Ray is the protagonist of The Violin Conspiracy. Although the novel is written in third-person narration, the colloquial language closely follows his natural voice. Slocumb neither makes Ray a caricature of an uneducated, underprivileged Black man nor ignores the specificity of being Black in the classical music industry; instead, Ray speaks like a young Black man with a unique streak of ruthless determination that carries him forward in a corrupt cultural system.

Ray’s character development can be traced partly via the theme of Racial Prejudice and Preconception. Before Ray plays violin at a wedding for the first time in Chapter 6, he also hasn’t had any direct contact with racism at a dangerous level. While he sees it from his classmates, teachers, and community, his experience with Uncle Roger is something new. Previously, he had only been aware of this type of racial discrimination through a wider cultural lens. After he’s thrown out of his wedding performance, he’s forced to look at his place in the world in a new way. The nonchronological structure of the novel, however, means that Slocumb creates dramatic

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