Deconstruction of Black Generalization in Charles W. Chesnutt's The Conjure Woman Anonymous College

In order to rationalize the south’s peculiar institution of slavery, the southern plantation novel surfaced. It idealized the plantation lifestyle by creating and romanticizing characters that otherwise would be viewed upon as evil by blacks—the oppressed. Life was portrayed as easy and carefree by the staple icon, the plantation owner or planter—faithfully called a “Southern gentleman.” In expressing the general view of the white middle class, southern plantation novel authors created a proslavery agenda that defended the institution of slavery. A defense of the southern way of life attempted to shift the view of slavery from evil to good until Charles W. Chesnutt came along. Little did the avid white readers know that Chesnutt would disrupt the positive image that the south received thus dismantling notions of the African-American community as a whole by writing a series of folk-tales.

Folk-tales and myths are arguably one of the most widely effectives pieces of fiction that can alter the view of the reader. Chesnutt took advantage of this genre and employed its characteristics to speak to his white audience. Often passed down from generation to generation, folk-tales remain concrete but descriptive in their telling and...