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 most readers to support. However, despite some of their racist beliefs and their assimilation into white culture, they still are an example of a somewhat successful group of colored people as a result of the Reconstruction Era. The group is shown to be quite well off, as for example during the Blue Vein Ball we see “a number of school-teachers, several young doctors, three or four lawyers, some professional singers, an editor, a lieutenant in the United States army,” all of which are colored figures, though it is recognized that most were more white than black (18). Even though most of the members are not representative of Blacks who benefited from the Reconstruction Era, a group like this might not have existed at all or have been as successful without Reconstruction. Colored people possessing this wide degree of careers would have been impossible in a world without Reconstruction, and the fact that some colored people were able to get these positions is an important part of healing from the wounds of slavery. Reconstruction, to some degree, redressed the social, political, and economic inequalities that took place as a result of slavery, even if those who benefited were of a lighter skin complexion. 

 

Mr. Ryder is an example of a colored person who benefited from Reconstruction, as we see him carry no trauma or pain from his past life in the Antebellum south. However, when we are first introduced to him, he is portrayed as possessing some sort of racial bias towards the white race. Attempting to assimilate with the white culture, Mr. Ryder himself says that “[the fate of mixed people] lies between absorption by the white race and extinction in the black” (Chesnutt 7). Clearly, Mr. Ryder has a race prejudice, contrary to what he says about not having one, and yet we still see Mr. Ryder as an example of a colored person living a successful life because of Reconstruction. But what Chesnutt is trying to show the reader is that there were opportunities for colored people to “heal” from slavery at the expense of betraying their own people, as we can see with Mr. Ryder forgetting about ‘Liza. This is an example of how the system continued to hurt colored people who were trying to heal their wounds from slavery.

The arrival of 'Liza reawakens something long lost inside of Mr. Ryder. He had originally intended to marry Mrs. Dixon, an extremely light skinned colored woman, which would have marked his ultimate assimilation into white culture, but he instead announces at the Blue Vein Ball that he has found the “wife of his youth” and returns to ‘Liza. This is significant because ‘Liza was extremely dark skinned and practically signified the complete opposite of what Mr. Ryder was hoping to achieve, but even with this divide between them he realized the importance of their old relationship. The message Chesnutt is trying to portray to the readers is that while slavery broke many families and saw many people move away from their original culture and people, even 25 years later there was still a chance to rebuild and start anew by reforging old bonds and retaining black identity.