The Right Man and the Wrong Man: Similarities with a Difference in Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The ironic juxtapositions of similar scenes and characters in The Marrow of Tradition show that people in comparable life situations will experience different outcomes depending on their race. For example, whether a person is Black or White determines the consequences that ensue if that person resorts to violence, even if it can be justified as self-defense. This novel, by Charles W. Chesnutt, is based on the political insurrection of 1898 in which White supremacists overthrew the municipal government of Wilmington, North Carolina. The workings of the plot suggest an endorsement of the viewpoint of Josh Green, a Black dock worker who believes in the need for retaliatory violence. Green's position is contrasted with, and in novelistic terms gets the better of, the pacifist and more intellectual view of William Miller, the town's prominent Black doctor. Though less explicitly so, Green's and Miller's views may also be interpreted as representative of a contest between the merits of race consciousness and assimilation, respectively. In his essays, Chesnutt speaks clearly in favor of "sameness" and color-blindness as a principle, so he is closer to Miller on this issue. However, in his later literary career and even in certain aspects of this novel, one can see sympathy for characters who define themselves in part by their membership in the Black community.