Despite the ferocious anti-racism of his early works, Himes is best known and appreciated for his detective stories. Whereas these were very successful especially in Europe, the bitterness of his first books did not find approval at first. His short stories, however, were popular enough to sell mostly to black newspapers and magazines but also to Esquire. The stories treated in this paper were published posthumously in the anthology The Collected Stories of Chester Himes. These short stories, written between 1933 and 1978, deal with themes ranging from women and poverty to life in prison, war, and, above all, racism. Some of them could be considered semi-autobiographical. They are Himes’ way of dealing with his situation as a black American in a white segregationist society and reflect his anger and hopelessness.
This paper will concentrate on two short stories treating the subject of racism against African Americans which is omnipresent in Himes’ works. Whereas in “All God’s Chillun Got Pride” Himes emphasizes that the inferiority of blacks is not a natural phenomenon but a tradition forcibly imposed on them by the whites, “Rufus Jones” is a bitter-sweet humorous attempt to unveil the absurdity of racial stereotypes. To understand the bitterness and cynicism of Himes’ short stories it is necessary both to recall the historical developments that influenced them and to look at the author’s biography. Therefore, I will first introduce a short historical and biographical overview, to then focus on the selected short stories and finally sum up the outcome.
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
2 Struggling for an Identity: The Situation of African Americans From the Beginning of the 20th Century to the Era of the Civil Rights Movement
2.1. From the Beginning of the Century to World War I
2.2. The Post War Period
2.3. Harlem Renaissance and the Great Depression
2.4. Desegregation and the Civil Rights Movement
3 Learning What it Means to Be Black: Biographical Overview of Himes’ Life
4 Writing About the Difference: Two Short Stories
4.1. Accusing the Difference: “All God’s Chillun Got Pride”
4.2. Mocking the Difference: “The Ghost of Rufus Jones”
5 Conclusion
6 Works Cited
Objectives and Topics
This academic paper examines the representation of the racial struggle between black and white Americans in selected short stories by Chester Himes. It explores how Himes translates his personal experiences of racism and the broader historical context of the 20th century into literary narratives that address identity, internal conflict, and the absurdity of prejudice.
- The historical and social evolution of the African American experience in the 20th century.
- A biographical analysis of Chester Himes and its influence on his literary work.
- The intersection of personal trauma, racial segregation, and the concept of "double consciousness."
- A comparative literary study of "All God’s Chillun Got Pride" and "The Ghost of Rufus Jones."
- The thematic shift from overt racial suffering to the "Literature of Inversion."
Excerpt from the Book
Accusing the Difference: “All God’s Chillun Got Pride”
Himes uses the persona, Keith Richards, to paint a very graphical picture of what W.E.B. DuBois calls ‘double consciousness’ which Devon Boan interprets as “the destructive component of internalized inferiority and personal debasement.” Keith Richards stands for the average African American to whom racism is not just social rejection but also the frustration, anger and, above all, self-consciousness resulting from it. This short story is a rather subtle attempt to deal with a subject that Himes will later (in 1948) confront in a much harsher way in his speech “Dilemma of the Negro Novelist in the United States”:
To the Negro writer who would plumb the depth of the Negro personality, there is no question of whether Negroes hate white people – but how does this hatred affect the Negro’s personality? How much of himself is destroyed by this necessity to hate those who oppress him? Certainly hate is a destructive emotion. In case of the Negro, hate is doubly destructive. The American Negro experiences two forms of hate. He hates first his oppressor, and then because he lives in constant fear of this hatred being discovered, he hates himself – because of this fear.
Keith Richards wants to be proud of his ‘blackness’ in front of the white people he despises but feels too afraid to do so. He is afraid “that he might take a drink of Scotch some day and it would go to his head and make ‘that nigger crazy’ and he would pull Mr John Sutter Smythe out from under the table and asks him, ‘Look, Mr Smythe, just what makes you think you are so superior to me?’.” Sadly, when Richards’ pride finally wins, he loses control over himself. He might be wearing “the proud uniform of a soldier in the Army of the United States” but now it is this newly won pride that stands in the way and eventually gets him arrested.
Summary of Chapters
1 Introduction: This chapter contextualizes the racial struggle in U.S. literature and introduces Chester Himes as a significant, though often misunderstood, author whose short stories reflect his personal experience with systemic racism.
2 Struggling for an Identity: The Situation of African Americans From the Beginning of the 20th Century to the Era of the Civil Rights Movement: This section provides a historical overview of the socio-political challenges faced by African Americans, from the post-Civil War era through the Civil Rights Movement, highlighting the systemic obstacles and resistance movements.
3 Learning What it Means to Be Black: Biographical Overview of Himes’ Life: This chapter details Himes' personal history, focusing on key traumatic events, such as his brother's accident and his own experiences with segregation, that shaped his perspective on race and fueled his writing.
4 Writing About the Difference: Two Short Stories: This core chapter analyzes two specific short stories, discussing how Himes uses narrative personas and irony to critique racial indoctrination and the psychological burden of being black in a white-dominated society.
5 Conclusion: The final chapter summarizes the findings, arguing that Himes' work portrays racism as an absurd and destructive force, and notes the author’s ultimate transition toward a more cynical view of racial reconciliation.
6 Works Cited: A comprehensive bibliography listing all primary and secondary sources used for the analysis.
Keywords
Chester Himes, African American, Racism, Racial struggle, Double consciousness, Identity, Segregation, Civil Rights Movement, Literature of Inversion, Keith Richards, Rufus Jones, Short stories, Biography, Internalized inferiority, Absurdity.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this academic work?
The paper examines how Chester Himes represents the racial struggle of African Americans in his short stories and how these narratives reflect his own life experiences and the historical climate of the 20th century.
Which central themes are explored in the selected short stories?
The stories explore themes such as the arbitrary nature of racism, the psychological consequences of "double consciousness," internal barriers, and the use of stereotypes in defining racial dynamics.
What is the core research objective of this analysis?
The objective is to analyze how Himes uses literary personas to process and express the trauma, frustration, and anger caused by institutionalized racism in the United States.
Which methodology is applied to this study?
The work employs a biographical and historical approach, linking the author's personal life and the socio-political developments of the 20th century to the thematic content of his fictional short stories.
What does the main body of the text cover?
It covers the historical background of African American social struggles, a detailed biographical account of Himes, and a comparative literary analysis of "All God’s Chillun Got Pride" and "The Ghost of Rufus Jones."
Which keywords define this academic work?
Key terms include Chester Himes, African American, Racism, Double consciousness, Identity, Segregation, Civil Rights Movement, and Literature of Inversion.
How does Himes use the character Keith Richards to illustrate his arguments?
Richards acts as a semi-autobiographical persona who embodies the frustration and self-consciousness of an African American man struggling against the societal rejection he faces in his daily life.
What is the "Literature of Inversion" as described in the context of "The Ghost of Rufus Jones"?
It refers to a narrative style where the racial power dynamic is reversed, portraying whites as irrational, narrow-minded, and "inferior" to the more perceptive black protagonists, thereby ridiculing the fear of racial integration.
How did Himes' personal trauma influence his depiction of racism?
Himes’ experiences—such as his family's struggles with segregation and his own encounters with systemic injustice—directly fed into his portrayal of racism as a deeply destructive, absurd, and demoralizing force in his literature.
- Citar trabajo
- Ana Colton-Sonnenberg (Autor), 2007, Learning the difference between black and white: The racial struggle between black and white Americans as represented in a selection of Chester Himes’ short stories , Múnich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/78384
