Literary Analysis Essay on "Fire in a Canebrake" by Laura Wexler

Introduction

This is a title story of fourfold lynching that took place in Georgia in the year 1946. The story is drawn from an FBI uncensored file and other numerous interviews with various residents of Walton County. This where the crime took place. Wexler tries in the book to unfold the tragic tale of violence, sex, and lies due to racial inequality in America. Even though their other case of lynching before this had the magnitude in the aspect that the nation was divided into the race (Susan p.85). Wexler tries in her rich ability to incorporate the racial and social subtleties in the regular daily existences of those included, investigating the dull underside of miscegenation, extramarital issues, and the twofold benchmarks related with race and sexual orientation.

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Fire in A Canebrake as an exceptional new book of Laura Wexler is described by sorrels as the thing. The story narrates incident where two couple in the small town of Georgia faces their fate of being lynched alongside the road without any witness to the barbaric act of crime. Though it is considered that, the murder incident was last of mass lynching ever to happen in America. Wexler has done a remarkable work, by bringing into the forefront of the little episode that had a huge impact on America history. (Megan, p.157) As narrated, Roger Malcolm get into a serious fight with his lawyer wife in the middle of the road. This incident happens in 1946, at Walton County in Georgia on afternoon hours. As grandmother would say, she ridicules them to put their business out in the open street. The accusation comes from Roger who claimed Dorothy was sleeping with the white landlord called Barnette Hester. This conflict prompts a conflict that leads to a serious fight between the two parties. (Becky, p. 137) This fight results in a chain of event that leads death of Roger, George Dorsey who was Dorothy brother, and George's law wife called Mae Murray Dorsey. The series of deaths events is what later described as Last Mass Lynching in the United States of America.

Wexler presents an intensive researched, concise, simple, clear and comprehensive view concerning mass lynching. She I able to bring out Walton county before and after the tragic event of mass lynching, moreover, she includes the political turmoil and climate of the known town in the state of Georgia and the overall state of the country at the time of these brutal murder cases. She detailed biography of all major and a few participants in the event. Without double Wexler has won many hearts of readers by providing an objective viewpoint either using verification details or contradictory element of eyewitnesses and also the group that was later referred to be a witness in the upcoming witness. She is able to capture the audience attention by the structure of her novel. (Megan, p.157) Wexler presents the case in form of a narrative style. Imagine how captivating a history can be when brought out in form of a story rather than just reporting the real event. Her writing style is captivating and attracting to both eyes and ears of the reader. She is a great storyteller as proven in her narrative story which Is a great piece of work. The story is addictive in a way the story is brought up, this is done through sex, murders, conspiracies, work racial dynamic and cover up - all these component shows the degree of captivation the case has. Wexler's piece of work is credible and scholarly to the academic realm through its objectivity and research.

Wexler's in the book tries to tell all the elements which led to the horrible mystery of the south. What makes the book "fire in a canebrake" one of the most compelling about the book, however, is the fact that Wexler's had detached sensibility. In the effect that she had to report most of the details of the lynching by using an astonishing little sentimentality. An honorable achievement for an essayist depicting a 'murder so extraordinary that it would turn into a symbol of after war violence. It acted as a symbol of the chasm that came between how black people were promised democracy and the life of the black people in the united states in the year 1946. The book unfolds from the start of the plot as a satisfying whodunit. Wexler tries to prove that in American there is still lack of accurate way in which crime is accounted for (Susan p.85). Wexler story tries to tell the recreation of a fearful atmosphere and terrorizing that covered Walton County before and after the lynching. The book also tries to tell the horrors that happened in that particular event. Considering the decline of lynching's during the 1040s but what was the most infamous lynch was the style at which the two young black Americans couple were executed. The subject of these murders is what led to the Laure Wexler writing the book.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Wexler way of writing the book could be described as a story told by a woman knitting. She draws the reader from a single angle view because the witness in the book was telling a lie. Wexler then unfolds another angle view of the story and she explains how the story unfolded according to the bystander (Susan p.85). And again, you follow all the logic and see the book pattern reveals. Wexler's depiction of the four lynched tenant farmers is intriguing because she takes us into a universe of fifth-rate training and frantic poverty that is luckily obscure to many readers.

Work Cited

Beck, E. M. "South Polls: Judge Lynch Denied: Combating Mob Violence in the American South, 1877-1950." Southern Cultures 21.2 (2015): 117-139.

Eatman, Megan. "Loss and Lived Memory at the Moore's Ford Lynching Reenactment." Advances in the History of Rhetoric 20.2 (2017): 153-166.

Owen, A. Susan, and Peter Ehrenhaus. "The Moore's Ford lynching reenactment: Affective memory and race trauma." Text and Performance Quarterly 34.1 (2014): 72-90.s