Charles W Chesnutt Essay Research Paper Charles

known book "The Conjure Woman" which is a retelling of seven

African-American slave folk tales from the cape fear region of

North Carolina. Chesnutt?s use of irony and humors in his works

prevented the alienation of white readers.

The success of "The Conjure Woman" brought much attention and

praise to Chesnutt who accepted harsher criticism on his other works,

because many reviewers were bothered by Chesnutt’s excessive

concentration on issues such as segregation and miscegenation.

"Impossibilities are merely things of which we have not learned, or

which we do not wish to happen."(1) In March of 1900, Houghton Mifflin

accepted Chesnutt’s first novel "The House behind the Cedars", for

publication. According to the author, the plot of the novel was simple: it is

“a story of a colored girl who passed for white." The story brings out a

problem that many Chesnutt’s contemporary writers and politicians tried to

cope with – the issue of racial identity. By introducing racially mixed

characters like John and Rena Walden, Chesnutt advocates the right of

mixed races to be accepted on equal terms with whites.

In order to support his family, Chesnutt was forced to reopen his court

reporting business which he closed in 1899. Chesnutt shifted his

literary concentration towards essays and short articles regarding racial

issues. He also experimented in writing entertaining, non-controversial

novels about the high society of the North. The result was “Baxter’s

Procrustes,” his last novel to be published in the Atlantic.

When Chesnutt finally completed a new novel about racial issues, The

Colonel’s Dream, Houghton Mifflin didn’t accept it with previous

enthusiasm, and requested much revision and development from the author.

After the book was published, critics evaluated it poorly, and declared the

novel full of pessimistic mood and unpleasant for reading. The Colonel’s

Dream gave Chesnutt a final hint that the interest of public didn’t coincide

with his own, and in order to sell, he had to turn to other forms of literature. In 1906, Chesnutt wrote a play in four acts, “Mrs. Darcy’s Daughter,” but again failed to find a producer to make it a financial success.

During his own lifetime, Charles Waddell Chesnutt was recognized as

a pioneer in treating racial themes. Throughout the years he was writing and

publishing, he continued to operate a successful business and to participate

in programs dedicated to social justice. In 1928, he was awarded the

Spingarn Medal for "pioneer work as a literary artist depicting the life and

struggles of Americans of Negro descent, and for his long and useful career

as scholar, worker and freeman." The Fayetteville State University Library

is named for Chesnutt; a State Highway Historical Marker marks where he

taught in Fayetteville, North Carolina; and in Cleveland, Ohio, a street and a

school are named for him.