Essay On The Clansman And Chestnutt's Marrow Of Tradition

Authors are not psychologist, but they have a proclivity for ascribing psychology onto their characters. Both Thomas Dixon’s The Clansman and Charles Chestnutt’s Marrow of Tradition, represent the White race in America as apprehensive to the new freedoms prescribed to Blacks. In the minds of this White demographic, as portrayed by both authors, Blacks are brutes who threaten the structure of society; they disrupt court rooms, threaten white womanhood, tote guns, etc. As a result of these grievances, segregation appears to be an apt solution by which to contain this destructive and malicious group of freedmen. In the minds of this White demographic. The rise of the Ku Klux Klan and the riot led by Captain McBane, are both executions of segregation by the White populace. This same White populace which espouses segregation and dreads politically potent Black Americans while wielding pitchforks, guns, and white sheets, also …show more content…
This time, however, Whites are the subject. The key moment of this quotation is the end where Dixon describes this anarchy as an “animal instinct” which is fascinating considering this comment is made in regards to rioting White characters when Black characters are often given animal-like descriptions to insinuate bestiality. Therefore, Dixon (unintentionally) decries the White populace in his novel’s advocacy for segregation, based on the deterioration of government which will be inevitable under negro rule, because the same White populace assassinates their elected official and devolves into a mob that challenges the existence of order! The character, Ben, merely being part of the Confederacy represents political dissonance that threatens the harmony between the North and the South. Ben is cast as the hero of The Clansman. So isn’t it absurd for the White populace in this novel to fear Black people for the very same reason they praise the White