"The Sheriff's Children": a response

In the beginning, I stumbled through very descriptive sentences; trying to grasp the setting of a sleepy county in a protected pocket of Civil War territory. I realize that what kept me reading through the first bit was the title, “The Sheriff’s Children”. I knew that characters would soon be revealed and given life to, eventually introducing a sheriff and his children. In retrospect, I believe the author, Chesnutt, did a very good job in the introduction because I felt that I was brought into this uneventful community and found myself becoming bored as a reader. What was good about this was I felt I was in the mindset of the people who lived there (a little ho-hum) and was just as excited and interested as the townsfolk were when there was a murder—I could relate to the characters on some emotional level.

When the sheriff was brought into the story, I liked him because he seemed different than the other, more rash characters. He seemed to be a bit more progressive in thought and speech because of his schooling. As the story went on, my opinions of him changed quite a bit. At first, I thought he was protecting the prisoner (his son) from the lynch mob because he wanted to protect him until he had a “just” trial, but then thought he was protecting him to do his duty as sheriff. This obsession of carrying out his duty as a law enforcement officer frustrated me more and more for it became a mental obstacle between the sheriff and his son, leading to his son’s death. The sheriff did come to what I thought was a righteous decision in the end; to see if he could help heal the wrongs he had done to his son and to save him from the noose by finding the real murderer, but he was too late in coming to this conclusion. Damn. I was so disappointed and surprised that Tom died at the end that I had to re-read the section a few times, but it also seemed a perfect way to conclude the tale. Hopefully the sheriff will quicken his thinking in the future when it comes to what is true for himself as a man and not as a sheriff.

One other thing that made an impression on me was the way in which Chesnutt accented the dialogue in a southern, hillbilly-ish drawl. The way each character spoke gave new definition to them for I could guess on their level of education, their gender as well as skin color. Chesnutt’s style of dialogue made the story more interesting for me to read. Just from doing this reflection, I now feel compelled to read Chesnutt’s other story listed on the blog and see if he writes it in a similar style or if it is somewhat different. I will soon find out. This was a good story.