# XX: A Shocking Crime explained — The Marrow of Tradition

> Chapter companion for The Marrow of Tradition by Charles W. Chesnutt.

## What happens

Old Mrs. Ochiltree is found murdered in her home, her cedar chest broken open. Dinah, her cook, rushes to inform Mrs. Carteret, who hurries to the scene. Mrs. Carteret, motivated by concern over potentially damaging papers her aunt may have kept, searches the chest but finds only old deeds and letters. The news spreads quickly, and a coroner's jury returns a verdict of murder by persons unknown during a burglary. Suspicion immediately falls on the black community, and a white committee forms to find the perpetrator, while many black residents go into hiding to avoid potential lynching.

## Themes in this chapter

### Racial Injustice

The automatic suspicion of the black community and the threat of lynching highlight systemic racial injustice.

### Violence and Mob Rule

The murder itself and the immediate formation of a lynch-minded committee demonstrate the prevalence of mob rule over legal process.

### Family and Heritage

Mrs. Carteret's primary concern is protecting her family's reputation and suppressing evidence of her father's secret marriage.

## Character check-ins

### Polly Ochiltree

Found murdered in her home, her cedar chest broken open.

### Dinah

Mrs. Ochiltree's cook who discovers the body and alerts Mrs. Carteret.

### Olivia Carteret

Hurries to the scene, motivated by concern over her aunt's papers and the family secret.

### Little Dodie

Present during Dinah's frantic arrival, being prepared for the day.

## Key lines

> Suspicion was at once directed toward the negroes, as it always is when an unexplained crime is committed in a Southern community.

The immediate assumption was that a Black person committed the crime, a common pattern in the South.

_Illustrates the reflexive racism that drives the plot._

> The spontaneous activity of the whites was accompanied by a visible shrinkage of the colored population.

As white residents organized, Black residents began to disappear from public view.

_Highlights the fear of lynching and the lack of legal protection for Black citizens._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_marrow_of_tradition_se/chapters/xx-a-shocking-crime
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_marrow_of_tradition_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_marrow_of_tradition_se/chapters