A Different Drummer (Masterplots II: African American Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: William Melvin Kelley
- First Published: 1962
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: 1957
- Setting: A mythical Southern state
- Principal Characters: Mister Harper, The African, Tucker Caliban, David Willson, Bennett Bradshaw, Dewey Willson III, Mister Leland
- Genres: Long fiction, Impressionistic literature
- Subjects: 1950’s, 1960’s, Africa or Africans, Racism, South or Southerners, 1940’s, 1930’s, Legends, Parables
- Locales: South (U.S.)
The Novel
A Different Drummer charts the uneasy relationship between two families, the white Willsons and black Calibans. Specifically, the book examines Tucker Caliban’s symbolic destruction of his slave past and the effects of his acts upon the townspeople of Sutton, a fictional small town in the South. Much of the novel is told in flashbacks. The present action of the novel, told from the point of view of several characters and out of chronological sequence, spans a three-day period from Thursday, May 30, when a salt truck arrives in town, through Saturday, June 1,...
[The entire page is 2755 words long]
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