Sarah Orne Jewett Charles Chesnutt Contributed Local

¶ … Sarah Orne Jewett Charles Chesnutt contributed local color fiction nineteenth century stories respective regions (Jewett writing New England Chesnutt South). ESSAY INSTRUCTIONS: Your essays MLA Style approximately 2-3 pages, including Work(s) Cited page.

Charles W. Chesnutt is one of the most representative African-American individuals in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. He addressed topics related to race in an environment that was hostile toward such thinking and even though he risked greatly as a result of putting his thoughts in writing, he managed to provide the whole world with information concerning how African-Americans were actually able to maintain and promote cultural values. Even with the fact that he adopted an attitude that would prevent the masses from being able to associate his writing with his skin color, he nonetheless played an essential role in promoting African-American cultural values.

The fact that Chesnutt used a realistic approach at discussing issues related to African-American culture made it possible for his writings to be appreciated by society as a whole, not just by African-Americans. "The Goophered Grapevine" is probably one of his most significant short stories depicting the old South from the point-of-view of an individual who experienced slavery from a first-person perspective.

Uncle Julius, the main character in "The Goophered Grapevine," is a stereotypical African-American individual who seems to be superstitious and who generally appears to have a poor understanding of how the world works. The short story puts across concepts related to both humor and irony as Uncle Julius tells the story concerning the cursed grapevine. Even with the fact that he has a lot of features characteristic to nineteenth century African-Americans, Uncle Julius is an unique character. Instead of recounting plantations stories with the purpose of putting across nostalgia (as most readers might imagine he would), he is actually concerned about manipulating the Yankee wanting to buy the grapevine in order to prevent him from starting a competition with his personal moonshine business.

"The Goophered Grapevine" has two purposes when considering the concept of local color. Firstly, it provides readers with the opportunity to learn more concerning farming in the South in the post-war years. Secondly, it introduces readers into a magical world represented by Uncle Julius's memory and imagination, taking into account that the character seems to use both of these ideas in an attempt to devise a story that would manipulate listeners.

The Old South is shown as a strange environment as Chesnutt goes deeper and deeper in an attempt to provide information concerning it. While Uncle Julius's imagination is impressive, his memory is actually disturbing when considering that it is very probable that someone like him is likely to have lived through many of the stories that he relates to.

Chesnutt did not only play an important role in providing information concerning the Old South, as he also made it possible for his readers to learn more concerning the post-war South. "Thus Chesnutt adhered faithfully to his responsibility as transcriber of sandhills local color, even to the event of ostensibly pandering to the popular notion of an accommodating, reconstructed New South" (Andrews 44).