Previous
Foreshadowing
Genre
Explanation and Analysis:
“The Wife of His Youth” is a realist short story, meaning that Chesnutt sought to make the story accurately reflect the reality of the times in which he was living. He does this by depicting a late-19th century organization for mixed-race people (the Blue Veins) as accurately as possible, likely basing it off his lived experience as a member of such a society. Thus, the story likely contains some autobiographical elements. Chesnutt also tries to capture the specific dialect of uneducated former slaves as realistically as possible, as seen in the ways he writes Eliza Jane’s dialogue.
This story also belongs in the African American literature genre, as it is a literary work written by an African American that focuses on the particular experience of being a Black person in the United States. “The Wife of His Youth” is specifically focused on the experience of light-skinned, mixed-race Black people who exist in-between Black and white society. In this story, Chesnutt intends to capture the ways that mixed-race people (like Mr. Ryder) can be seduced into desiring “upward absorption” into the white race while also wanting to live and act in solidarity with darker-skinned and lower-class members of the Black community (like Eliza Jane) who do not have such an option.
Related Themes:
