change. She says she returned home as a “woman” (line 16) capable of seeing through her own eyes. She has left behind her aspirations of assimilating into White culture. She has left behind the double consciousness and the “hide and/seek” (lines 19-20) experience of being one person when she is with Whites and being a different person when she is with Blacks. Now, she is an insider again and she can see the beauty of her culture. She’s learned that “ it/ ain’t like they say/ in the newspapers” (lines 27-9). Notice the pronoun “they.” At first, the speaker herself was a “they,” an outsider. Now, enlightened, she understands that she is part of her Black community. She realizes that as long as she feels hate and shame for other Blacks, she is really hating and feeling ashamed of herself because black beauty is her beauty (line 25). Conversely, black shame is her shame.
You should also notice that the speaker uses the word “nigger” again in reference to this second visit. But this time, the word is not used in a negative way. This is the debate of the 21st century—about how Whites use the word and how Blacks do. This time, she is using it the way Black people do.
In conclusion, Sanchez wants us to question the judgments and assumptions we make. She wants Black people to think about the ways in which they have become outsiders to their culture, the ways in which they have accepted White views about what is beautiful, or what is right, or what is normal. She wants us to know that just because it is written somewhere doesn’t make it true or right. In the end, she wants all Black people to have a homecoming, a point at which they realize the beauty within their own culture and they stop trying to emulate White culture.
If you are African American, have you had your own personal homecoming about Black culture? What precipitated it? Second, in what ways have you rejected your culture and adopted White values—whether it is in the color of your hair, the texture of your hair, the color of your contact lenses, the neighborhood you live in or feel safe in, etc.
Friday, July 16, 2010
"The Sky Is Gray" by Ernest Gaines
Ernest Gaines is one of my favorite writers, and "The Sky Is Gray" (1963) is one of my favorite short stories. Although there are several interesting aspects of the story, I'd like to focus on theme and family structure for this discussion.
"The Sky Is Gray" is a story narrated by eight year old James which tells the events of a Louisiana morning in which James and his mother, Octavia, take a bus to Bayonne to have a dentist take a look at James' ailing tooth. As the day progresses, James shows us events from the past--from the time his mother whipped him because he could not kill two redbirds, to the praying and aspirin remedies his aunt and her friend use to cure the toothache because they all know that the family does not have any money for a dentist.
One of the themes of the story is that it is important for African Americans to act rationally, not emotionally, if they wish to get ahead. The theme is stated by the college student in the dentist's waiting office when he tells one of the women that, "As long as you listen to what your heart tells you, you will have only what the white man gives you and nothing more." And it is the lesson that Octavia tries to teach her oldest son at every opportunity. It is a lesson that is nothing short of painful. At one point, Octavia demands that James kill the two redbirds he had caught and kept as pets. When he refuses, she slaps him and then whips him until he stabs the poor bird with a fork. It's a gruesome scene, to say the least, (and perhaps even more so when we think about the family of seven eating these two birds for dinner) but James eventually realizes, through his aunt's intervention, that his mother wanted him to know that he was capable of providing for the family despite his young age. What James does not immediately recognize is that she is also teaching him to act from his brain and not his heart. Emotionally, James did not want to kill his pets, but Octavia, who is rational, knows that it is more important that the family have protein than pets. Furthermore, Octavia privileges head over heart by rejecting public displays of emotions. She doesn't like hugs or "weakness and....crybaby stuff" and the kids know this. She wants them to be logical and practical, and leave their emotions aside.
The lesson is complicated, however, by Octavia's strong sense of pride, which she also tries to pass on to James. One could argue that pride has to do with the heart and not the head. For Octavia, it is a question of being steadfast in her principles and refusing to compromise. This can be seen in her interaction with the White couple at the end of the story. In this part of the story, the elderly White woman wants to help Octavia and James by giving them a larger portion of salt meat than they can actually pay for. Octavia sees this and demands to be given the correct portion. Here, she is choosing her pride and her sense of what is right over feeding her family, who would have appreciated the extra meat.
Octavia's qualities--pride and the emphasis on rationality--are qualities that we most often associate with men. This raises another interesting aspect of the story. James tells us that he can recall when his father was alive and the family "used to be happy." However, when his father joined the Army (and was later killed), everything changed. As a single parent, Octavia has had to take on the role and characteristics of a father, while Auntie has taken on the mother role, in a patriarchal sense. Patriarchy defines the husband/father role as provider, protector, and decisive head of his household. In contrast, the wife/mother is domestic, obedient, and pious. Octavia fits the male role perfectly. Etienne tells us that Octavia has to "work in the field rain or shine just to make ends meet." Not only does she work and provide for the family, she also manages the money. When contemplating taking James to the doctor, Octavia counts the money and prepares an impromptu budget. In fact, she is offended when her ability to provide is questioned. Octavia has figured out that she has just enough money to buy some salt meat when Auntie remark, "Sure can use it" and continues that they often eat beans with no meat. "I do the best I can" is Octavia's quick reply. Clearly, she sees herself as the provider and breadwinner of the family and feels hurt--even slightly emasculated--when it is pointed out that her efforts are not sufficient. Secondly, she is also the protector of the family. James tells us that as he and his mother wait for the bus, Octavia is thinking about whether it will rain and whether she has left enough wood to keep the family warm. She also notices when James is cold and creates an excuse for them to go into the hardware store so that James can warm up. She also uses the last few pennies they have to provide a lunch for her son. Finally, Octavia is decisive about matters that affect the family. For example, when James protests that his tooth no longer hurts and they should not spend money on a dentist, Octavia simply repeats, "Tomorrow we going to town." In other words, she has made her decision and nothing will change that.
Rose Mary, or Auntie as James calls her, is the perfect complement to Octavia in the sense that she projects all the traditionally female qualities. She is domestic, obedient, and pious. Clearly, she is the one who cooks the meals and keeps an eye out for the children. She is very attuned to their needs. When James' tooth started hurting, for example, he told no one, "but some kind of way Auntie found out." She either is the kind of person that the other children tell secrets to or she is very sensitive to the children's feelings. Secondly, she is pious. When Etienne argues that they should tell James about his father's death, Auntie protests, saying that they should simply do their jobs and leave the rest in God's hands. She is also fairly obedient, rarely questioning Octavia, the true head of the house.
Together, they make the perfect couple! So, although technically, this is a matriarchal family--led by a woman--because there are two women, and each woman takes on a different role, the family has all the elements of a traditional family. Strange right!?
The stereotype of the Black woman or Black mother as masculine is one that has been corrupted and co-opted quite a bit since this story was published. First of all, we should admit that it is a historically and sociologically accurate portrayal. Ask almost any Black person and he or she can tell you about a family member or neighbor who fits this description--tough as nails, manly. Likewise, the history books are full of stories about tough love Black mothers. The most famous story might be that of Margaret Garner, who forms the basis for Toni Morrison's novel Beloved. An escaped slave, Garner cut her daughter's throat rather than have her returned to slavery to be sexually, physically, and emotionally abused. Extreme, yes, but not unique--at least in literature. In Morrison's Sula, a mother kills her drug addicted son by setting his room afire rather than watch him destroy himself little by little. More recently, the tough and manly Black woman has manifested in film comedies. Tyler Perry's Madea and Martin Lawrence's Big Momma are both Black women, heads of family, who are so masculine that the roles are played by male actors!
But getting back to a final note about "The Sky Is Gray," we can't help but notice that this story was published in 1963. On the one hand, it gives a very realistic picture of the South in the early 60s--segregation (only one dentist will see Black patients, James and Octavia must ride in the back of the bus) and the unspoken exchanges (Octavia knows she must pay for the heat by buying food, the White couple knows that they must make up a job in order to be able to feed Octavia and James because charity is not acceptable). But on the other hand, the date is significant because it is two years before the release of the infamous Moynihan Report. which called into question the state of Black families in the 60s.
The Moynihan Report, properly called "The Negro Family: The Case for National Action" concluded that although American Blacks had problems with access to voting and segregation, the core problem was the Black family structure. According to the report, almost 25% of all Black births were to unwed mothers. Consequently, a vast majority of Black children grew up in homes with a mother but no father. The report speculated that this matriarchal structure led to two huge problems. First, Black kids with just one parent would be less smart than kids in two parent homes because only one parent was helping educate the children. Second, Black males who grew up in homes led by women would have trouble adapting to American society as adults since American society is patriarchal, not matriarchal. The report concluded that the best way to help Black Americans get ahead was to create laws and structures which promoted a two parent family. The report was immediately denounced by many African Americans who had example after example of Black mothers who had raised successful and well adjusted children, including Black males!
I wonder what Patrick Moynihan, the primary author of the report, would say if he had known Octavia!
"The Sky Is Gray" is a story narrated by eight year old James which tells the events of a Louisiana morning in which James and his mother, Octavia, take a bus to Bayonne to have a dentist take a look at James' ailing tooth. As the day progresses, James shows us events from the past--from the time his mother whipped him because he could not kill two redbirds, to the praying and aspirin remedies his aunt and her friend use to cure the toothache because they all know that the family does not have any money for a dentist.
One of the themes of the story is that it is important for African Americans to act rationally, not emotionally, if they wish to get ahead. The theme is stated by the college student in the dentist's waiting office when he tells one of the women that, "As long as you listen to what your heart tells you, you will have only what the white man gives you and nothing more." And it is the lesson that Octavia tries to teach her oldest son at every opportunity. It is a lesson that is nothing short of painful. At one point, Octavia demands that James kill the two redbirds he had caught and kept as pets. When he refuses, she slaps him and then whips him until he stabs the poor bird with a fork. It's a gruesome scene, to say the least, (and perhaps even more so when we think about the family of seven eating these two birds for dinner) but James eventually realizes, through his aunt's intervention, that his mother wanted him to know that he was capable of providing for the family despite his young age. What James does not immediately recognize is that she is also teaching him to act from his brain and not his heart. Emotionally, James did not want to kill his pets, but Octavia, who is rational, knows that it is more important that the family have protein than pets. Furthermore, Octavia privileges head over heart by rejecting public displays of emotions. She doesn't like hugs or "weakness and....crybaby stuff" and the kids know this. She wants them to be logical and practical, and leave their emotions aside.
The lesson is complicated, however, by Octavia's strong sense of pride, which she also tries to pass on to James. One could argue that pride has to do with the heart and not the head. For Octavia, it is a question of being steadfast in her principles and refusing to compromise. This can be seen in her interaction with the White couple at the end of the story. In this part of the story, the elderly White woman wants to help Octavia and James by giving them a larger portion of salt meat than they can actually pay for. Octavia sees this and demands to be given the correct portion. Here, she is choosing her pride and her sense of what is right over feeding her family, who would have appreciated the extra meat.
Octavia's qualities--pride and the emphasis on rationality--are qualities that we most often associate with men. This raises another interesting aspect of the story. James tells us that he can recall when his father was alive and the family "used to be happy." However, when his father joined the Army (and was later killed), everything changed. As a single parent, Octavia has had to take on the role and characteristics of a father, while Auntie has taken on the mother role, in a patriarchal sense. Patriarchy defines the husband/father role as provider, protector, and decisive head of his household. In contrast, the wife/mother is domestic, obedient, and pious. Octavia fits the male role perfectly. Etienne tells us that Octavia has to "work in the field rain or shine just to make ends meet." Not only does she work and provide for the family, she also manages the money. When contemplating taking James to the doctor, Octavia counts the money and prepares an impromptu budget. In fact, she is offended when her ability to provide is questioned. Octavia has figured out that she has just enough money to buy some salt meat when Auntie remark, "Sure can use it" and continues that they often eat beans with no meat. "I do the best I can" is Octavia's quick reply. Clearly, she sees herself as the provider and breadwinner of the family and feels hurt--even slightly emasculated--when it is pointed out that her efforts are not sufficient. Secondly, she is also the protector of the family. James tells us that as he and his mother wait for the bus, Octavia is thinking about whether it will rain and whether she has left enough wood to keep the family warm. She also notices when James is cold and creates an excuse for them to go into the hardware store so that James can warm up. She also uses the last few pennies they have to provide a lunch for her son. Finally, Octavia is decisive about matters that affect the family. For example, when James protests that his tooth no longer hurts and they should not spend money on a dentist, Octavia simply repeats, "Tomorrow we going to town." In other words, she has made her decision and nothing will change that.
Rose Mary, or Auntie as James calls her, is the perfect complement to Octavia in the sense that she projects all the traditionally female qualities. She is domestic, obedient, and pious. Clearly, she is the one who cooks the meals and keeps an eye out for the children. She is very attuned to their needs. When James' tooth started hurting, for example, he told no one, "but some kind of way Auntie found out." She either is the kind of person that the other children tell secrets to or she is very sensitive to the children's feelings. Secondly, she is pious. When Etienne argues that they should tell James about his father's death, Auntie protests, saying that they should simply do their jobs and leave the rest in God's hands. She is also fairly obedient, rarely questioning Octavia, the true head of the house.
Together, they make the perfect couple! So, although technically, this is a matriarchal family--led by a woman--because there are two women, and each woman takes on a different role, the family has all the elements of a traditional family. Strange right!?
The stereotype of the Black woman or Black mother as masculine is one that has been corrupted and co-opted quite a bit since this story was published. First of all, we should admit that it is a historically and sociologically accurate portrayal. Ask almost any Black person and he or she can tell you about a family member or neighbor who fits this description--tough as nails, manly. Likewise, the history books are full of stories about tough love Black mothers. The most famous story might be that of Margaret Garner, who forms the basis for Toni Morrison's novel Beloved. An escaped slave, Garner cut her daughter's throat rather than have her returned to slavery to be sexually, physically, and emotionally abused. Extreme, yes, but not unique--at least in literature. In Morrison's Sula, a mother kills her drug addicted son by setting his room afire rather than watch him destroy himself little by little. More recently, the tough and manly Black woman has manifested in film comedies. Tyler Perry's Madea and Martin Lawrence's Big Momma are both Black women, heads of family, who are so masculine that the roles are played by male actors!
But getting back to a final note about "The Sky Is Gray," we can't help but notice that this story was published in 1963. On the one hand, it gives a very realistic picture of the South in the early 60s--segregation (only one dentist will see Black patients, James and Octavia must ride in the back of the bus) and the unspoken exchanges (Octavia knows she must pay for the heat by buying food, the White couple knows that they must make up a job in order to be able to feed Octavia and James because charity is not acceptable). But on the other hand, the date is significant because it is two years before the release of the infamous Moynihan Report. which called into question the state of Black families in the 60s.
The Moynihan Report, properly called "The Negro Family: The Case for National Action" concluded that although American Blacks had problems with access to voting and segregation, the core problem was the Black family structure. According to the report, almost 25% of all Black births were to unwed mothers. Consequently, a vast majority of Black children grew up in homes with a mother but no father. The report speculated that this matriarchal structure led to two huge problems. First, Black kids with just one parent would be less smart than kids in two parent homes because only one parent was helping educate the children. Second, Black males who grew up in homes led by women would have trouble adapting to American society as adults since American society is patriarchal, not matriarchal. The report concluded that the best way to help Black Americans get ahead was to create laws and structures which promoted a two parent family. The report was immediately denounced by many African Americans who had example after example of Black mothers who had raised successful and well adjusted children, including Black males!
I wonder what Patrick Moynihan, the primary author of the report, would say if he had known Octavia!
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