Slavery, Racism, and Social Injustice in "The Goophered Grapevine"

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Slavery, Racism, and Social Injustice in "The Goophered Grapevine"
Chesnutt is among the writers who wrote during the American Revolution or reconstruction after slavery. The primary concern in his writing was to unfold the plight of the neglected ethnic groups like African Americans in the South. "The Goophered Grapevine" is his landmark with its historical, cultural, and social significance, although it is locally colored. A few later, the scholars began to interpret its severer meaning hiding beneath the surface of the pleasurable folk tale.
The author, through various symbols, takes the reader back to the age of slavery and lets them see the extremes of inequality and social injustice in the antebellum South. Then, he presents a contrast between the past and the present to focus on the current era's problems for African Americans, representing all migrants. He also sketches a line between the South and the North in different ages through the behavior patterns of white people and how they always shadowed the black people. While writing this short story about slavery, racism, and social injustice, Chesnutt's concerns are also traceable by reviewing the works of temporary writers.
Besides, the writers like Chopin, Bierce, and Owester also provided simple stories to their audience with a more profound message through a revolutionary protagonist during the reconstruction period. Chesnutt, in "The Goophered Grapevine," denounces slavery and protests against racism and social justice by taking a subtle subject matter and using usual symbols; he unveils the suffering of the blacks in antebellum America and contrasts it with postbellum America while sketching the impact of the northern people on the southern; also, the author's concerns are verifiable by reviewing the contemporary literature.
The story introduces a couple from Ohio searching for a warmer climate for the wife's health issues. After coming to the postbellum South, the husband looked for income resources. Soon, he discovers a plantation and finds it suitable to begin cultivation. On meeting Uncle Julius, the protagonist, an ex-slave on the same plantation, the husband knows a strange story. Julius, an African American, tells the couple that the Grapevine on the plantation is cursed. On further inquiry, it comes out that the owner of this space, McAdoo was "a wealthy man" who grew scuppernong in the antebellum era (Chesnutt). The taste of this fruit was so delicious that the enslaved people who worked on the land stole and ate them when they got a chance. The angry McAdoo tried to solve the issue by asking a conjurer to spellbind the plantation. An enslaved person, Henry bore the results of this magic and asked the conjurer to revise her spell. On revising the spell, he fell victim to McAdoo's greed as he sold and purchased him because he bloomed and withered like grapes in every season.
In the end, Henry dies, parallel to the devastation of the bewitched Grapevine, when McAdoo meets a fraud by a stranger. This story frightens the northern couple. However, they reject it as a tell-tale and risk buying it and starting farming. Their farming experience never shows "any development of the gopher in the vineyard" (Chesnutt). Thus,...