Ryder’s Reunion
Charles Chesnutt’s “The Wife of His Youth” uses the reunion of Mr. Ryder and 'Liza Jane to show the slow process of healing that took place after the Civil War. Even though the story is set a few years after the Reconstruction Era, many of the successes of the era can be seen in the story, mainly the redressment of social inequities that took place as a result of slavery. The Blue Veins society and Mr. Ryder represent how the economic and political inequalities of slavery were redressed by slavery at the expense of colored identity, as they assimilated into white culture by talking like whites, for example, while Mr. Ryder and ‘Liza Jane reuniting represents the social healing that took place after slavery. In both cases, the traumatic scars left by slavery are still present, yet they are covered up and forgotten, most notably in the case of Mr. Ryder. The Blue Veins society, a group which embraces their lighter skin in a way which devalues their colored roots, is difficult for m...