The notion of the “Southern gentleman” is one that has long been associated with men from the South. What is the Southern gentleman? Today, most of us probably think of a Southern gentleman as someone with good manners and a Southern accent. Maybe you think of someone who looks like Tom Wolfe, dressed in white suits with a mint julep in his hand. I’ve never really gone any farther than that in my thinking of the Southern gentleman. I call people older than me who I respect Sir and Ma'am. When I first moved to New York, I had teachers and parents who thought I was being sarcastic with them (I wasn't, most of the time). Many of my friends parents say it makes them feel old, when it really is just a way for me to show respect to them. Good manners are really what I mainly associated with the Southern Gentleman before these readings. However, both Fitzhugh, in “Southern Thought” and Kennedy, in Swallow Barn go much farther in their generalizations of Southern men and Southern thought.
Fitzhugh obviously feels that the South is superior in every way to any other place in the world. This does not have to do with where these people are geographically located, but how they think. “Southerners have always shown themselves the equals, generally the superiors, of the first intellects of the world…no men have the strength of will that Southerners possess. We are accustomed to command from our cradle. To command becomes a want and a necessity of our nature, and this begets that noble strength of will that nerves the mind for intellectual conflict and intellectual exertion, just as it nerves the body for physical contest. We are sure to write well, because we shall write boldly, fearlessly, and energetically.” To summarize, Southerners are smarter, stronger (in body and in mind), natural born leaders, and the best writers because they ain’t scared to say what they mean and damn anyone who disagrees with them. These are some pretty bold statements by Fitzhugh. While they are nice to think about (especially for someone from the South), they are based wholly on Fitzhugh’s lofty opinion of the South and not on any concrete evidence. Still though, many people in the south still feel this way. “American by birth, Southern by the grace of God” is a common bumper sticker and saying that is commonly seen and heard throughout the South.
Kennedy takes a different approach is his description (upon description, upon description) in Swallow Barn of Frank Meriwether, who serves as a Kennedy’s stereotypical Southern gentleman. “He has a great suavity of manners, and a genuine benevolence of disposition….” (64) Kennedy writes this under the pseudonym Mark Littleton, “a genial but canny New Yorker whose unfamiliarity with Virginia plantation society let Kennedy describe this world with a mix of amused detachment and affectionate curiosity.” (59) Kennedy uses Frank Meriwether to manifest all the stereotypical traits people associate with a Southern gentleman—he is well-dressed (to the point of being showy), popular, a good-citizen, long-winded, opinionated, and has a complacent, go-with-the-flow attitude about him. I don’t know if everyone in the class would agree, but these are fundamental things I think of when I think of the notion of a southern Gentleman. He is even nice to his slaves.
Fitzhugh uses the idea of the Southern gentleman to emphasize his point that Southern thought is superior to thought anywhere else in the world, thus giving his own writing and opinions more validity (in his mind and in the minds of many other Southerners). Clearly he feels more strongly and militant in this notion than Kennedy, who uses Meriwether as an icon, a hyperbole of a typical Southern gentleman, well-off on his plantation. Kennedy is not using this to portray a strong conviction like Fitzhugh. I don’t know if it was writer’s goals to sell books back then (I suspect not so much), but if I was to read it today I would say he made this character up because he thought people would enjoy reading about this stereotypical Southern male and buy his book. All I know is behind all the stereotypes of Southerners as ignorant, racist rednecks, there lays a very flattering notion of what a man from the South is, and leaves all Southerners struggling to embody these ideals.
5 comments:
I can definitely see you saying Sir and Ma'am to people because you are from the south. When I went down to visit my friend who lives down there everyone did the same thing even to me I didn't take offense though.
I feel the same way about Fitzhugh being a lot more open and vocal about his ideas of the southern gentleman and the south in general. He made the south seem like it should be placed upon a pedstal it was so much better then everywhere else in the world. On the other hand we have Kennedy who makes it seem like all southern gentleman are nice to their slaves and are these showy individuals who live for the land. Both of these readings definitely opened my eyes to two very different ideas of the south and their completely different view points from the north.
The notion of being southern gentlemen is one that still resonates with people today.
Fitzhugh makes the claim that Southern life is more gentle and refined and so are the men. What I thought about was the context of a southern gentlemen. During this time period there is a geographical conflict between the north and south. By making these exaggerated comments about southern life what is Fitzhugh saying about "Northern" men. I think that reading Fitzhugh's ideas about being a southern gentlemen was more a commentary about the Northern way of life. Claiming these characteristics are solely Southern, Fitzhugh may be inferring that Northern society may be less refined and more barbaric. To sum it up Fitzhugh may be concluding that Northern life is simply a harsher experience.
It's good to hear what you have to say about all this considering that you are from the south. I never really thought that there were that many stereotypes that I knew about the south, but I've been realizing that I know many more than first come to mind. For example, you bring up the southern gentleman that is portrayed in both the Swallow Barn and in "Southern Thought." Although for some reason I have this image of a southern gentleman it is also mixed in with men being slave owners. I feel that the stereotypes and the truth all seem to get mixed up and give us this strange vision of the south.
I thought your comparison of the Southern gentleman portrayed by Fitzhugh and the Southern gentleman portrayed by Kennedy was very interesting. But as I was reading, I was thinking, well you can’t trust someone to explain things when they are on the inside (meaning a Southern can’t be trusted to explain what a Southern gentleman truly is, in reference to Fitzhugh). But then as soon as I thought this, I remembered how when we were discussing Jefferson I said he was describing black people merely as an outsider observing, and therefore, he couldn’t be believed. So then if we can’t believe an insider, and we can’t trust an outsider, how can we ever get an accurate portrayal of what it really means to be a Southern gentleman?
Excellent commentary, Matt. I think you make some really good points about the stereotypes of a southern gentleman, how that is being displayed in the literature we are reading, and how you have witnessed some of these traits in your own experiences. I think your comparision of Frank Meriweather and George Fitzhugh is so interesting because they are clearly so different. Well said.
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