This theme can be found in many of the novels chosen for this semester. Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie was a book that involved preoccupations with wealth and class. In this novel, Hurstwood never made it into the “walled city”; he remained an outsider until the pain was so unbearable that he ended his life. In Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Robert Cohn was never invited into the circle of friends that his fellow travelers had already created. This led to an emotional breakdown for Cohn from which he never recovered. Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, introduced Pecola Breedlove, a little girl that wanted so badly to fit in and be special that she asked for blue eyes, thinking that that would solve her self-esteem problems. All of these novels carry a similar theme- the struggle of the outsider against the rest of the wo

The term Melungeon is first introduced in the novel when Nonnie’s father, Claude, discovers that Nonnie’s boyfriend (R.C.’s father) is one. He says, “Nigger’s won’t claim a Melungeon…Injuns won’t claim them either” (57). This statement proves that the society in which they live, as far as Claude sees it has already created a circle or norm and that black people, Indians and especially Melungeons are on the outside of that circle. This statement sets up a very obvious distinction, and it is a distinction that R.C. is going to notice and pay attention to.

R.C. carries his emotional problems with him throughout his life and into his death. Whenever the rest of the family is getting together for a reunion, R.C. is locked in a barn breathing his last few breaths. The narrator says, “R.C. in the barn up on Grassy Branch, puts the barrel of his rifle in his mouth and sets the needle over on ‘Melungeon Man’ one more time” (309). I believe that it is befitting that he chooses this song to listen to as he ends his life because it is a story about a man that does not know where he came from, a man that does not fit in, a man that R.C. believes himself to be. Since he has been carrying this agonizing conclusion for so long, it makes since that he would choose that song when committing suicide.

R.C. wrote “Melungeon Man” to go along with the other songs that his families performed for a living. His sister Lizzie said of the song, “…his own ‘Melungeon Man’, its title referring to a mysterious strain of folks scattered through the mountains” (104). She also said, “Regardless of the origins of the Melungeons, that ballad captures such a feeling of otherness, of being outside, cut off from the rest

Some topics in this essay:
Bailey RC, Man” RC, Grassy Branch, Rose Annie, Pecola Breedlove, , Sister Carrie, Robert Cohn, Tampa Rainette, Devil’s Dream, “melungeon man”, ‘melungeon man’, won’t claim, theme american, american literature, theme american literature, struggle outsider,