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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page research paper that examines the critical reception that Ernest Gaines's 'A Gathering of Old Men' has inspired. The writer reports on the novel and why it has received such glowing recommendations. Bibliography lists 10 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_00oldmen.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
June, 2000 ? properly! Ernest Gaines has long been celebrated as one of the countrys best African American
writers. Beginning with this work "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman," Gainess novels have inspired and informed the mainstream of Western culture concerning the lives of African Americans. His novel
"A Lesson Before Dying" was awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award and it was also hailed as "one of the best American books of 1993" (Laney PG). An
earlier work by Gaines, "A Gathering of Old Men," has also been generally acknowledged as a superior example of the African American literary genre. In "Gathering," the plot revolves
around the murder of Beau Boutan, the oldest son of Fix Boutan, a Cajun who is notorious in the vicinity for his racial violence. The young white woman who is
the proprietor of the plantation inexplicably claims responsibility for the murder and summons nearly 20 elderly black men to join her next to the murder victim before the arrival of
the sheriff, who is also racist. These elderly men, also, claim a role in the shooting, which is a strategy obviously designed to confuse the sheriff and the inevitable nightriders.
As Gaines unravels the reasons why the old black men, as well as the young white woman, each claim responsibility for the murder, he reveals the inner-workers of this
Louisiana community and the history that has brought the community to this point. In his review of the book, Reynolds Price, who is also a noted author, points out
that the narrative method employed by Gaines dictates a great deal of the novels structure (15). Price states that Gaines has chosen to tell a "complex and heavily populated tale
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