Oppression, Struggle, and Empowerment: Tracing Change in the Select Novels of Ernest J. Gaines
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1510.29Keywords:
discrimination, empowerment, collective action, transformationAbstract
Change is an inevitable aspect of life, often shaped by struggle and resilience. In the context of Black people’s lives, change does not occur spontaneously but is achieved through constant struggle and suffering. This paper explores the recurring theme of transformation in Ernest J. Gaines’ select novels Catherine Carimer (1964), Of Love and Dust (1967), The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971), and A Gathering of Old Men (1983). Gaines’ characters, both protagonists and supporting characters, reflect the racial, social, and gender oppressions experienced by Black people as they navigate their complex lifestyles and their struggle for personal and communal identity. This paper focuses on how individual and collective transformations take place in the characters’ lives as they challenge white authority by finding strength within their communities. Additionally, it highlights the pivotal role women play in stimulating change and their courage in overcoming the obstacles they face in their day-to-day lives. Through these stories, this paper reflects how Gaines’ characters exemplify the struggle for personal freedom, dignity, justice amidst oppressive societal conditions and the acquired empowerment both individually and collectively.
References
Dian, D. Squire, Bianca C. Williams, & Franklin A. Tuitt. (2020). Plantation Politics and Neoliberal. Racism in Higher Education: A Framework for Reconstructing Anti-Racist Institutions. Teachers College Record, 120(14), 1-20.
Gaines. J. Ernest. (1972). The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. New York: Bantam.
Gaines, J. Ernest. (1993). Catherine Carimer. Vintage Contemporaries.
Gaines. J. Ernest. (1994). Of Love and Dust. Vintage Contemporaries.
Gaines. J. Ernest. (1983). A Gathering of Old Men. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Gwendolyn Scott-Jones, & Mozella Rixhardsonkamara. (2020). The Traumatic Impact of Structural Racism on African Americans. Delaware Journal of Public Health, 6(5), 80-82.
Gwen Bergner. (2019). Introduction: The Plantation, the Postplantation, and the Afterlives of Slavery. American Literature, 91(3), 447-457.
Jayajothilakshmi. V, Mohan. S, & Kannan. R. (2022). Counterfeit Reality of Egalitarianism with Reference to Manju Kapur’s Brothers. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 12(3), 447-455.
Jay R. Mandle. (1991). Continuity and Change: The Use of Black Labor after the Civil War. Journal of Black Studies, 21(4), 414-427.
Katie Fay. (2004). Confronting Manhood: The Struggle of Male Characters in the Fiction of Ernest J. Gaines. Electronic Theses and Dissertations.
Mahzarin R. Banaji, Susan T. Fiske, & Douglas S. Massey. (2021). Systemic Racism: Individuals and Interactions, Institutions and Society. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 6.
Matthew Teutsch, & Katharine Henry. (2015). “Memories wasn’t a place, memories was in the mind”: The Gothic in Ernest J. Gaines’s The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Mississippi Quarterly, 68(3-4), 511-530.
Mulvey, Christopher. (2006). The History of Miss Jane Pittman. Transatlantica, 1.
N’Guessan, K. E. (2016). Rewriting the Self: Reconstructing Female Subject in Ernest Gaines’ The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Valley International Journals, 3(10), 2819-2831.
Pinesett, Christian Andianna. (2013). Resistance and Identity in Ernest Gaines’ the Autobiography of Jane Pittman, A Lesson Before Dying, and A Gathering of Old Men. Theses and Dissertation.
Rebekah Lee. (2018). People with Guns Speak First: Perspective, Authority, and Ownership in Ernest J. Gaines’s A Gathering of Old Men. Citations Journal of Undergraduate Research, 15(1), 1-17.
Rosa Maria Simamora, Jontra Jusat Pangaribuan, & Linus Rumapea. (2022). Human Courage and Dignity in Ernest J. Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying. Pendistra, 5(2), 105-111.
Sara N. Bleich, Mary G. Findling, Logan S. Casey, Robert J. Blendon, John M. Benson, Gillian K. SteelFisher, Justin M. Sayde, & Carolyn Miller. (2019). Discrimination in the United States: Experiences of black Americans. Health Serv Res, 54(2), 1399-1408.
Shoba Thirumal Murugan. (2018). Manhood as an Allegory in Ernest J. Gaines’ A Gathering of Old Men. EFL Journal, 3(1), 1-20.
