Using only chapters 1-16, what details does Gaines provide to establish the identity and significance of the quarter and its history, the plantation, Bayonne, and the surrounding county? Select a passage that helps convey the setting and explain its effectiveness. (The deadline to post a response to this question is midnight, June 20,2011.)Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Summer Question #3: There is no place like home...
Using only chapters 1-16, what details does Gaines provide to establish the identity and significance of the quarter and its history, the plantation, Bayonne, and the surrounding county? Select a passage that helps convey the setting and explain its effectiveness. (The deadline to post a response to this question is midnight, June 20,2011.)
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In the first 16 Chapters, Gaines reveals a rather important piece of information through his details about the setting. When Grant visits Bayonne, he describes how divided the city is. One area is only for the whites. It's clubs, churches, theaters, and schools were not open to blacks. This setting reveals the racism in the area by showing how unaccepted blacks were. This further explains why Jefferson was convicted. This setting is vital to novel because if Jefferson was not black, none of the events in the novel would have occurred.
Plantations, long known as places of horror among blacks, and places of lavish living for whites, certainly can convey the setting of this novel. At Mr. Pichot's plantation, Grant recalls back into a previous time when he was much younger and would work for the Pichots. He grew up there, much like many blacks. He had to enter the back door and was not allowed to use the front and he, along with the other colored men, were forced to do all the work such as cutting wood and hauling ice. The history of the plantation is also slowly changing. A gas stove has replaced the old wooden stove and a large, white refrigerator has replaced the old, small icebox. This setting shows just how and where young black children were forced to work and live. The whites relaxed inside while the darks toiled outside.
Up till now gains has described the quarter as a plantation. Grant's family has been slaves to Mr. Pichot. On pg. 25, Gaines describes Bayonne as a small segregated town with a church and school for whites, and a church and school for blacks. Industry includes a sawmill, a cement plant, and a slaughterhouse mostly for pigs. The town is even seperated into white and colored sections. The quarter is full of houses a church and a school were Grant Wiggins and Vivian Baptiste teach. The division of Bayonne is the cause for the defence attourny to call Jefferson a hog, demonstrating how whites think they are more superior to blacks.
By describing Bayonne on page 25, Gaines is revealing information that helps to convey the setting of this novel. Bayonne is described as being segregated. There is a Catholic church uptown for the whites, and there is a Catholic church in the back of town for the colored. There is a white movie theater uptown, and a colored movie theater back of town. There were also two elementary schools. By showing the segregation in this town, Gaines is revealing the effect of racism in this novel. As a result, Jefferson is convicted, because of his race, even though he did nothing wrong.
Throughout the novel, Gaines describes Bayonne and reveals the racism and segregation that takes place during that time of history. Bayonne is a town that is segregated. On one side of town, there is buildings and stores that only white people could enter. However, there were also places that were just for the black people. By showing how disconnected the town is, Gaines establishes the history and racism that every black had to face, and why Jefferson is not recieving a fair trial and treatment.
Within the first 16 chapters, the author has shown how Bayonne is divided into a white "front" part of town and the colored "back" part of town. With this city being the county seat and being so segregated the author is suggesting that the rest of the county is segregated as well. When Grant meets Mr. Pichot he enters through the back door and has to wait on Mr. Pichot and the other men for hours which shows more racism. In the quarter people still work the cane fields just as they did back during slavery and Grant points out how long these people have been working by pointing out to Vivian the graveyard where his grandparents were buried.
Throughout the first sixteen chapters, Ernest Gaines identified the setting as a racially segregated society. On page 19, Gaines described the plantation's history. Owned by a white family, the plantation housed and used many black workers in its past. On page 25, he described Bayonne as a segregated city. The city had a colored section, and seperate churches, theaters, and schools for whites and blacks. Religion also shows its importance in the story. The racial division seen in these passages are signs of the prejudice between whites and black, and it likely explains the sherrif's and other characters' harsh views on blacks as well as Jefferson's reason for conviction.
-BG
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