The Chess Board in Ernest Gaines’ “Of Love and Dust”

Throughout Ernest J. Gaines’ Of Love and Dust (1967), Jim Kelly ruminates about God. Jim has lost his faith, even though he continues to cross himself before bed and say his prayers. One day, he says, he may return. However, during the course of the novel, Jim sees God as nothing more than an apathetic deity who sits up in the heaves ignoring his creation. Out in the fields one day, Jim prays to God to help Marcus and to cool the air down, but Jim thinks, “I’m sure He didn’t hear a word.” Instead of listening to man’s supplications, Jim envisions that “all [God] does is play chess by Himself or sit around playing solitary with old cards.”

God’s apathy towards humankind leaves individuals to fight it out with one another, even though no one ends up winning in the battle. As Jim puts it, “So man has to do it for himself now. No, he’s not going to win, he can’t ever win; but if he struggle hard and long enough he can ease his pains a little.” Even amidst his disavowal of humankind, the image of God sitting in the sky playing games, specifically chess, presents him as a manipulator as well, moving pieces on the board. Chess involves moving pieces on a board in order to corner the other player’s king. God playing alone presents him as apathetic and as if he plays chess in order to pass the time. Jim doesn’t say that God moves individuals around the board…