Manhood as An Allegory in Ernest J Gaines’ A Gathering of Old Men

Abstract

African American literature is embodied with the problem of racism. Every page of this literature carries evidences of racial discrimination and its repercussions. The white Americans have dominated the blacks, extracting labor on the threat of lynching. Almost all black writers have addressed this marginalization in their works.  Gaines demarcates his stand constructing his plot around the black men who long to prove their manhood subverting the stereotype treatment of the whites. This paper is to study how a group of remarkable old black men stand together against the oppressive white society as individuals. They dust off their past life of passivity; change the habits of a lifetime and stand up for themselves when a time comes to acknowledge their dignity. Age is no more a barrier for them to assert their manhood. The black men, who are around seventies, expand their impulse for liberty from old fears and bitter experiences; influence each other to an action that will make everyone of them free beyond their perceptibility.