Embracing the Past: A Difficult Ideal in African American Heritage

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During the struggle to rise to a higher social class, many African Americans have chosen to embrace white ideals while rejecting their heritage and anything that associates one with their “blackness” This type of rejection to one’s culture has been shown many times in African American literature. In “The Wife of His Youth,” by Charles Chesnutt, and Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, the authors use their writing to show this disconnection; both Chesnutt and Ellison are able to capture the struggle and help their characters to overcome it by embracing their pasts, which can be a very difficult ideal in African American heritage. In “The Wife of His Youth,” the main character, Mr. Ryder, is a man that has left slavery behind and has been able to make an entire new life based in prestige, becoming the leader of the leader of the affluent Blue Vein Society, and being known throughout the town as an influential, educated person. The only reason he has been able to build himself up to this high of stature is by disengaging from his roots as a slave. However, his entire new life becomes challenged when an old slave woman, not well educated or possessing high stature comes to visit him. She was described as “a little woman… very black -- so black that her toothless gums, revealed when she opened her mouth to speak, were not red, but blue” (Chesnutt 627). This woman came to ask Mr. Ryder’s help in finding her long lost husband, Sam Taylor, whom she had been searching for ever since being released from slavery. After being told this woman’s story and the husband’s name, Mr. Ryder tries to deter the woman from her search. He states scenarios such as,”’ "Do you really expect to find your husband? He may be dead long ago’” and “’He may have... ... middle of paper ... ...They're my birthmark," I said. "I yam what I am!" (Ellison 266). In “The Wife of His Youth,” by Charles Chesnutt, and Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, the authors have used their characters to show the disconnection between African Americans and their heritage. Embracing the past of slavery is a struggle for both the black and white communities. By giving specific examples of these struggles, Chesnutt and Ellison are targeting African Americans who are caught in this web; they are able to show and overcome the rejection of black heritage. Works Cited Chesnutt, Charles. “The Wife of His Youth.” Gates. 624-632. Print Ellison, Ralph. Invisible man. 2nd Vintage International ed. New York: Vintage International, 1995. Print. Gates Jr, Henry Louis, and Nellie McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. 2nd edition. New York, NY: Norton & Company, 2004

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