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CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
In this subchapter, the writer reviews three studies. Two of them analyze The Marrow of Tradition like this study does while one of them analyzes the
similar topic to that of this study that is racism. The first study titled Why Whites
Riot: The Race Riot Narrative and Demonstrations of Nineteenth Century Black Citizenship was conducted by Ebone McFarland. The second study titled Black
Benefactors and White Recipients: Counternarratives of Benevolence in Nineteenth-Century American Literature was conducted by Marie L. Troppe. The
last study titled Racism and Women’s Liberation in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin
in the Sun was conducted by Andreanus Radhityo Cahyo Utomo. In his graduate thesis
Why Whites Riot: The Race Riot Narrative and Demonstrations of Nineteenth Century Black Citizenship, McFarland argues that
the author of The Marrow of Tradition, Chesnutt, “revises Southern custom”:
Through the Miller family, Chesnutt revises Southern custom. In white Southern memory, blacks are traditionally characterized as lacking
economic, social, and political power. Chesnutt presents the Millers as occupying a black middle class position, challenging the assumption that
there is a natural link between privilege and whiteness 2011: 57.
The above quotation tells that by presenting the Miller family who are black middle class citizens, Chesnutt wants to show that unlike what white Southerners
think, Blacks are not always poor. In
her dissertation
Black Benefactors
and White
Recipients: Counternarratives of Benevolence in Nineteenth-Century American Literature,
Marie L. Troppe argues that Chesnutt wants to highlight the importance of black newspapers:
The character of Carteret overlooks the achievement of the black newspaper in Wellington because of its small size, the poor quality of the
paper upon which it is printed and its preponderance of advertisements. Having thrown the newspaper there earlier in the day “without looking at
it,” Carteret retrieves from the wastebasket an “eighteen by twenty-four sheet, poorly printed on cheap paper” and mocks it as “an elegant
specimen of journalism.” Chesnutt metaphorically retrieves what Carteret considers trash, imbuing it with redeeming value, observing that “it was
not an impressive sheet in any respect, except when regarded as the first local effort of a struggling people to make public expression of their life
and aspirations” as written by a “class to whom, a generation before, newspapers, books, and learning had been forbidden fruit.” By adding this
context through the narrator, Chesnutt expands the criteria by which to judge the black newspaper from mere appearance to what it represents—a
community speaking with a collective voice, having overcome a lack of educational opportunity, and with the capacity to create a community asset
on their own, without white supervision or philanthropy 2012: 156.
Therefore, Chesnutt wants to highlight the importance of black newspaper
because it represents the progress of the black people—having a newspaper to
express their opinions and aspirations without the help of white people. Andreanus Radhityo Cahyo Utomo in his thesis
Racism and Women’s Liberation in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun critiques the topic of
racism: “Mama migrated to Chicago from the South because of racial discrimination against blacks at that time. Many blacks are lynched without a
lawful trial. Without an obvious reason and enough proof, black people are hanged by whites” 2003: 35. Racial discrimination is seen in the novel when one
of the characters, Mama, is afraid that she will be lynched by whites so she moves from the South to Chicago. She is afraid because many Blacks are lynched
“without an obvious reason and enough proof.” They are lynched just because
they are black. The novel shows that racial discrimination can be in the form of murder.
This study has one similarity to the two previous studies. It analyzes Chesnutt’s
The Marrow of Tradition like they do. However, this study is different from the two previous studies because it only analyzes Chesnutt’s
The Marrow of Tradition while they analyze some novels and The Marrow of Tradition is only
one of them. Moreover, this study analyzes a different topic from that of the two previous studies. It analyzes racism experienced by the Blacks and Mulattoes in
the late nineteenth century United States of America in Chesnutt’s The Marrow of
Tradition while the two previous studies analyze the race riot narrative and demonstrations of nineteenth century black citizenship and counternarratives of
benevolence in nineteenth-century American literature respectively. This study analyzes a similar topic to that of the third previous study that is racism. However,
this study analyzes a different novel from that of the third previous study. It analyzes Chesnutt’s
The Marrow of Tradition while the third previous study analyzes Lorraine Hansberry’s
A Raisin in the Sun.
B. Review of Related Theories