40 pages 1 hour read

Charles W. Chesnutt

The Marrow of Tradition

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1901

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Themes

The “Poetry” of Racism vs. the Reality of Racism

Many of the white characters in this novel are biased against their black neighbors, but their bias takes different forms. Major Carteret and Belmont in particular believe that their racism is both gentlemanly and poetic: their goal is to uplift their race and reestablish a natural, harmonic order. When they want to overthrow the democratically elected government and its black representatives, they thus must be careful: they do not want to be perceived as evil, but want to convince other men of the rightness and justness of their cause.

McBane, by contrast, is more to the point: he openly states that it is his goal to keep black men down because it serves his own desires and interests, and he is willing to achieve them by any means necessary, including lynching and murder. He repeatedly accuses Major Carteret and Belmont of hypocrisy: why pretend there is something beautiful about their enterprise when its goal is simply the subjugation of one race?

The aristocratically-born Southerners are more concerned with the outer appearance of their actions than with dissecting their true intent. They find McBane’s remarks distasteful, and loathe working with him. However, they do have to work with him, as their “poetic” cause can only be supported through violence, bloodshed, and the mobilization of hatred.