The Question and Answer section for The Wife of His Youth is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.
Liza Jane is an older black woman who was born as a slave. Before the Civil War, she was married to a freeborn man by the name Sam Taylor, whom she helped to escape when she learned he was to be sold into slavery. She visits the house of Mr. Ryder...
Chesnutt suggests that it can be difficult to forge an individual identity with the weight of history resting upon a person. Mr. Ryder has tried to carve out an identity for himself in the North. He is successful, influential, and cultured, and...
The Blue Vein Society chooses its member based up the color of their skin. Racial bias, stemming from skin color, was the basis of the Blue Vein Society. Black people whose skin was light enough to see the color of their veins beneath it are...
