A Gathering of Old Men

The integration of the white and black races is the most remarkable event of the second half of this century, surpassed only by two world wars in its significance. A Gathering of Old Men is a remarkable mystery about a young white woman and seventeen old black men in an isolated Louisiana township, each of whom confess to the murder of a brutal Cajun farmer. The simple symbols used in A Gathering of Old Men …

…old men of Marshall are finally able to come to grips with progression and development. The dangers caused by the Cajun farmers’ changes are symbolically killed with the deaths of Luke, Will and Beau. There is a growing amount of peace at the end of the book with the old men. The old men come together to continue their past, proving that the benefits of the old way of life are able to shine through.