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In Charles Chesnutt’s novel The Marrow of Tradition, there is an overall theme of racism and how it affected both whites and blacks during the Reconstruction period, particularly in the South. Chesnutt brings to life an array of characters that accurately portray contrasting views on the issue of race throughout the novel. Although the issue of race gives the characters ample conflict, they are also presented with issues of class, gender and morality. In the context that Chesnutt has written the novel, gender and class do not seem to be the dominant issues. However, each character can be evaluated and measured reasonably by their morality and how it affects each of them individually, and as a group. To this extent, many literary critics have compared Josh—the dark-skinned, lower class, African-American who avenges his father’s murder—to Dr. Miller, the light-skinned, educated, African-American who seems to have become somewhat accepted by the whites in Wilmington. They have both been deemed the “hero” in the story because of their attitudes and actions, but morally neither Josh nor Dr. Miller compares to the moral adeptness of the mulatto character of Janet. On the surface, Josh is one of the only characters that se