Change and Transformation

The overarching theme in this story is change and transformation. In physical terms, there is motion from one pole to its opposite: from warm, to cold, to warm again; from beyond the outskirts of Bayonne to the city and back again; from the doctor's office to the street, and to the office again, and so on. From a larger, more global viewpoint, these motions support and underscore James's own transformation. James, who begins the story as a boy more conscious of his feelings and inner life than of the world in which he lives, moves far along the path toward understanding the moral complexity of adulthood and of being "a man" in the course of the single day.

Civil Rights

Though the events in this story take place well before what is commonly called the Civil Rights era, one cannot read "The Sky is Gray" without...