Introduction
Literature, whether it is a long novel or a short story, has a way of exploring some of the most difficult issues faced by people today. This is true even if the story is based on events that happened long ago. The benefit of stories set in other times, though, is that they also offer some insight as to how everyday life was affected by events we learn about in history class. This is the case with Charles Chestnutt’s short story “The Wife of His Youth” in which the significant disruption of life experienced by the institution of slavery and the Civil War is illustrated through the story of the husband, the story of the wife, and the events in the period of the story itself.
The story of Mr.Ryder
Rather than being told chronologically, the story of Mr. Ryder is told backward beginning in the present when he decides to throw a ball as a means of building up to a marriage proposal to a very refined woman he has grown to admire. The struggle he went through to attain a position of respect and responsibility is revealed in the first section beginning with his arrival in the city is told as if this is when his life began. He remembers how he “had come to Groveland a young man, and obtaining employment in the office of a railroad company as the messenger had in time worked himself up to the position of stationery clerk, having charge of the distribution of the office supplies for the whole company.” He is described as being very industrious as if he is distracting himself from something. These hints only become clear at the end of the story as he is explaining himself to his guests.
Just as Mr. Ryder has finally overcome the grief and guilt he felt as a young man after having lost his first wife, she shows up at his door attempting to put her own life in order as he had been doing. As she tells her story, it becomes clear that her life also suffered a great disruption not once but twice, and resolving this disruption was her life’s goal. The first was caused by slavery as her husband had to run away, although he was already free, to avoid being sold. The second was a combination of slavery and war as Liza Jane’s hint to her husband was discovered and her master first beat her and then sold her further south. However, through it all, she knew her husband was out there, trying to find her and always loving her. “I know he’s be’n lookin’ ferme. Fer he sot a heap er sto’ by me, Sam did, an’ I know he’s be’n huntin’ fer me all dese years – ‘less’n he’s be’n sick … er out’n his head, so he couldn’ ‘member his promise.” Even though she expects she’ll have to work to support him, she envisions their reunion as the happy days to come.
Conclusion
The great disruption that caused Mr. Ryder to adopt a new name and dedicate himself so strongly to intellectual pursuits rather than remember a love he lost and left Liza Jane with only one hope in life is emphasized by the great disruption that occurs in both people’s lives at the end of the story. When Mr. Ryder acknowledges the wife of his youth in front of the entire literate and somewhat snobby members of his community, he not only gives up the future he had hoped to share with Mrs. Dixon, he also gives up the life he has worked for the past 25 years to achieve. At the same time, Liza Jane is brought from the ignorant world she has struggled and survived in for so long into a world of much greater material comforts but one that she can’t yet understand and perhaps never will. Both character’s worlds are changed in an instant and cause the reader to reflect on how sudden and significant great disruptions can happen in life at any time.
Works Cited
Chestnutt, Charles. “The Wife of His Youth.” The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line, 1899. New York: Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1898.