"The Wife of his Youth"

Charles Chesnutt's "The Wife of his Youth" is a short story about two married slaves, almost 25 years after the civil war reuniting after the wife's relentless hard work searching for her old love. Even though I knew the title of the short story, for some reason I didn't make that connection until I finished reading! When the old lady walked in the garden I wasn't exactly sure what her purpose was, but I thought that she may have had something to do with Mrs. Dixon. I thought she was going to say something about Mrs. Dixon not being aloud to be with Mr. Ryder or something similar to that, I definitely did not expect her to be his long lost wife at first. When the lady first said "scuse me, suh I's lookin' for my husban'. I heerd you wuz a big man an' had libbed heah a long time..." I had to re-read that line because I thought she was saying that she was looking for her husband, who lived in the house and was a big man. Which after reading it again, that is not what she was trying to say- but I thought it was slightly coincidental that I thought those were her original words. I find it interesting that Mr. Ryder either didn't remember her name at first or didn't seem to bothered when she originally stated her name, considering he used to be married to her. I thought that he was being slightly rude and harsh when he kept on asking her many questions about her husband and slightly mocking her on searching for him for 25 years. After looking at the picture in the woman's locket for a while and then staring at himself in the mirror for a long time I began to think that he had some connection to either the woman or to her husband. I than began to think that the husband was going to be at the party and Mr. Ryder was going to recognize him from the picture and tell him about his wife coming to his home earlier, but that did not happen. Then when he was giving his toast, I thought that he was trying to relate the woman's story to his love for Mrs. Dixie, and that hearing her story made him realize more than ever that he wanted not only a wife but Mrs. Dixie to be it. But then when he began to get more personal in his toast and ask his friends what they believed the man should have done, I thought that he might be the husband, but I did not know if he was ever going to admit it to them. I was honestly shocked that the woman was in the house and he brought her out to meet everyone. He seemed so interested in Mrs. Dixie to raise his social status and to become more elite that he would be embarrassed by his former wife or he would never tell anyone about her. But I think that hearing her story of relentlessly looking for him for 25 years and having complete faith that she would find him and that he would still love her inspired him to realize what was most important in life. He reconnected with his original true love and realized that this ball, the "Blue Veins Society" and having a elaborate life was nothing compared to having someone who loved him endlessly and he could happily spend the rest of his life with.