The Literary voice of Charles W. Chesnutt

African American fiction writers owe Charles W. Chesnutt a debt of gratitude. Called an innovator and commentator Charles W. Chesnutt's literary voice during 1899 – 1905 was the lone African American heard and approved by the white ruled publishing industry. A writer of short stories dealing with the complex issues of social and racial relations, Chesnutt’s is writing is clear and concise.

"The Bouquet" a Short Story written by Charles W. Chesnutt mixes two of my favorite theme's teachers and children. Mary Myrover an aristocratic southern woman, a member of the old regime becomes a teacher reluctantly after the death of her Father, brother, and her fiancé during the Civil War. Mary lived with her mother an invalid and had no choice in the decision to work. Teaching only as a means of survival at first, Mary after sometime of fatigue grew comfortable in her first and only real profession. Taking a step down on the caste ladder by becoming a teacher, Mary went to the bottom rung of the ladder by teaching colored children, the only job available. In the "class room of fifty or sixty faces from almost white like Mary to the darkest livery of the sun", writes Chesnutt. In this group of pupils, the most admired by Mary was Sophy Tucker neither the brightest nor the whitest actually she was one of the darkest of the pupils, Sophy was however devoted to her teacher. Sophy's admiration bordered on "the divine for this beautiful white woman." Mary enjoyed Sophy's devotion and the shades of the old regime that it held. Sophy vied for Mary's attention with another, a white spaniel, named Prince. Mary shared her love for flowers with her class and Sophy took up the assignment of providing fresh flowers or bunches of forest greenery picked daily for her teacher. Teaching her class for two years Mary only stopped when an illness took her life. The story ends with Sophy struggling against the resistance from Mary's mother leveled against all coloreds, her feeling was that somehow the colored children killed her daughter. Sophy with the help of Prince managed to attend to her now deceased teacher one last time.

Chesnutt writes in "The Bouquet", an unconventional love story between two people, one white and one black. The story is laden with contrast between race and class in the post Civil War south. Race relations in the south were by no means civil but some changes had taken place and

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