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.…