Going back over the Goophered Grapevine and Po Sandy in "The Conjure Tales of Charles W. Chesnutt," I want to unfold the message Chesnutt is portraying through particular characters in these stories. Is the message the critics see, the same as the reader? I feel like Chesnutt contradicts himself in the conjure tales. By this I mean that he comes off to the reader as one thing, but he is interpreted by literary critics as something else. I think the reason that Chesnutt's work seems contradictory is because he has many voices throughout the stories and it is hard for the reader to distinguish which voice belongs to Chesnutt. Should these stories be looked upon as mere entertainment or as something else"

According to Richard E. Baldwin, the main problem for early black writers such as Chesnutt was their audience. "The problem of the black experience in America...