The Sky Is Gray
The title of the story "The Sky is Gray" by Ernest Gaines is ironic. It suggests at first the bleak mood of the story but also hints at hope in the future. Just as the clouds clear after a storm, James finds out on his trip to Bayonne that the stormy clouds that are his life are parting to let some sunshine through.
Throughout the whole story, a very bleak mood is portrayed. The setting contributes to this gloominess. For example, the weather is awful. James, seeing how cold it was, said, "I seen the smoke coming out o' the cow's nose." Later he says, "The sleet keep falling. Falling like rain now- plenty, plenty." Once James turns up his collar to protect himself from the very windy conditions that also exist throughout the story.
Another sign of the story's gloominess is the fact that many of its scenes are without color. For example, the road in this story is very gray: "It's a long old road, and far's you can see you don't see nothing but gravel," as James put it. James also lets it be known that "the sky is gray" and that there isn't much grass. Even the clothing that they wear is very dull-colored! James' mother is "wearing that black coat and that black hat."
The story takes place during a war, which contributes to the overall gloomy setting of the story. "I wonder when us go'n see him againÂ…Look like he ain't ever coming home," James laments, showing that his father went into the war and most likely is dead. The father's absence leaves his family without adequate food, money, or manpower.
The family's poverty (which is partially due to the father's absence) makes their future seem hopeless. The family lives in a poor, rural area, which was typical of black persons of their time. The family is crowded into a small, shabby home, so they must share rooms and beds. The family's clothes are quite shabby too, for when James sees a mannequin in a store with new...
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