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There Is Confusion Jessie Fauset(1924)
The first novel by JESSIEFAUSET, influential CRISIS
editor and mentor to numerous Harlem Renais-
sance writers. It established Fauset’s interest in rep-
resenting the African-American middle class and
issues of racial PASSINGand the complicated poli-
tics of acculturation and assimilation. Fauset con-
tracted with the New York publishing firm of BONI
& LIVERIGHT, the same firm that had published
CANEby JEAN TOOMERto much acclaim. The
book, however, was printed in England because
Boni & Liveright had sold the rights to her novel to
the London-based firm of Chapman & Hall (NYT,
7 September 1924, BR18). The press publicized
Fauset’s forthcoming novel as part of its own efforts
“to give a fair hearing to young writers.” The firm’s
spring 1924 publicity for the novel introduced
Fauset to readers as the author who “discloses the
life of the cultured negroes in New York and
Philadelphia” (NYT,27 April 1924, BR32).
The plot revolves around Joanna Marshall, a
talented singer and aspiring dancer who struggles
with the contemporary prejudices and stereotypes
that would undermine her professional successes.
The daughter of a man from whom she loved to
hear stories as a child, she longs for venues in
which she can practice and perfect her art. Even
church becomes a forum in which she can advance
her secular goals. As the soloist in the choir, she is
able to attract “throngs to the church every Sun-
day” because of her “mezzo voice full and pulsing
and gold” (73). She is quite different from her sib-
lings, both of whom pursue different kinds of lives.
Her sister Sylvia is “like a firefly in comparison
with Joanna’s steady beaconlike flood of light,” a
woman who “dashed about, worked as quickly as
she thought and produced immediate and usually
rather striking results” (17). Her brother Phillip, an
activist and World War I veteran who dies at
home, was gassed during the war and eventually is
nursed by his wife, Maggie Ellersley. Maggie, whose
early experiences of domestic upheaval and of
poverty prompt her to link emotional security with
financial stability, eventually finds real love and
fulfillment.
Set in PHILADELPHIAand in NEWYORKCITY,
the novel is a tempestuous love story. Joanna is in-
volved with Peter Bye, a multitalented but indo-
lent man whose “dark arresting beauty” catches
Joanna’s eye. The narrator attributes Bye’s pen-
chant for laziness to his heredity, a background
that “had become a tradition, of a tradition that
had become warped, that had gone astray, and had
carried Peter and Peter Bye’s father along in its
general wreckage” (21–22). That background
dates back to the early years of American enslave-
ment, includes an ancestor who fought nobly in
the American Revolution, and a pioneering educa-
tor who resented the ways in which his white own-
ers and their descendants enjoyed success that was
essentially financed by the labors of their slaves.
Peter becomes convinced that “the world owes me
a living.” It is this perspective, in addition to his
deep-rooted hatred of white people, that he must
overcome in order to participate fully in the mod-
ern world. Ultimately, the two are able to recognize
the potential value and protective powers of the
love that they share. Joanna chooses to abandon
her career, and she does so in order to devote her-
self wholly to her marriage. As she tells Peter, “I
learned that nothing in the world is worth as much
as love. For people like us, people who can and
must suffer—Love is our refuge and strength”
(283–284). The novel closes once Fauset has
crafted this idyllic image of stable domesticity and
self-aware commitment to racial solidarity and
emotional uplift.
Contemporary analyses of There Is Confusion
explore the ways in which Fauset highlighted the
intense scrutiny with which African Americans
dealt in the public sphere. Critics also note Fauset’s
discussion of domesticity and femininity and the
degree to which modern women had to negotiate
their professional and public desires with the ex-
pectations and responsibilities of the private
sphere. Thadious Davis suggests, however, that
Fauset contrives the final message about high do-
mesticity. She proposes that “Joanna’s reversal512 There Is Confusion