There’s Plenty of Room for All of Us.” Charles Chestnut and the Goophered Grapevine
“There’s Plenty of Room for All of Us.”Charles W. Chesnutt’s short story “The Goophered Grapevine” is one of the more puzzling works and amusing folktales published in 19th-century literature. During the Reconstruction period, American literature dominated regional prejudice, simplicity, and realism which did not portray African Americans in a favorable light. It not only fed the passion for dialectic stories but also provided a story of local color while assuring a demeaning approach to African Americans was justified. And, more sensitive readers might question the use of archetypal symbols in Goophered and why readers might have a dislike for the Northerners portrayed in the fable. The story reveals Chestnutt’s talent for portraying and understanding racism and its destructive effects and influence on American society as well as his belief in reforming the power of literature. Chesnutt also recognized American audiences would refuse to confront the evil of racism. “[T]he author’s choice to write the majority of the story under the narration of a black character in a folksy, black dialect seems to be a mere representation of this very aspect embedded in the story. The deliberate use of this style of language, as a narrative device, aims to reflect the way African Americans in the South during the mid-nineteenth century speak” (WordPress.com, np). Chestnutt’s use of Plantation Southern dialect is the most effective approach to reveal the true, historical, dark history of oppression, and to represent Julius McAdoo as an individual character. If solely written from the perspective of a White Northerner, its content would lack any juxtaposition between John and Annie and Ole Julius McAdoo. This correlation also represents a socioeconomic status between Julius as a poor, superstitious, and ignorant former slave and John as an individual able to buy the neglected vineyard with a plan to make it profitable again.
The tale begins and ends from the perspective of John, a White entrepreneur “engaged in grape-culture in northern Ohio” (Chestnutt, p. 254). However, the colorful content of the story is the narration from Ole Uncle Julius McAdoo, a former slave on the vineyard. His descriptions evoke the amusing, and often patronizing comments from John. The framework of the story involves John recalling how he and his wife, Annie, moved to North Carolina and met Julius in an abandoned vineyard John is interested in purchasing. The behavior of John and Annie creates doubt about the genuineness of their value system and response to the South. Although John was familiar and educated in northern Ohio’s grape-culture, and realized the vineyard’s “soil, with a little attention, could not have been better” (254), the grape aficionado, nor his wife, fail to show any interest in the “luscious Scuppernong” (254). Similar to Mars Dugal McAdoo, (i.e., Julius’ former master), John only thinks in terms of finances and his first desire, wealth. The Northerner’s economic-only comments illustrate this recurring symbol. For example, when Julius asks John if he will purchase the property, John states, “I am looking at it, . . . but I dont know that I shall care to buy unless I can be reasonably sure of making something out of it” (255).