Treatment of Race: An Analysis of Racial Politics in Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead Anonymous 12th Grade

Marilynne Robinson's epistolary novel Gilead takes place during the Civil Rights Movement when racial issues are at their apex. After realizing that he is dying of a heart condition, the main character John Ames writes an account of his life for his seven-year-old son, but chooses to avoid conversations about race. John spends time pondering over a number of subjects including family conflicts and theology, yet manages to overlook racial politics. Race, however, is still a significant but subtle theme in the novel. Issues of race have been surrounding John’s life from his grandfather's fight for abolitionism to his godson’s marriage with a colored woman. Racial tensions are also an evident issue in John’s hometown of Gilead during the 1950s. Although John does sometimes acknowledge the topic of race, he seems largely apolitical and oblivious.

Early in the novel, John Ames mentions that “at this writing [he] has lived seventy-six years” which establishes the setting of the book as 1956, Gilead, Iowa (Robinson 9). The 1950s have been described by many historians as an era of conflict as the emerging African-American Civil Rights Movement exposed the underlying divisions in American society. Race was a national obsession during...