Saturday, August 3, 2019
Charles W. Chestnutts The Marrow of Tradition Essay examples -- Chest
Charles W. Chestnutt's The Marrow of Tradition       Clearly, one can expect differing critical views of a novel; from the      author's perspective we see one view, from a publisher's another, and from      the reviewer's yet another. This is especially true of Charles W.      Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition. If one observes both the contemporary      reviews of the novel and letters exchanged between Chesnutt and his      friends and publisher, Houghton, Mifflin, and Co., one will see the      disparity in opinions regarding the work. Chesnutt himself felt the work      was of at least good quality, and remarked often of its significant      purpose in letters to Booker T. Washington, Houghton, Mifflin, Isaiah B.      Scott, and William H. Moody. Reviewers, too, were able to see the      "purpose" of the novel as a significant one as evidenced by reviews in      Chautauquan, the New York Times, The Literary World, Nation, and New York      Age.       However, most reviews, even those which pointed out the important theme of      the novel, suggested that it was not a well written one, often seeming      overly dramatic and too fictionalized. Even Chesnutt's friend, W.D.      Howells, was quick to attack the quality of the novel. And, as one might      expect, a few reviews (especially those of a Southern origin) were nothing      but negative. Examples of these are the Atlanta Journal, Bookman, and the      Independent. Particularly scathing is that of the Independent, a magazine      which was considered friendly to the cause of Black rights. In a series of      lette... ...things through a glass darkly, but we can      perhaps by constant iteration gradually help to undeceive them. I have      made an effort in this direction through my latest novel, The Marrow of      Tradition." And if the novel did not become the successor to Uncle Tom's      Cabin, as Chesnutt hoped, at least, in inflaming the critical community,      he achieved what he had desired: "to create sympathy throughout our      country for our cause. [...] I know I am on the weaker side in point of      popular sympathy, but I am on the stronger side in point of justice and      morality, and if I can but command the skill and the power to compel      attention, I think I will win out in the long, so far as I am personally      concerned, and will help the cause, which is vastly more important." Â
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