Jefferson White Neighborhood in "Knight's Gambit" (Location)

After his train passes through the Negro section of Jefferson, Charles Mallison sees "the houses of white people" (253). This particular group of white people are clearly lower class: their houses are "no larger than the Negro ones" - but, he immediately adds, these "houses" are "never cabins"; calling them that would mean "you'd probably have a fight on your hands" (253). For the residents, the implication is that their houses are superior to the Negroes' cabins. In the rest of its description, the narrative also defines these "houses," and the folks who live in them, in the context of the blacks who live nearby - but with a very different implication: the white's houses are "painted, or at least once-painted, the main difference being that they wouldn't be quite so clean inside" as the Negroes' cabins (253).