The short story, “The Wife of his Youth,” by Charles W. Chesnutt was a surprise to me up until the last line with a true “Aha!” moment. The story did not go the way I thought; in fact I believed that somehow the women the main character, Mr. Ryder, intended to marry would be somehow a apart of the surprise. I like the fact that it was Mrs. Dixon, the woman he had intended to ask to marry him, who answered him first after his speech about a hypothetical story ending with the question “Shall you acknowledge her?” It is the first place where I realized where the story was taking a turn and has a bit of irony to it. It is ironic that the woman he had become infatuated with is the one to tell him to recognize his true wife. This story pairs well with the poem “Learning to Read” by Frances Harper because it is one about perseverance against all odds. Mr. Ryder’s first wife traveled for 25 years searching for her true love, never giving up on something she wanted above all else. The poem is from a free slave woman’s point of view of her talking about how she is looked down upon for reading but she will do anything to read her Bible and “the precious words it said.” Like Liza Jane, Mr. Ryder’s first wife, the speaker in the poem will only feel at home when they are in a place where they feel safe and independent and free from fear and doubt.
I enjoyed and found insight from both readings. The perseverance and courage both women have is inspiring. During this time for a woman to travel alone to multiple cities in search of one man is dangerous and would be seen as hopeless. She looked passionately for 25 years and never gave up. Would someone today do that for their loved ones? We hear of stories where military wives divorce their husbands over seas after just a year of being apart. Devotion and honor is not like it used to be. Then the woman in the poem, who sought to read her Bible is a sweet and innocent sign of independence. She inspires those who feel persecuted for doing something different to fight the good fight and never relinquish their right to knowledge.
I felt almost exactly the same way when I read "The Wife of His Youth". It was a huge shock to me that the woman who he was talking to actually turned out to be the woman who was looking for him all of these years. I'd also like to add that I'm not sure why he kept telling her that he doesn't know or hasn't seen the man she is speaking of. Maybe he was too shocked to actually tell her, or maybe she wouldn't believe him, but either way I was a bit confused by that once I finished the story. I also agree with you on the irony of Ms. Dixon asking him if he will acknowledge his former wife. In the end, I liked the twist at the end.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really get that Aha! moment from the poem, but nonetheless, it was a good story about how slaves used wit and clever techniques to teach themselves how to read. Which is also ironic because many slave masters felt slaves weren't smart enough to read, or they had no need for it. Finally, to point how just how important it was to learn to read, Harper writes "And I felt as independent As the queen upon her throne".