a thorough analysis of the racial identity of a mulatto, and a look at the lives of mulatto characters in works by Charles W. Chesnutt, Harriet Wilson and Wallace Thurman an understanding of what it means to be mulatto can be realized. In the works we discussed, a mulatto was usually the offspring of a black woman and a white man; however, the key to comprehending the racial identity of a mulatto is much more deeper. A mulatto is constantly faced with the difficult task of struggling between two races that in the past have been in conflict with each other. In addition, they are faced with mixed feelings from the fellow pure bread black members. For example, in Blacker the Berry, Emma character, a mulatto encounter constant resentment and possible envy by not only blacks because of her lighter skin tone, but also from white peers. Even in present society, this is a reality of which many non-blacks are unaware, and which most blacks would prefer to overlook, rather than resolve. It was these revelations that authors like Chesnutt, Wilson, and Thurman attempted to bring insight on. Charles W. Chesnutt was born in Cleveland in 1858, to free parents of mixed racial heritage, and raised in Fayetteville, N.C. His youth in North Carolina as a mulatto was very influential in most of his works. Chesnutt absorbed the dialects and folktales of the region and observed the influence of one's color on how society views the person. In addition, as a light skinned Negro, he was able to experience the moral implication of living in white society. Although Chesnutt describes mulatto life in most of his novels, he concentrates on hardships and social relationships of mulattoes in The House Behind the Cedars. The House Behind the Cedars deals with a mulatto, John Walden, who passes for white person and becomes a successful lawyer in South Carolina, as he believes he can never achieve this status as a mulatto. Next, Walden arranges for his sister R...
