Ernest James Gaines

Ernest James Gaines was born on January 15th 1933. He was born on River Lake Plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. This plantation is where his ancestors had work as slaves for many years. A matter of fact, the house he lived in was the slave quarters where they former slaves lived. It was expanded to accommodate James’ current family. As a child he worked on the farm with the other children of his community where they harvested vegetables and cotton. James attended a segregated Catholic school in his youth and later moved to Vallejo, California at the age of fifteen with his mother and stepfather. His parents deemed it necessary to make this move after World War II when the opportunities for work had greatly decreased in the southern states. Another inspirational figure in James’ life was his great-aunt, Augusteen Jefferson who was crippled from birth and could not walk. She had a huge impact on his life and his ideas about himself and the world around him. With story-telling being a huge part of his family tradition, James was familiar with the idea of creating and making up stories from his youth. Upon moving to California, James became more intrigued with creating stories after spending a lot of his free time in the library where he’d read books to avoid getting into trouble on the street. He graduated from San Francisco State University after serving a short time in the United States army. He published his first book titled Catherine Carmier in 1964. His literary work includes a short story titled “The Sky is Gray” which was published in 1963.

“The Sky is Gray” is a short story narrated by an eight year old boy named James. James tells of experiences of his past while living as a child in a financially unstable family. While reflecting on his past, James is riding to the dentist’s office on the bus along with his mother whose name is Octavia. He explains that his family didn’t have money to cover the bill to the dentist, so his aunt, Mary Rose also...