Analysis Of Sheriff Mapes A Gathering Of Old Men

Just as a book cannot be judged by its cover, Sheriff Mapes, in A Gathering of Old Men, by Ernest J. Gaines, should not just be judged by how he is in the beginning of the novel because he changes his perspectives throughout the book. The story is set in a fictional “Louisiana sugarcane plantation in the 1970s” (back cover) and focuses on the murder of Beau Boutan, a member of a white farming family. Sheriff Mapes, who is white, is set to arrest Mathu, a proud, old, black man, for killing Beau Boutan. Once the gathering of old, black men all claim they shot Beau, Mapes needs to determine the truth. In doing so, Mapes slowly develops over the course of the novel, altering his views and opinions, gestures, and actions toward the black men in the small southern town they share.
While he is not one of the whites who hates black people for no reason, he has learned to beat information out of suspects. Early in the novel when he is beating the old men for not telling him who killed Beau, Lou Dimes, a journalist and boyfriend of Candy Marshall (the plantation owner) thinks, “He did not like what he was doing, but he didn’t know any other way to get what he wanted” (69). However, the beaten men would get right back up and say nothing helpful for Mapes. Ultimately, at the end of the book, when Mapes is arresting the murderer, Charlie, he treats him with respect by calling him “Mr. Biggs” (187) Sheriff Mapes’ gestures turn from violent to