When one references to the South, certain expectations come to mind. Such expectations stem from the rich heritage and history felt by most southerners. Throughout the years, the people of the South have attempted to maintain these expectations. Though they began as strong beliefs, these expectations have not been able to fully survive the modern times. In the texts of Tony Horwitz’s Confederates in the Attic and Bobbie Ann Mason’s Shiloh & Other Stories, the authors portray the idea that these southern expectations are diminishing through generations in the social institutions of race, family, and gender.
Race is one of the most prominent controversial issues when it comes to southern expectations. Historically, due to the southern institution of slavery prior to the Civil War, the topic of race relations and civil rights has been a heated one in the South. This progress is seen Horwitz’s Confederates in the Attic. In the chapter “Dying for Dixie,” racial tension is the main subject. A young Michael Westerman has recently been shot and killed by a black man for flying the rebel flag on his truck. The comparison between generations in this text is taken from this situation and the scenario that Horwitz is put in at the beginning of the chapter. He starts the chapters by going into “Redbone’s Saloon.” The men in this bar brandished t-shirts that displayed racist comments and pictures. By beginning the chapter with these details, Horwitz is setting up Guthrie, Kentucky to look like a racist town. Using a majority of the chapter to describe the events leading up to and following the murder of Westerman, Horwitz portrays the town as a place that has not been able to move past a politically and morally wrong view of African-Americans. However, there are two instances where Horwitz is able to compare a younger generations’ perspective to that of the men in the bar and the people of the town. In the first instance Horwitz describes what he calls the paradox between the generations. He explains that Westerman used to play basketball with those who would later be charged with his murder and that, at the high school, a black student had been voted homecoming queen. The second example is described during the trial Westerman’s trial when his wife, Hannah, testifies. Leading up to this point, Westerman’s death had been seen as a martyr’s sacrifice to the people of Guthrie. He had died for the Cause. But when Hannah is asked why he flew the flag, she responded with “it matched his truck and made it look sharp” (Horwitz, 120). This showed that Westerman had not really been concerned with the meaning of the flag or offending anyone, but only flew it because it matched his truck. These instances prove that the underlying southern expectation of racial inferiority is diminishing through the generation.
The deterioration of southern expectations involving family values is also shown in the texts by Horwitz. In Confederates in the Attic, Horwitz describes the people of Salisbury as almost obsessed with their genealogy. There is a rich tradition of knowing where the family came from and, particularly in this book, what reference they held to the Civil War and the rebel cause. This led to ancestral clubs, such as the Daughters of the Confederacy or Sons of Confederate Veterans. To be a member of these groups, one must be able to prove ancestral ties to the Confederacy. Horwitz then describes the group Children of the Confederacy, which prepares children for Confederate citizenship. When talking to a local who was also in the Daughters of the Confederacy, Horwitz finds that at the age of 18, children grow out of the Children of the Confederacy and move straight to the UDC or SCV. This ancestral tradition is beginning to weaken as Horwitz speaks with the president of the C. of C., Beth. Beth tells Horwitz that she doesn’t “agree with all this ‘South is great’ stuff. I’m sure there were some good things about the North” (Horwitz, 39). This shows that the enthusiasm for the family tradition of the Confederate cause is diminishing in the younger generation.
The southern expectations concerning gender roles in are also shown to be lessening through the generations in the text by Mason. This story shows a family having Christmas dinner. The generational contrast occurs between the actions and words of the grandfather and parents and those of the four daughters. When at the beginning of the story Carolyn decides to bring her lover, Kent, to dinner as a date, this sets the southern outdated expectation that a woman showing up to an event without a date is pitied, or as Carolyn put it, uncomfortable. This expectation is further supported when Iris chose to convince Ray to come to the Christmas dinner, even though they do not live together any more. Saying that she did it “for Mom and Dad’s sake” (Mason, 98) shows the generational gap between the diminishing southern expectation of staying together and keeping one’s vows and the more modern acceptance of divorce. The southern expectation of the female’s role in the house is also challenged when Carolyn is annoyed by her mother’s habit of worrying too much about the cooking and about her lack of fancy napkins. Her mother still lives in the times when, as Pappy describes, “the menfolks would eat first, and the children separate. The womenfolks would eat last, in the kitchen” (Mason, 101).
Through these texts, it can be seen that certain southern expectations are diminishing from generation to generation. The effect that these southern qualities have on institutions such as race, family, and gender are lessening year after year. The texts show that what traditions held by older generations cannot keep up with modern times.
