George W. Cable's Use of the Bible in His Fiction and Major Polemical Essays
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Ml 48106 18 BEDFORD ROW, LONDON WC1R 4EJ, ENGLAND 8021779 MOREHEAD, MARTHA HINES GEORGE W. CABLE'S USE OF THE BIBLE IN HIS FICTION AND MAJOR POLEMICAL ESSAYS The University of North Carolina at Greensboro PH.D. 1980 University Microfilms International 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 18 Bedford Row, London WC1R 4EJ, England Copyright 1980 by Morehead, Martha Hines All Rights Reserved GEORGE W. CABLE'S USE OF THE BIBLE IN HIS FICTION AND MAJOR POLEMICAL ESSAYS by Martha H. Morehead A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Greensboro 1980 Approved by Dissertation Adviser APPROVAL PAGE This dissertation has been approved by the following committee of the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro Dissertation Adviser Committee Members ^./«•^ /'I t l.. j- -1 "^7>7/A 7^ Date of Acceptance by Committee *11 Date of Final Oral Examination MOREHEAD, MARTHA H. George W. Cable's Use of the Bible in His Fiction and Major Polemical Essays. (1980) Directed by: Dr. Robert 0. Stephens. Pp. 355. Like many of his contemporaries, George W. Cable was imbued with a knowledge of the Bible and was steeped in its idiom. Cable used this thorough knowledge both to enhance and to give substance to his art. His bellestris- tic and polemical works show his commitment to human rights and humanitarian causes, founded on Biblical principles of justice and human brotherhood. The major thesis of his fiction—that man is his brother's keeper—derives from these principles, and his social criticism is predicated upon them. References to the Bible in his writing are thus both structural and ornamental. His major polemical essays—"The Freedman's Case in Equity," "The Silent South," and "The Negro Question"— show Cable in the role of moral spokesman similar to such Old Testament prophets as Amos and Jeremiah, who also spoke out against social injustice. These essays demonstrate that, like the Biblical nabi», Cable believes it his duty to speak out against social injustice in the South after the Civil War. His use of Biblical allusion and idiom in notable passages suggests that Cable as nabi * sym bolically invokes the prophetic utterance—"Thus saith the Lord"—that prefaces Old Testament oracles. A major use of the Bible in these polemical essays is in the appeal to Biblical principles of justice, mercy, and human brotherhood. Cable's writing on Bible study and teaching, as well as his writing about and work for the Home Culture Clubs, presents hirn in the role of "God's Agent," committed to serving God by using all his talents to serve mankind. The essays in his column "A Layman's Hints" show Cable's explication of Biblical texts and subjects that influence his polemical writing and certain later fiction. Simi larly, The Busy Man's Bible, manifesting liberal influences in Biblical interpretation, affirms the centrality of the Bible in Cable's life and work. His writing and efforts in the interest of the Home Culture Clubs also reflect adherence to Biblical principles. In his fiction before 1895, Cable's major thesis that man is his brother's keeper runs through Old Creole Days, The Grandissirnes , Madame Delphine, Dr. Sevier, Bonaventure, and John March, Southerner. As advocate of caritas, Cable uses the Bible as a source of his major thesis and of other thematic, as well as structural, elements supporting the social criticism in this early fiction. More than time separates this fiction from that which follows—particularly Strong Hearts, The Cavalier, Bylow Hill, and Kincaid's Battery. After John March, Southerner, Cable, compromised by editors and the spirit of the time, turns from literary realism and social criticism to romance and "heroism." In various statements of his aesthetic theory at that time and in "My Philosophy," Cable draws on Biblical precepts to define the three essential virtues of heroism as courage, love, and fidelity; and he offers models of that heroism in characters "strong, sweet, and true." By becoming an apostle of heroism, Cable apparently hopes to reform society by indirection and obviate the need for the direct social criticism that had become distasteful to the genteel reader and hence anathema to his editors. By 191*1, however, Cable once again combines social criticism with romance in Gideon's Band, emphasizing the Biblical principles supporting "My Politics" and the earlier and best fiction. In his final work, Lovers of Louisiana, Cable functions not only as apostle of heroism and advocate of caritas, but also as nabi >; this novel, like Gideon's Band and The Flower of the Chapdelaines, embodies the major thesis of his earlier fiction and also offers strong and direct social criticism of the World War period in which it was written. For Cable, the Bible is not only the source of his major thesis and of ancillary themes but also of illustra tive quotation, allusion, metaphor, imagery, even humorous misquotation and parody—especially used in ironic contexts and with satirical intent. Cable uses echoes and parallels of such Bible stories as those of Adam and Eve in the Garden, Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, the Exodus, the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan, and the Rich Fool. His use of the Bible in his writing is twofold: to give thematic and structural substance and to shape and embellish his art. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I thank the members of my committee, especially Professor Robert 0. Stephens, whose extensive knowledge of Cable and whole helpful criticism and sound suggestions have both challenged and supported me in the writing of this dissertation. I also express appreciation to Catawba College for various summer grants and other assistance that enabled me to complete the study. I am grateful to my family, particularly to my husband, Curtis, whose enormous patience and steady encouragement sustained me in the work. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page APPROVAL PAGE ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. THE NABI': CABLE'S MAJOR POLEMICAL ESSAYS 38 III. GOD'S AGENT: CABLE'S WORK WITH BIBLE TEACHING AND THE HOME CULTURE CLUBS ... 83 IV. HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER: CABLE'S FICTION BEFORE 1895 118 V. APOSTLE OF HEROISM: CABLE'S FICTION AFTER 1895 249 VI. CONCLUSION 3^1 BIBLIOGRAPHY 3^7 iv 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In George W. Cable's last published novel, Lovers of Louisiana, when Rosalie Durel asks Philip Castleton what the principles of his politics are, Philip tells her that all his political principles are to be found in the New Testament."'" In this instance, the reader can be sure that Philip Castleton is speaking as Cable's surrogate. The Bible, Old Testament as well as New, was so much a part of Cable's life and art that he used it abundantly in his belletristic and his polemical writing just as he did in his daily affairs and nonliterary activity. That is, Cable's knowledge of the Bible was religious and internalized, not merely referential as would be his knowledge of the classics or of science. Bible and religion were inter changeable for Cable, and thus his Biblical reference was the expression of a religious vision of life. His knowledge of the Bible enhanced and gave substance to his art and provided him with the principles and the authority by which he conducted his life. Biblical principles were the firm basis upon which Cable predicated a lifetime of humanitarian activities. Quite early his politics and his religion fusea in practical service to others. In mid-life, he wrote of religion as 2 2 *3 "the whole empire of life," and as "whatever we do." He described it also as "a state of the heart in which all knowledge should be received and used." Accentuating his own early receptivity to Biblical principles, Cable asserted that in his youth, "Principles, especially principles of life, of conduct public and private, were everything to 5 me." As a septuagenarian, Cable told an audience in 1915 at Berea College, Kentucky: The sayings of our Lord are of small value to us and likely to be even stumbling blocks unless we invariably recognize that they were uttered, and also that they were preserved, for their value as exponents of great moral principles.