The House Behind the Cedars

Plot Overview
[WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD]

From the back of the novel:

"The House Behind the Cedars, which many consider Charles Chesnutt's finest novel, tells of John and Rena Walden, m-o siblings who pass for white in the postbellum American South. The drama that unfolds as they travel between black and white worlds constitutes a riveting portrait of the shifting and intractable nature of race in American life. This edition revitalizes a much-neglected masterpiece by one of our most important African-American writers."

The Letters in The House Behind the Cedars
In The House Behind the Cedars, letters are one of the primary means of communication between characters. While we by no means wish to summarize every letter that appears in the novel, the letters are so central, in fact, that John uses pre-addressed envelopes so that his illiterate mother Molly can still write him and his sister while they are away (Chesnutt 64). Some of the most important messages in the novel thus arrive in the form of letters.

In addition to the importance of letters in maintaining distanced relationships, letters often appear in conjunction to major conflict in the novel. When George discovers Rena has been passing, letters from his mother and from George update John on the events that transpired and assure him his own social status has not been compromised. Letters not only carry the novel’s conflict, but sometimes create it, like when Molly’s letter to Rena flies out of the window as if compelled by a force greater than nature.

Pages Analyzing The House Behind the Cedars
Tone Shifts in Letter Writing

Letters v. Emails: The Showdown

Letters, E-Prime, and Matters of Identity

Outward Layers: Fashion in Conjunction with the Envelope

The Physicality of the Color-Line

Disruptions of Privacy in the House Behind the Cedars

Illiteracy