Race Relations

The relationship between the races, particularly the Caucasian and “colored” races (to use the word in common usage at the time in which the book is set), is the book’s primary thematic consideration, and plays out in a variety of levels. The most significant of these can be found at the heart of the book’s primary events, characters, and relationships, most of which are motivated, to one degree or another, by the way in which “colored” people are viewed and/or treated by the white-dominated society in which they live – as intellectually, psychologically, emotionally, and culturally inferior. Several characters, primarily those associated with the (ironically named) Whitman family (notice the close connection between Whitman – White Man) struggle desperately to escape this racially-oriented definition of their identity, going to extreme lengths to ensure that they are perceived as being as successful and worthy of...