“The Sky is Gray” refers to the literal winter scene in which the story takes place. It also refers to the complexity of the time in which James’s character lives—the mid- to late-1950s or early-1960s—and how previous values will no longer hold as the South shifts toward modernity.

James and his family are sharecroppers on a cotton plantation, which places them within the traditions of the Old South. Though slavery ended in 1863 throughout most of the South, planters continued to rely on cheap Black labor. Due to the de jure discrimination of Jim Crow, Black laborers had little recourse against their employers and could not fight back against unfair wages or overwork. Thus, James, Octavia, Ty, Auntie, and the others with whom they live and work find themselves within an endless cycle of poverty.

Race and poverty are the two conditions that determine life for James and his family—a fact that Gaines establishes within the story’s first pages. The social realities of race and White supremacy determine the poverty in which the main characters live and create the conflicts with which they must contend. James has a bad tooth because he eats syrup with his bread every morning for breakfast.