SOURCE: Knott, Toni D. “Playing in the Light: Examining Categorization in To Have and Have Not as a Reflection of Identity or Racism.” North Dakota Quarterly 64, no. 3 (1997): 82-8.

In the following essay, Knott addresses the charge made by Toni Morrison and other critics that Hemingway displays racist tendencies in To Have and Have Not, asserting that these critics fail to perceive irony in Hemingway's treatment of the subject.

Tribe, race, clan, family; deep within us all are the seeds of hate for what is different. We do not have to be taught these things. We have to be taught not to give in to them! They are in our blood; but in our minds is the charity and the love to overcome them.

—Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire

Conch town, where all was starched, well-shuttered, virtue, failure, grits and boiled grunts, under-nourishment, prejudice, righteousness, interbreeding and the...