Characterization of Sympathy Janelle Maya Askew College

In The Marrow of Tradition, Charles Chesnutt clearly depicts the white journalist at fault for causing the spark of anger which set the black community to react in violence. Chesnutt makes it clear the sympathy lies with the black community. The way in which an author uses characterization in any literary work influences the portrayal of both the characters and the events within the novel. The difference between each character and the method with which they are presented can directly influence the reader's perspective on the events and dialogue occurring between each of the characters. Chestnutt uses various personality types to demonstrate how the white community created an environment in which black people would need sympathy and the justification of sympathy as a whole.

Being one of the first characters introduced in the novel character, Major Philip Carteret, editor of The Morning Chronicle newspaper, emerges as the unfiltered white supremacist who, along with General Belmont and Captain McBane, seeks to overthrow "Negro domination," setting in motion those events that create the murderous “revolution.”(Chestnutt, 60) Various lines throughout the novel show such a closed-minded character that Carteret gains sympathy through...