Discussion 2
Victor Effendi
Prof. Ards
ENGL 3362-001
September 15, 2014
Blackboard Response #2 Chesnutt began writing his stories after the popularity that Joel Chandler Harris received through his local-color literature stories of “Uncle Remus”. “The Goophered Grapevine” and “The Passing of Grandison” depicted how dialect speech was an integral part to the stories that were introduced to the readers. Both stories also are frame stories, a literary technique used by Chesnutt in which each story consists of a story within a story. Each frame story has an event that cause the main character of the story to take an action. In “The Passing of Grandison”, Dick made his mind up to free a slave owned by his family due to his desire to impress the girl that he loved. Stereotypes were also a big factor in Chesnutt’s stories. African Americans were still viewed as uneducated and unworthy to be in the same status like the white people. Women were regarded as weak, dependent, emotional, but at the same time they were pure and faithful as well. These were apparent in both stories and “The Wife of His Youth” too. The usage of irony is something that the readers can see a lot in the stories written by Chesnutt. In “The Passing of Grandison”, the master was adamant that Grandison would not run away from slavery when he was brought to other cities by his master’s son, Dick. He believed that Grandison was content and satisfied enough with his current state of his life that it would be impossible for him to flee. And Grandison exactly fulfilled the expectation of his master by being a faithful master, although he was given plenty of chances to run by Dick who desperately wanted him to be freed for the sake of impressing a girl that he was in love with. The readers probably though that it was the end of the story. However, an unexpected turn took place as soon as he got back to the plantation. Grandison took the perfect opportunity for him and his family to run away from the bondage of
Prof. Ards
ENGL 3362-001
September 15, 2014
Blackboard Response #2 Chesnutt began writing his stories after the popularity that Joel Chandler Harris received through his local-color literature stories of “Uncle Remus”. “The Goophered Grapevine” and “The Passing of Grandison” depicted how dialect speech was an integral part to the stories that were introduced to the readers. Both stories also are frame stories, a literary technique used by Chesnutt in which each story consists of a story within a story. Each frame story has an event that cause the main character of the story to take an action. In “The Passing of Grandison”, Dick made his mind up to free a slave owned by his family due to his desire to impress the girl that he loved. Stereotypes were also a big factor in Chesnutt’s stories. African Americans were still viewed as uneducated and unworthy to be in the same status like the white people. Women were regarded as weak, dependent, emotional, but at the same time they were pure and faithful as well. These were apparent in both stories and “The Wife of His Youth” too. The usage of irony is something that the readers can see a lot in the stories written by Chesnutt. In “The Passing of Grandison”, the master was adamant that Grandison would not run away from slavery when he was brought to other cities by his master’s son, Dick. He believed that Grandison was content and satisfied enough with his current state of his life that it would be impossible for him to flee. And Grandison exactly fulfilled the expectation of his master by being a faithful master, although he was given plenty of chances to run by Dick who desperately wanted him to be freed for the sake of impressing a girl that he was in love with. The readers probably though that it was the end of the story. However, an unexpected turn took place as soon as he got back to the plantation. Grandison took the perfect opportunity for him and his family to run away from the bondage of