SOURCE: "The Example of 'Horace Christian': A Central Irony in Overshadowed," in American Literary Realism, 1870-1910, Vol. XIV, No. 1, Spring, 1981, pp. 60-9.

In the following essay, Vassilowitch examines the rise and fall of the white racist Horace Christian, a character in Overshadowed.

Overshadowed (1901) is the second novel written by turn-of-the-century black author Sutton Griggs. Historian S. P. Fullinwider calls the book, correctly, "In part . . . a sermon against assimilation; against the degrading effects of the white man's values."¹ While overstating his case somewhat, Hugh Gloster is also correct in emphasizing the destructive role that miscegenation plays in the story.² Griggs's essential aversion to both cultural and sexual assimilation with white America sets the tone throughout Overshadowed and gives some unity to its otherwise rather loosely-constructed plot. Nevertheless, scholars have completely overlooked a key pun, developed intricately and at length, that announces in ironically religious terms this dual aversion central...