Upon entering Bayonne, James makes three references to segregation and racism. Later, James and Octavia enter Bayonne and see "grass shooting right out of the sidewalk," bringing to mind that James is no longer in the quarters where he can move and go as he pleases without the ever-present fear of oppression. James only says this after the fact that whites sit in the front of the bus and blacks in the back, nothing more. Eight-year-old James, getting on the bus, does not mention that it is segregated instead, he simply states, "When I pass the little sign that say 'White' and 'Colored,' I start looking for a seat" (91). Instead, he subtly implies the segregation that exists in Bayonne. In "The Sky is Gray," Gaines does not overtly present Jim Crown racism. Even his warning to Phoenix displays that no matter how much she tries to climb the hill or get through the thorns that ensnare her, there will always be those that hold her back because of the color of her skin. The hunter's confrontation, whether joking on not, shows the relationships between whites and blacks in the Jim Crow South. Upon returning, the hunter, who does not know that Phoenix retrieved the nickel, levels his gun at her, asking, "Doesn't the gun scare you?" (283) Phoenix basically admits to taking the nickel, but the hunter doesn't realize it, and he lowers the gun and smiles, warning her to "take advice and stay home, and nothing will happen to " (283-284). The hunter leaves, and she picks up the nickel. She sees a nickel fall out of the hunter's pocket to distract him so she can pick the nickel up, she sets the hunter's dog and a stray to fighting. When Old Phoenix begins again, she comes across the white hunter, and her struggles against a society that subjugates her become real instead of just symbolic. Whereas racism and oppression are implied in Gaines' story, they are symbolically portrayed in Welty's through Phoenix's reference to chains, her entanglement in thorns that will not let her go, and in her "trial" to get past the log over the creek.Īfter resting, and being confronted with the apparition of a boy bringing her cake, Phoenix travels through fields of "dead trees" in a "withered cotton field" and "past cabins silver from weather" (278, 280). See Kevin Moberly's " Toward the North Star: Eudora Welty's 'A Worn Path' and the Slave Narrative Tradition" for a discussion of previous criticism of Welty's story and its connection to James Olney's characteristics of slave narratives. Never want to let folks pass, no sir" (277). Phoenix tells the culprits of her captivity, "Thorns, you're doing your appointed work. Trying to pull the dress free, it only become caught in other places. When she reaches the bottom of the hill, her dress becomes ensnared in thorns. However, her descent is not smooth either. Immediately after she crests the mountain, Phoenix looks behind her to see where she came from the she begins her descent on the other side. Upon reaching the hill, she notices that she will be tired, as she always is at this point, and she specifically mentions that her feet feel like they are harnessed in "chains." The struggle against Jim Crow for African Americans in a racist society can be seen in Phoenix's comment. Phoenix can be seen as a symbol of African American struggle from slavery to the 1930s. Welty's story oozes with symbolism, and Phoenix's statement here registers as symbolic. When the frozen path begins to go up a hill, she speaks to herself, saying, "Seem like there is chains about my feet time I get this far" (276). Throughout their excursions, both characters experience hardships and encounter racism on their way to a doctor's office and dentist's office respectively.Īs Phoenix makes her way through the countryside, she struggles to get to the doctor in Natchez. Specifically, I will examine the journeys that Old Phoenix and James both take to town. For this post I will continue the exploration of these two texts in conjunction with one another. In the previous post, I wrote about Eudora Welty's " A Worn Path" and Ernest Gaines' "The Sky is Gray." As mentioned, Gaines said that he had to read Welty's story first in order to write his own.
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