A Different Drummer: Analysis of Major Characters
"A Different Drummer" is a novel that intricately explores the lives of several major characters who navigate complex societal dynamics in a fictitious Southern state. Central to the narrative is Tucker Caliban, a character whose decision to destroy his farm and leave with his family catalyzes a mass exodus of the black population. Tucker embodies self-reliance and independence, often rejecting external support for civil rights causes. His wife, Bethra, initially struggles with his views but ultimately returns, recognizing the depth of his commitment to autonomy.
The story also features characters such as David Willson, a conflicted descendant of a prominent white family who grapples with his ideals and responsibilities, and Bennett T. Bradshaw, Tucker’s former college roommate, who becomes disillusioned with traditional leadership in the black community. Other characters, like Mister Harper and Harry Leland, provide philosophical insights and perspectives on change and adaptation within the community. The interactions among these characters reveal the intricate social fabric and tensions surrounding racial identity, personal agency, and the legacy of historical injustices. Through their intertwined stories, the novel addresses themes of independence, self-actualization, and the challenge of reconciling personal values with societal expectations.
A Different Drummer: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: William Melvin Kelley
First published: 1962
Genre: Novel
Locale: The Deep South
Plot: Impressionistic realism
Time: 1931–1961
Tucker Caliban, the “different drummer” who, by destroying his farm and departing with his family, precipitates the exodus of the black population from the fictitious southern state in which the story is set. The land previously belonged to the Willsons, the white clan that Tucker's family had served even after emancipation. Tucker buys the land from David Willson, saying, “You tried to free us once, but we didn't go and now we got to free ourselves.” Physically small, with a large head and wearing wire-rimmed glasses, Tucker often appears inscrutable to the other characters. His actions demonstrate an almost instinctive self-reliance. He refuses, for example, to support the National Society for Colored Affairs because he denies that anyone else can achieve his rights for him.
Bethra, Tucker's wife, a tall, slim, and beautiful woman. Poised and intelligent, she had been working as the Willsons' maid to earn money to finish college. Her college plans are dropped, however, when she falls almost girlishly in love with Tucker, and they marry. More educated than her husband, Bethra is at first embarrassed by his rejection of her friends' civil rights causes, and she leaves him. She returns, however, in a week, having come to see the truth of his commitment to independent action. Dymphna Willson, who made Bethra her confidant, acknowledges that the black woman has taught her much about life.
Mister Harper, the town philosopher. A retired army officer, he went to West Point but, being too young for the Civil War and too old for World War II, never put into practice his military training. His son, however, was killed in World War II. Thereafter, feeling “knocked down by life,” he stayed in a wheelchair. From his porch, he dispenses analyses of the world's chaotic events to townspeople who daily gather around. For example, he offers the “genetic” explanation for the exodus of the black people, telling the story of the near-mythic, prodigiously powerful, and elusive African who was Tucker's ancestor. He leaves his wheelchair for the first time in thirty years to watch Tucker Caliban destroy his farm.
Harry Leland, a sharecropper. He admonishes his son for using the word “nigger”; in contrast with others in the town, he recognizes the need for adapting to change and for getting along with all kinds of people. Having been a sergeant in the Korean War, he theorizes that the black people are conducting a “strategic withdrawal,” a prudent action for which he admires them.
Harold Leland, called Mister Leland, Harry Leland's son, an active eight-year-old with sandy hair. He has considered Tucker a friend ever since Tucker bought him some peanuts he had been eyeing in the store window; the reason Tucker gave for the gift was the way in which Harry Leland was rearing Mister Leland. The night Bennett T. Bradshaw is lynched on Tucker's property, Mister Leland hears laughing and singing coming from the spot; he thinks that a party is going on to celebrate Tucker's return and plans to go out there the next morningtoseehisfriendagain.
David Willson, a descendant of Dewey Willson, who is called the General and is a former Confederate war hero and state governor. David is considered by the townspeople to be a usurper of the family name. While at college, he became active in left-wing issues and struck up a friendship with Bennett T. Bradshaw, a black intellectual and fellow student. The two roomed together and shared a concern for the wasted potential of their respective peoples. Returning to the South after graduation, David finds work as a journalist for a local newspaper. He is fired, however, once he is exposed as the author of articles espousing a radical stance on racial issues, written under a pen name for a communist magazine in New York City. Anxious that he is not finding work, and with a child on the way, he returns to the Willson home to take up the family business, one that he despises: collecting rent from sharecroppers on Willson land. Feeling himself to be a coward for not living up to his ideals, he retreats emotionally from his wife and children. He experiences a renewal, however, when he agrees to sell Tucker the land by which Tucker means to free himself.
Camille Willson, David's wife. She met him at a party hosted by bohemian friends, and their courtship included going with him on assignments for the newspaper. She continues to have faith in him even as he keeps from her his pseudonymous articles and afterward, when he gets fired. She offers to move with him to New York City, but he misjudges her sincerity. In the Willson home, she feels like a stranger and despairs at the loss of intimacy in her marriage.
Dewey Willson III, David's college-age son. He has a recurring nightmare in which the General entrusts him with the bleeding head he tears from his own body. On his tenth birthday, Dewey got a new bike and begged Tucker, then thirteen, to teach him to ride. Tucker was later punished because they were late for dinner, the older boy having relented to Dewey's plea that they “try once more.” Dewey feels guilty about this injustice but never said anything to Tucker about it. He is with Bennett when the lynching mob drags the black man away, and although he tries to save him, he cannot.
Dymphna Willson, David's teenage daughter. Somewhat selfish and a self-professed schemer, her initial consideration in being friends with Bethra was that Bethra, being black, would not compete with her for boyfriends. By the time Bethra leaves the Willson household, she has taught the younger girl that “the most you can do for people you love is leave them alone”—a wisdom that helps Dymphna come to terms with her parents' relationship.
Bennett T. Bradshaw, David's black college roommate, who had to drop out before graduating to support his family. Active in the Civil Rights movement, he places David's articles in leftist magazines in New York City. Later, David reads in a national magazine that Bennett has been fired from the National Society for Colored Affairs because of alleged communist affiliations and has founded the Resurrected Church of the Black Jesus Christ of America, Inc., a black supremacist group. Bennett appears in town in a chauffeur-driven limousine, investigating Tucker's departure and the ensuing exodus of blacks. He is resentful at becoming obsolete as a leader, given the impact of Tucker's independent action. At the novel's climax, he is beaten, humiliated, and taken away to Tucker's farm to be lynched.