Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Gaines, Ernest J. (Vol. 181) - William E. H. Meyer, Jr. (essay date June 1991)


Gaines, Ernest J. (Vol. 181) - William E. H. Meyer, Jr. (essay date June 1991)

William E. H. Meyer, Jr. (essay date June 1991)

SOURCE: Meyer, Jr., William E. H. “Ernest J. Gaines and the Black Child's Sensory Dilemma.” CLA Journal 34, no. 4 (June 1991): 414-25.

[In the following essay, Meyer discusses the characterization of the protagonists of “A Long Day in November” and “The Sky Is Gray,” noting the internal conflicts between different sensory orientations that define their respective identities as African American youth.]

America, what have you done to yourself,
                              To me, one of your citizens?
          You've distorted the human landscape,
                              And painted the senses white!

—Matthew Kellum-Rose, “America”

Each of the first two stories in Ernest J. Gaines' Bloodline—“A Long Day in November” and “The Sky Is Gray”—describes a black boy or...

[The entire page is 4294 words long]

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