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Chesnutt, 2002: 228. He believes that Carteret can save him from the riot. However, later he finds out that the white people do not listen to his shout and that they shoot
him to death. Jerry is a black man who always wants to delight white people. It is revealed
when General Belmont finds out that Jerry uses some cosmetics to lighten his skin and to straighten his hair. The general says that the cosmetics are “rank poison” and
that he “can see the signs of decay” in Jerry’s face. He also says that Jerry’s hair “will all fall out in a week or two at the latest” Chesnutt, 2002: 194. Jerry knows that “the
general was making fun of him; but he also knew that the general would like to think that Jerry believed him in earnest; and to please the white folks was Jerry’s consistent
aim in life” Chesnutt, 2002: 194. Because of that, Jerry decides to wash “his head thoroughly and there remained no trace of the pomade.” He also tries to “darken the
lighter spots in his cuticle by the application of printer’s ink” Chesnutt, 2002: 195. That he washes his head and darkens his cuticle to remove the cosmetics shows that
he wants to delight white people. It is because he actually does not believe that the cosmetic will decrease the quality of his hair and skin but he removes it in order that
white people think that he believes them. Therefore, he removes the cosmetic only to delight white people.
4. The Description of Dr. Miller
William Miller or Dr. Miller is a Mulatto. That Dr. Miller is a Mulatto is revealed when he meets Dr. Burns on a train:
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Looking at these two men with the American eye, the differences would perhaps be the more striking, or at least the more immediately apparent, for
the first was white and the second black, or, more correctly speaking, brown; it was even a light brown, but both his swarthy complexion and his curly hair
revealed what has been described in the laws of some of our states as a “visible admixture” of African blood Chesnutt, 2002: 74.
Therefore, Dr. Miller is a Mulatto who has light-brown skin and curly hair. The following quotation describes Dr. Miller further:
Having disposed of this difference, and having observed that the white man was perhaps fifty years of age and the other not more than thirty, it may be
said that they were both tall and sturdy, both well dressed, the white man with perhaps a little more distinction; both seemed from their faces and their
manners to be men of culture and accustomed to the society of cultivated people. They were both handsome men… Chesnutt, 2002: 74.
Therefore, Dr. Miller is thirty years old, tall, sturdy, well dressed, handsome, and is “accustomed to the society of cultivated people.”
Dr. Miller was a smart student. It is revealed in the following quotation: Dr. Alvin Burns was professor in the famous medical college where Miller
had attended lectures. The professor had taken interest in his only colored pupil, to whom he had been attracted by his earnestness of purpose, his
evident talent, and his excellent manners and fine physique Chesnutt, 2002: 75.
The above quotation tells that Dr. Miller was Dr. Burns’ only colored student who was smart and who has “excellent manners and fine physique.”
The following quotation describes who Dr. Miller’s father and grandfather are:
Miller’s father, Adam Miller, had been a thrifty colored man, the son of the slave, who, in the olden time, had bought himself with money which he had
earned and saved, over and above what he had paid his master for his time. Adam Miller had inherited his father’s thrift, as well as his trade, which was
that of a stevedore, or contractor for the loading and unloading of vessels at
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the port of Wellington. In the flush turpentine days following a few years after the civil war, he had made money. His savings, shrewdly invested, had by
constant accessions become a competence. He had brought up his eldest son to the trade; the other he had given a professional education… Chesnutt,
2002: 75.
The quotation tells that Dr. Miller’s grandfather was a slave who could buy his freedom from his master. Like Dr. Miller’s grandfather, his father, Adam Miller, was
a stevedore. The quotation also tells that Adam Miller gave Dr. Miller “a professional education.”
Dr. Miller has a hospital: “He had promptly spent part of his inheritance in founding a hospital, to which was to be added a training school for nurses, and in
time perhaps a medical college and a school of pharmacy” Chesnutt, 2002: 75. Therefore, Dr. Miller has a hospital that also functions as a training school for nurses.
Dr. Miller wants to help to improve social welfare of black people. It is revealed in the following quotation:
He had been strongly tempted to leave the South, and seek a home for his family and a career for himself in the freer North, where race antagonism was
les keen, or at least less oppressive, or in Europe, where he had never found his color work to his disadvantage. But his people had needed him, and he had
wished to help them, and had sought by means of this institution to contribute to their uplifting Chesnutt, 2002: 75.
The quotation shows that Dr. Miller wants to leave the South because of the racial discrimination, but he remains there because he wants to help to improve social
welfare of black people by founding a hospital that also trains nurses. Dr. Miller dislikes white people because they consider black people unequal
to them: “White people do not object to the negro as a servant. As the traditional
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negro, — the servant, — he is welcomed; as an equal, he is repudiated” Chesnutt, 2002: 81. Therefore, Dr. Miller dislikes white people because they welcome black
people as servants but object Blacks as social equals. Dr. Miller believes that the race antagonism is a temporary thing:
He liked to believe that the race antagonism which hampered his progress and that of his people was a mere temporary thing, the outcome of former
conditions, and bound to disappear in time, and that when a colored man should demonstrate to the community in which he lived that he possessed
character and power, that community would find a way in which to enlist his services for the public good Chesnutt, 2002: 85.
Thus, Dr. Miller believes that the race antagonism is a temporary thing and will disappear someday. He also believes that if a colored man can show that he has
“character and power,” the community in which he lives will ask for “his services.” Dr. Miller hates the fact that there are many white people who treat black
servants as their properties: “There was many a one who protected or pampered his negroes, as the case might be, just as a man fondles his dog, — because they were
his; they were a part of his estate, an integral part of the entity of property” Chesnutt, 2002: 214. Therefore, Dr. Miller hates the fact that many white people treat black
people as their properties instead of humans like them. Dr. Miller loves his wife and child very much. It is revealed when he arrives at
his hometown after visiting another city and “Miller’s wife and child were waiting for him in fluttering anticipation”: “He kissed them both as he climbed into the buggy.
Miller felt very much elated as he drove homeward through the twilight. By his side sat the two persons whom he loved best in all the world” Chesnutt, 2002: 84. Thus,
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Dr. Miller loves his wife and child very much and considers them as people “whom he loved best” in the world.
That Dr. Miller loves his wife and child very much can also be seen when his child dies and his wife kneels beside his child crying. At the same time, Olivia
Carteret begs Dr. Miller to save her child. Dr. Miller says to her: Madam, my heart is broken. My people lie dead upon the streets, at the hands
of yours. The work of my life is in ashes, — and, yonder, stretched out in death, lies my own child God Woman, you ask too much of human nature
Love, duty, sorrow, justice, call me here. I cannot go” Chesnutt, 2002: 243.
The quotation tells the reason why he cannot go to save Olivia’s child is because his own child dies and his wife is overcome with grief. He loves both his child and wife
and “it is not safe to leave her unattended” Chesnutt, 2002: 241 so he cannot go to save Olivia’s child.
B. Racism Experienced by the Characters in The Marrow of Tradition
