Small town life:

White men and the rest

 To the people in Grover’s Corner
they are indigenous

Critical Indigenous Critical White

Theory Theory

The indigenous Different groups of

people were not people are separated
socially capable socially.
enough to
survive.

Critical Sociocultural Theory

 Social Indigenous Theory
People in Grover’s Corner all think themselves as Indigenous peoples.
Their families have lived there for such a long time they have taken on
the role of Indigenous families.

“The earliest tombstones in the cemetery up

there on the mountain say 1670-1680 – they’re
Grovers and Cartwrights and Gibbses and
“The effect of the play is reality of imagination rather than
Herseys – same names reality”as are around here
(“Thornton Wilder, by Dayton
now”(Wilder 6). Kohler)
The well known families in the town are now what are considered the
indigenous people in the town. For the people in Grover’s Corner the
towns history starts at 1670. In reality life was going on in Grover’s
Corner before the immigrant families arrived there, because the
Cotahatchees were living there, but in the modern towns peoples
“imaginations” they were the first ones living there.
 Social White Theory
“His plays celebrate
“We’re lower human love, the worth
White people are
middle class: and dignity of man, the
the dominant race in
sprinkling of values of man, the
Grover’s Corner. The
professional values of ordinary, and
town is full if white
men… ten per the eternity of human
Anglo-Saxon
cent illiterate values.” (“Thornton
protestants who are
laborers” (Wilder Wilder and the Tragic
successful and
24) Sense of Life,” by
educated.
Robert W. Corrigan168)

The character’s in the book are what a social white theorist would look at “Average
People.” Grover’s Corner population is made up of mostly white middle class Anglo-
Saxon protestants. The people in this book are referred to as “man” assuming that
they are all white. The “illiterate laborers” were not even considered “men” just
workers. The illiterate laborers are probably from a different culture and probably
are not white.
 Critical Sociocultural Theory
Cultures other than “Yes…anthropological data:
Early Amerindian stock.
the white Anglo- Cotahatchee tribes…no
Saxon culture in evidence before the tenth
century of this era…hm…now
Grover’s Corner are entirely disappeared… possible
both physically and traces in three families”
mentally separate. (Wilder 22).
“Tensions and conflicts…were brought out…Cultural patterns and traditions were also revealed” (“A Project on ‘Our
Town” for Communication Classes,” by Walter J. Engler 153)

If a person is not a western European immigrant the

Grover’s Corner separates them from themselves. The
Cotachee tribe has become extinct because they were
not are superior as the white folk, all but traces have
disappeared. Also the Polish people are physically
separated by the train tracks. The town has been mostly
 Synthesis
White is the dominant race in Grover’s Corner. The
white people of the town believe they are superior,
people that are not like them are not even considered
“men.” The people who were illiterate were labeled
laborers and the people from Poland were just known
as the Polish. There is a clear separation from the
White folk and everyone else. The white people of
Grover’s Corner believe they are so superior that
they are the indigenous people of the area despite
the fact that the Cotahatchee tribe lived there before
anyone else. The Grover’s Corner people have grown
to accept these ways because it is a tradition and as
it has always been. Since whites had arrived in
Grover’s Corner they have always considered
themselves better.