journal #10

While reading "the Wife of his Youth" there were several transitions into complete enlightenment of the story. There is no subtle introduction of characters, setting, or any summation of the tale; the reader is simply thrown in to the story. It isn't hard to catch on to what is happening, about a passage in and you are already fully enlightened on the Blue Vein society who were the upper social standing of that society. Once I fully comprehended the social group, I was intrigued to read on. Then I learned it was actually mulattos that were a majority of this pale group, and this put a whole new spin on my interpretation of what this group was about. The pressure to prove themselves as worthy of their class standing as an inner drive and to prove to others, of both races. When Mr. Ryder is planning this ball to propose he reads over a verse about those of mixed race, and this pressure on those who can call no place home is revealed as extremely important to him and most likely his entire group. When the small black woman entered the story it was not until the very end, while he was asking what the husband should do to the party, that I suspected it was him. I could not guess at the relevance of her story, only that it could have effected the path he chose to take when picking a wife. Surprisingly I was right in that aspect. He chose to acknowledge this woman as his, even when he had worked so hard to get where he was in society and had thrown this entire ball for a woman younger, paler, smarter, wealthier, and more beautiful than his wife of that slave marriage. I believe that he chose her to speak on his character as man of two races. I think by choosing his first wife he showed his guests that even though he looks white, acts like a upper class white businessman, and can afford a lifestyle only open to white men previously; he cans till stay true to his roots. In a way this separates him from the "superior race" that segregated and enslaved other human beings. Here he seems to be revealing what we would all hope of our citizens and future generations, to live well but not forget where you came from. Humility, as a virtue, should never die.