55 pages • 1 hour read
Witness
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Themes
Vulnerability of Children
In Witness, Hesse relates the story of three young characters to establish the theme that children are fragile in comparison with the forces directing their lives. Children have the least amount of societal power and are reliant on adults to provide food, shelter, and protection. When powerful figures prey upon the populace, children suffer most because they don’t have the means to protect themselves. Leonora, Merlin, and Esther are each preyed upon and suffer due to the Klan’s hatred. Leonora is tormented by her schoolmates and hampered in everyday activities due to the color of her skin, Merlin is indoctrinated as the Klan attempts to twist him into their mold, and Esther is buffeted by the effects of the Klan’s antisemitism and is nearly killed.
Mercilessly baited at school, Leonora cannot find relief from the systemic racism even when Sara saves her from the cold. Sara gives her the chipped mug for her broth, and Sara even disapproves of Esther wrapping Leonora in the “good” quilt. Leonora cannot accept the gift of a typewriter or painting from Mr. Field; she knows the townspeople will make the racist assumption that she stole it. Most tragically, her mother dies because nobody would stop to help a neighbor who was not white. This constant barrage of racism leaves Leonora feeling unworthy of any kindness, even from her friend Mr. Field, whom she believes treats her as an equal only because he cannot “see me well enough / to judge the color of my skin” (41).
Merlin is a perpetrator of racism rather than a victim of it, but at 18 years old, he is at a precarious stage of life. While he is certainly old enough to be accountable for his racist abuse of others, the Klan also takes advantage of his gullibility and need to belong, indoctrinating him further with hateful propaganda. Jealous of the attention given to anyone other than himself—whether negative attention given to murderers or positive attention to heroes like Leonora—he boasts about his ostensible capacity to both kill and rescue children, and the hollow swagger rings of a teenager attempting to seem more powerful at the expense of those more vulnerable than himself; the desire for a powerful, attractive image partly underlies his susceptibility to the Klan’s rhetoric. When a fellow Klansman pulls a knife on him, however, Merlin realizes that the man would “gladly do to me / what leopold and loeb had done to that boy / in chicago” (94), and he recognizes that he himself is vulnerable to the Klan.
Esther, too, is vulnerable to others’ prejudices. Although Sara and Ira attempt to shield her from the town’s pervasive intolerance after the Klan’s arrival, Esther cannot be shielded from the deaths that surround her, and she is also subjected to the sordid conduct of adults when they believe themselves unobserved. Her innocence helps in that she misinterprets much of what she sees (sights that might otherwise be traumatizing), but because she doesn’t understand the implications of what she sees, her role as a witness is muted. For instance, when she surprises Johnny molesting a young girl in the bushes, she doesn’t understand the ramifications and responds to it as if Johnny’s anger were a game, claiming “we did have a good game of yellings and shakings” (9).
Esther’s exposure to death is also especially traumatic for her age; her mother has passed away, her playmate Lewis dies under a sandbank, she has witnessed the death of strangers as well as her friend Jerry the dog—and she is the sole witness who can identify the man who shot her father. Her innocence creates a drastic vulnerability to outside forces, and though her guardians shelter her from much of the Klan’s influence, she is still in danger of losing the very innocence that prevents her from recognizing the ugly side of human nature. This theme highlights not only children’s vulnerability to societal corruption, but also the power of their innate morality and courage to combat that corruption.
Taking a Stand Against Injustice
The novel demonstrates the importance of standing against injustice, both as a community and as an individual. Each narrator must take a stand for or against the Klan; neutrality is not a genuine choice, as inaction only allows the Klan to thrive. The choices each narrator makes—to either remain true to their principles or to succumb to the Klan’s influence—drives the conflict in the novel.
Significantly, all the females in the story are impervious to the Klan’s illegitimate authority; Sara, Iris, and Viola steadfastly refuse to abandon their beliefs to gain power. Iris immediately understands that her status as an independent, unmarried businesswoman, as well as a bootlegger, makes her a prime target for the Klan’s hate. After Johnny burns a cross on Independence Day, Iris asserts:
i was born a protestant
but i’d join the catholic church
before
i’d throw my lot in with the klan (58).
Johnny recognizes Iris as a formidable adversary and won’t parrot the Klan’s position against women’s independence while she is within hearing distance. Meanwhile, Sara sees through the propaganda from the start. Her relationship with Esther forces her to confront her own hidden biases, as when she observes Esther with Leonora:
gave me some turn
seeing those two motherless children
in my kitchen
before the stove
esther’s hair draped across leonora’s lap
leonora’s dark hand stroking esther’s silk face (12).
Sara recognizes that despite the difference in their skin color, the girls are the same—both needing comfort and protection against intolerance. As her relationship with Esther deepens into love, she is unable to reconcile the Klan’s antisemitism with Esther’s purity and Ira’s goodness—and although “the klan can seem mighty right-minded” (59), she firmly stands against them, stating:
damn klan.
to think of what they could drive from my life
with their filthy
little
minds (61).
Sara references the small-mindedness of the Klan members, and Harvey later expresses concern about the size of his head, underscoring this quality.
Viola’s resistance takes the form of acts of kindness to those affected by the Klan, as well as her continual refusal to condone Harvey’s involvement. Even when their arguments begin to fray at their marriage, Viola maintains her stance that the Klan is a violent hate group that will turn against any opposition. Her efforts to preserve Harvey’s good name after his misguided activities speaks to her love for her husband, despite her disgust for the Klan. While her mild yet steadfast stance doesn’t drive the Klan from the town, she single-handedly manages to pull Harvey from their clutches.
The community is initially neutral toward the Klan’s recruiting efforts. Representing three major platforms of influence—church, media, and law enforcement—Johnny, Reynard, and Johnson offer no resistance when the Klan arrives. Johnny is an immediate devotee, as the group’s racist and antisemitic agenda aligns with his own prejudices. Both Reynard and Johnson are determined not to take sides, although Reynard quickly takes an anti-Klan stance after Johnny ignites a cross. Reynard states that the burning
was the work of children
stirred by griffith’s birth of a nation
that racist rubbish,
which will not fade away (55).
His reference to the Klan as “children” shows clearly that the newspaper has moved away from neutrality. As the novel advances from one Klan-induced crisis to the next, Reynard’s stance becomes increasingly militant: He warns his readers that “men join who cannot be trusted” and “when that kind of scoundrel / starts hiding under hood and robes, / no good can come of it” (69). His stand against the Klan’s injustice culminates in his stirring speech, in which he states unequivocally, “the ku klux klan must go” (125).
Constable Johnson, however, remains publicly on the fence. His remarks about Iris’s “monkey business” and having to protect the Black dam workers “against themselves” reveal his racism and misogyny, yet he wrestles with the Klan’s false image, knowing they stole Merlin’s car, abducted and branded Johnny, lynched, and attempted murder. Because Johnson refuses to take a firm stand against the Klan, their crimes tear the town asunder until the community expels the Klan. The novel demonstrates that it takes both individual and communal action against injustice to remove such a powerful and insidious group. Injustice thrives on secret handshakes and night rides, but it can’t operate in the darkness if all individuals decide to shine their own lights upon it.
Coming of Age
Witness explores the coming of age for two characters, Merlin and Leonora. Coming of age themes pit young protagonists against uncomfortable truths about themselves that they must overcome to become part of the adult world. While Leonora and Merlin are opposites in nearly every way possible, they both must confront their anger and biases if they are to live free from intolerance and hate. Through a process of trials and reflection, they overcome their childhood expectations of a perfect world and learn to live with and help others rather than focusing solely on themselves.
At the start, Merlin is an antagonistic teenager driven by a need to impress his peers with his toughness and bravery—though this toughness is ultimately his misconception of the masculinity he desires. His boasting demonstrates a core insecurity: Searching for his adult identity, he ironically identifies with murderers Leopold and Loeb, although he asserts that he would be smarter in committing the perfect crime. He boasts that he could kill someone all by himself, “and wouldn’t need anyone’s help. / and i’d make damn sure i got some money for my trouble” (38). He boasts again when Leonora saves Esther from the onrushing train, as he claims that he could have saved her, too; although, this time, he tempers the bragging with admiration for Leonora’s courage, stating, “i never saw anyone move that fast” (76).
The Klan appeals to Merlin because it is a man’s group, and he longs for a manly image. However, as he becomes immersed in their agenda, he realizes it will hurt the people he has grown to admire or at least accept: Ira, who gifted Merlin’s girlfriend with a pair of galoshes; Reynard, who gave Merlin a job and trusted him with the keys to his truck and newspaper office; Esther, who is just a child; and Leonora, whose bravery kept him transfixed. Ultimately, he cannot stomach the Klan’s orders to poison the Sutters’ well. During the novel’s climax, Merlin must balance his need to belong in a “man’s” world against his realization that Leonora is much more than just the color of her skin. His decision to leave town, ironically, is the first truly adult decision of his life. In that choice, he declines the constructed identity that the Klan would have forced upon him, and he forges instead an identity for himself.
Leonora also must face uncomfortable truths about the world and herself before she can leave behind her childhood (and her childhood powerlessness). Quick to rage and distrustful of all white people, Leonora isolates herself to avoid the persecution of her peers; her father, who notices her isolation, calls her a “wild brown island” (7). However, this isolation only feeds her rage and low self-esteem, until her father suggests that she visit old Mr. Field to see if she could be of any use. Mr. Field becomes a mentor to Leonora, and she must confront her own intolerance of white people. Mr. Field surprises her by teaching her about the bravery of the Black soldiers he knew, and he shares his philosophy that self-reflection is more effective than knee-jerk reaction. Leonora realizes that her own anger has been weaponized by her enemies and that she can be an agent for positive change in the community. When she saves Esther, she is still reacting instinctively, but her actions are rewarded when the town paper names her a hero. At the climax of the novel, Leonora must make a decision: She can make Merlin pay for the crime of her “being a colored girl in a white world” (160), or she can follow Mr. Field’s advice that she cannot “pay a debt / by stealing from someone else to do it” (160). Her decision to testify for Merlin at his trial not only marks her new maturity but demonstrates her ability to use her voice for justice. Like Merlin, she refuses to assume the identity the townspeople would have imposed upon her, and she creates her own identity for herself, marking her departure from childhood.
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By Karen Hesse
