Charles W. Chesnutt wrote many of his stories for the moral
development of the white race, and his new novel The Marrow of Tradition builds on his effort to change tradition.
He states, "The title of the book fairly embodies the theme, which is an attempt to picture through the medium of dramatic
narrative, the atmosphere in which these problems must be worked out - an atmosphere of which the dominant note is Tradition"
(Own, 169). Tradition made the white population masters of the black race. The whites absorbed all the power and
the wealth over those who did not have the same opportunity to acquire it. Tradition also made the black population
inferior and of the lowest social status. The African American existed by favor of his white superiors rather than right.
The Marrow of Tradition addresses the issues of tradition according to race.
Society teaches us that these traditions have diminished,
but Chesnutt argues there is still a conscious existence of two different races. He states, "The Marrow of Tradition
seeks to show the efforts of the people of a later generation to adjust themselves in this traditional atmosphere to the altered
conditions of a new era" (Own, 169). Chesnutt maintains that society today should take a vital interest in the upward
struggle of the black race and the settlement of the race problem.
Chesnutt describes the storyline in a nutshell, emphasizing
the strong connections between the black and white races. He states, "It has several threads of interest, the chief
incidents being concerned with the fate of the child of a proud old family related by an unacknowledged tie to the family
of a colored doctor. The father of the child leads a reactionary political movement against the Negro, while the doctor
is at the head of an enterprise for the education and uplifting of his people. There is a crime, followed by a threatened
lynching. There is an episode of injury and revenge, another of wrong and forgiveness" (Own, 169). It is important
to the upward mobility of the black race to show the strong relations between the black and white characters while including
unlikely characters, such as the typical old "mammy," to show the difference between real and fictional African Americans.
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