The Sky is Gray and Mr. Parker

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The Sky is Gray and Mr. Parker 

“You are not an adult until you prove it.”  Frank Moore Riley, a philosopher, asserts his theory that one is not considered a mature individual until they personally demonstrate to others that they are one.  In the short stories, The Sky is Gray, by Ernest J. Gaines and Mr. Parker, by Laurie Colwin, two young children are desperately attempting to prove their maturity to society.  In The Sky is Gray, James, a young black boy, tries to convince his mother that his tooth is not bothering him so she will not have to spend money on him when it is already so scarce.  In Mr. Parker, Janie, a young girl, constantly strives to act like an adult and be regarded like one, but her parents always carry the image of a little girl in their minds. Social class and standard affect the coming of age in anyone.  If one is wealthy, he can prove his maturity by buying and using expensive materials.  If one is less economical fortunate, he could show his development through personal independence.  In both The Sky is Gray and Mr. Parker, James’ and Janie’s social classes affect their behavior during their time of adolescence, which directly impacts the pathway each reach to adulthood.                   
             To begin with, the way each character thinks contributes to his/her
development.  When James was young and was told to kill a small bird, he does not follow the command, as he is too afraid to kill such an innocent living creature.
 Only after “Auntie and Monsieur Bayonne talked to me [James] and made me see” (Gaines 327) that if they did not kill the bird the family would have no dinner, James did not become so reluctant and naive.  Now, James never wants to cause trouble, and is always thinking of new methods to help out in his family.  For example, when James’ mother is about to take him to the dentist, he tries to back out of it by saying, “It ain’t hurting me no more, I can eat anything on it” (Gaines 324).  On the other hand, Janie does not try to help out her parents at all.  When her mother suggests that Janie should start taking piano lessons with Mrs. Murchison and not Mr. Parker, she storms angrily out of the room. Later when the subject is brought up again, she “stuck my [Jaine] fork into a potato to keep from crying and muttered melodramatically that I would rather hang myself before I’d go back to Mrs. Murchison” (Colwin 70).  A similarity between these two characters is that they both think that many adults view young teenagers as adolescents who do not know anything about the world.  When James and his mother are waiting for the
dentist to call his name, they meet an elderly woman who expresses her feelings to a young boy, another patient at the dentist office.  The boy does not agree with her ideas, and so she begins to laugh at him and humiliate him.  Likewise, Janie believes that her old piano teacher treats her students like infants. Janie exclaims this because all of
Mrs. Murchison’s students play music from “Little Classics for Children” (Colwin 70).
This book, in Janie’s mind, is a symbol that proves Mrs. Murchison does not believe her pupils are mature enough to play other, more decorated pieces composed by Bach or Beethoven.

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Moreover, James and Janie do not realize that they are indeed adults by being in a different society. They are only considered “grown-ups” by a selected few of their social class.  Since James and his mother do not have enough money to ride a bus home, they decide that walking was the only solution.  Since it was very cold outside, James turns up the collar of his jacket to keep his neck warm. However, when his mom sees what James has done, she scolds, “You not a bum, you a man” (Gaines 348).  If James’ family were wealthier, they would not ...

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