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  • Essay / "Analysis of the Death of Grandison

    “The Death of Grandison” is narrated in the third person and is confined primarily to the consciousness of Dick Owens, the cynical and lazy young heir to a large Kentucky plantation. His desire to win the hand of his lover Charity Lomax leads him on a mission to accomplish something of humanitarian significance; given his character and the contradictions of the South, his efforts can only have an ironic result in analyzing the meaning of each character and Chesnutt's work. it can be proven that the true meaning of the story is that some people are not loyal to you, they are loyal to their need for you. Once their needs change, so do their loyalties. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why”. Shouldn't violent video games be banned? Get the original essay about his life Charity Lomax Owens is an "intelligent, handsome, amiable, but extremely indolent" twenty-two-year-old who wanted nothing more in life than to impress his love Charity Lomax for let her marry him. To do this, Dick plans a trip to the North with his faithful servant Tom, which will then be refused by the Colonel, Dick's father. With the Colonel's approval, Dick travels North, but not with the one servant he knew would be good bait, but with a man named Grandison. Although Grandison made it clear that he was not leaving his master's side, declaring "I'm better, suh, than them free and low niggers, suh!". Owens manages to escape the North, leaving Grandison behind. Dick and Charity Lomax are getting married when he returns with the good news, which wasn't too impressive in his eyes. Grandison eventually finds his way home with a haphazard story of his journey home, which reminded me of Dunbar's poem when he declared: "With torn and bleeding hearts we smile." The colonel, stunned by the arrival of his lost slave, rewards Grandison with tobacco and whiskey. Grandison became well known in the small country and gained a seat in the household as his master's right-hand man. Only a few weeks later, Grandison and his entire family had disappeared from the plantation. Throughout the novella, Grandison is portrayed as a faithful and ignorant slave who loves his master and the security and protection he receives on the plantation. Dick achieves his goal by going on an excursion to the North accompanied by an individual slave. At first he chooses a slave who he knows will try to escape when a door is opened. The arrangement is disrupted by Colonel Owens, who demands that he run with Grandison. The colonel is convinced that Grandison is steadfast and abolitionist, that is to say insensitive to individuals who might tempt him to flee. Certainly, the colonel tests Grandison, who assures his master that he recognizes his subordination, mocks free African-Americans and fears abolitionists. Chesnutt sometimes uses a double layer of irony. Knowing that his readers are familiar with the stories of escaped slaves using the North Star as a guide to freedom, he ironically describes Grandison leaving Canada for Kentucky with the North Star at his back. “One of the villains wanted to kill him and persuaded the others that it was necessary to do so; but they came to argue about how to proceed, and before they had made up their minds, Grandison escaped and, keeping his back firmly turned towards the North Star, resumed his journey, after having endured incredible ordeals. , towards the old plantation, returning to the old plantation. to his master, his friends, and his house” (Chesnutt). At first glance, this seems to reinforce the idea that Grandison is a model slave who literally turns his back on freedom. At the end of..