The Marrow of Tradition
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| Author | Charles Chesnutt |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Historical novel |
| Publisher | |
| Released | 1901 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | NA |
The Marrow of Tradition is an historical novel and sometimes called a melodrama by African-American author Charles Chesnutt first published in 1901.
Contents |
[edit] Plot introduction
A fictional retelling of the rise of the white supremacist movement, specifically as it aided the fomentation of what was originally referred to as the “race riots” that took place in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1898. (Critics argue over what would be a more proper term, with some favoring the blunt and descriptive “massacre” while others prefer “coup d'etatde tat,” in reference to the fact that the incident marked the first and only time in the history of the United States that a local government was successfully overthrown by force.)[citation needed]
[edit] Plot summary
The fairly complicated novel follows several small plots in order to paint a portrait of a town that acts as a microcosm of an entire society. The primary plot involves the birth of the first and only child of Olivia Carteret and her husband, Major Carteret. Olivia is a very sickly woman and has been told that this new child, Theodore, will be the only one she will ever be able to have.
Complications come in the form of Olivia’s ostensibly illegitimate half sister, Janet, who was the progeny of Olivia’s father’s longtime love affair with a former slave of his. At the novel’s start, which details the birth of Theodore, it is revealed that Olivia so reviles Janet that the mere sight of her had launched Olivia into premature labor.
An adjacent plot puts at odds two young men who are both vying for the love of Olivia’s niece Clara. The favored suitor is the exceedingly handsome Tom Delamere, grandson of the elder Mr. Delamere, one of the town’s wealthiest landowners. His overwhelmed opponent is Lee Ellis, a studious-but-plain young man who works as an editor at the local newspaper, which is run by the Major.
Tom Delamere is a brutish sort—selfish, violent, and prone to drunkenness and gambling. Ellis, by contrast, is rightfully referred to as being “steady as a watch,” he is honest, hard-working, and one of the novel’s most admirable characters. This rivalry is one of many of the novel’s many contrasting pairs, those that Chesnutt uses to relay his radical social message by assigning commonly recognized positive characteristics to reform-minded characters and commonly recognized negative characteristics to racist characters. Here, Tom is an unrepentant racist while Ellis is reform-minded.
Race comes up, again, as Dr. Miller, a well-respected Black physician (who just so happens to be married to Olivia’s half sister Janet), attempts to gain entry to the Carteret’s home, in accompaniment of a surgeon who has been called for an emergency operation upon little Theodore. The major has Dr. Miller turned away at his door, thus cementing his position as a racist.
Soon afterward, another plot arises, focusing on the “Big Three” (see “Characters” section below) of the town’s white supremacist movement. The triumvirate includes, along with Major Carteret, Captain McBane, and General Belmont. They operate out of Carteret’s newspaper (which also serves as a mouthpiece for the local Democratic Party), and mean to use their control of the town’s local media to stir up anger against the local Black community. Their plan is spread ire in regards to “inflammatory” pieces written in the local black newspaper that discussed the legitimacy of lynchings—their logic being that Blacks have no right to question such firmly-held traditions.
Meanwhile, word starts to get out that
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[edit] Major Characters in "The Marrow of Tradition"
Major Carteret - A gentleman of modest background who came into wealth through marriage. The least virulent of the three main white supremacists in the book, he nonetheless uses his high rank at the town’s local paper to incite violence against the town’s black community.
Olivia Carteret – Wife to the Major, a frail and delicate woman who is as equally racist as her husband and very ashamed of her half-black sister, Janet.
Dr. Miller – One of the town’s most successful African Americans, Miller is a physician of great skill and high esteem (even among the town’s White population). Miller is a reform-minded character, although he goes about reform in a very non-confrontational manner.
Janet Miller –Olivia’s ostensibly illegitimate half sister and wife of Dr. Miller. She bears a striking resemblance to Olivia.
Tom Delamere – A racist young drunkard whose good looks and white skin help him avoid accountability.
Lee Ellis- Tom’s reform-minded planar opposite.
[edit] Major themes
The novel was written in direct refutation of many of sensationalized (and often downright ridiculous) accounts of the “race riot.” These accounts included inaccurate news reports and a series of white supremacist novels (XXX) and films (most notably, Birth of a Nation, by D.W. Griffith). As inaccurate as they may have been, these accounts were the only ones available to northern readers, whose knowledge limited only to what was readily printed.
One of the book’s most interesting themes is that of the rift between the different mindsets of the book’s reform-minded characters. XXX
[edit] Literary significance & criticism
Also of note is the fact that this novel was one of the very first to showcase how a form of mass media—here a newspaper—could be used explicitly as a propaganda tool.[citation needed]
[edit] Allusions/references to actual history and current science
The novel is often thought of as one of the most accurate literary pictures of the post antebellum southern United States ever written.[citation needed]
