The Wife of His Youth Essay Questions

What role does the past play in the text?

Mr. Ryder and the Blue Veins would like to think the past is behind them. They live in a rarefied society and distance themselves from slavery, poor black people, and anything that smacks of a shameful past characterized by victimhood, trauma, and oppression. While this makes sense, the past cannot totally be exorcised, and the Blue Veins' seclusion of themselves from other black people and their desire to be part of white society are problematic. The past eventually catches up to Mr. Ryder, of course, and though it will be wrenching, he will finally come to see how acknowledging one's past is an important component of creating a better, more honest future.

According to Chesnutt, do mixed-race black people and dark-skinned black people have anything in common?

Though it may not seem like it on the surface, Chesnutt makes the claim that despite the markers of class and skin tone, black people of all backgrounds may have more in common with each other than with white people. When the Blue Veins hear Liza Jane's story, they recognize that she possesses some of the characteristics and values they would claim to espouse—fidelity, loyalty, perseverance, hard work. She also is from the same background they are, even if they have seemingly moved further away from it. As Joe Sarnowski writes, “they share the legacy of slavery as well as the continued injustice of racism,” and “these characters have in common the positive factors of a shared history, culture, and ancestry.”

What might the title of the story suggest?

The critic Earle V. Bryant explores how the title of the story derives from several Bible verses, and how understanding this illuminates the story further. First, he points to a passage in Malachi that uses the phrase “the wife of his youth” to comment on how the Israelites should not abandon the wives of their own religion and blood for women of an alien, pagan culture because they would be betraying their “unique heritage... rejecting their identity as a people—are, in fact, behaving immorally.” The phrase is also found in Proverbs. While on the surface it is admonishing adultery, it is actually commenting on spiritual adultery and promoting “national and religious fidelity.” Thus, the title reinforces Chesnutt's message that there is a “moral imperative to acknowledge and accept one's blackness in the face of great temptation to deny it—betray it, actually—through assimilation.”