I believe Chesnutt did the story within the story purely for local color and entertainment. I don't think there is any significance to his story within a story besides this fact. There is a great contrast between the narrator and Uncle Julius in "The Goophered Grapevine." For example, Uncle Julius said, " Dis yer old vimya'd is goophered," while the narrator might say, "How do you know it is bewitched?" This shows a contrast between the two cultures and describes local flavor in South Carolina during the time. I don't believe Julius is "performing" for the white audience, I just believe he is being true to his customs in the South. Chesnutt is depicting traditional norms for Julius and the narrator of the time. I enjoyed the onion aspect of the story within the story. It added depth and and extraordinary detail to paint the perfect picture of the story for the reader. The story would lose its dazle if Julius were to tell the whole story from the get go. It must slowly unveil like a layered onion in order to reach its full flavor.
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I agree with your argument for why Chesnutt told the story within a story and there not being any more to it. I like your point about it showing a contrast between the two cultures. I do, however, think that Julius was performing for the couple and playing in to what he was expected to do. Julius had an ulterior motive, he didn't want them to buy the vineyard. He used his culture to try and scare the couple away from the land. If he had behaved differently do you think the story would have had a chance at convincing the Northerners it was goophered?
ReplyDeleteI like how you paralleled the story in a story being like an onion. While Uncle Julius's story would have been good alone, it is enhanced by the fact that he is telling it to outsiders. Just like most layers of an onion are the same, some layers may have a stronger flavor than other layers, the story parallels this in that there parts of the inner story that match the outer story, but the Uncle Julius's story has a stronger "flavor" in respects to Southern Culture.
ReplyDeletei do think the story depicts the difference in the local color but I also do think they made the narrator white to appeal to the readers at the time. Maybe because african americans were sterotyped to just be performers.
ReplyDeleteIt was difficult to understand sometimes what was trying to be said, it took me a couple of times to get what was trying to portrayed. I think Chesnutt is trying to show barriers that were between White and African-american people at that time because most african-americans were uneducated and used for forced labor or entertainment. Julius' culture and language was used to turn away any potential buyers of the vineyard.
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