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Morghan Smith

Professor Camisha Broussard

ENGL 1302

21st March 2023

Course Paper Rough Draft —Argumentative Essay

Social status is described as a rank that decides on their duties, work and even their

specific rights in their life. It is an aspect that can be related to racial divide and acceptance and

can determine many aspects, decisions, and paths in life. However, should one deny their past

and who they really are to be accepted or reach a certain social status? While a person does not

need to change themselves, society has unusual ways of bringing their past back to them and

holding them back. Therefore, a person should accept their history to obtain a successful future.

Going back on a quote by Stephanie Dowrick, “Your attitude to life is far more important in

determining your happiness than your money, appearance, social status or talent.” Therefore,

they stand towards if they regard their social status above all that it will not conclusively lead to

a happy life and even a clearer mind.

Many books' articles and journals deal with the topic of social status, race, and

acceptance. In the book “A Wife of His Youth,” by Charles Waddell Chestnutt, the main

character, Mr. Ryder, must disown his past to move up higher in society. He had to leave behind

his former life as a slave and his darker skinned wife to become the well-respected man and

regarded highly in social status. “The Blue Veins did not allow that any such requirement existed

for admission to their circle, but, on the contrary, declared that character and culture were the

only things considered; and that if most of their members were light-colored, it was because such

persons, as a rule, had had better opportunities to qualify themselves for membership.”
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(Chestnutt 1 ) However, his past life comes back as he is trying to forget his past. This path and

decisions lead to what he thought was a definite happy life and a newer life never being

discovered or even changed if he moved on. If he had moved on, he would have forgotten his

past and never acknowledged Liza Jane and would not have been the same man that he was

before, never acknowledged Liza Jane, never being d man that he was before, never

acknowledged Liza Jane, never being discovered, or even changed if he moved on. If he had

moved on, he would have forgotten his past and never acknowledged Liza Jane and never bein,

or even changed if he moved on. If he had moved on, he would have forgotten his past and never

acknowledged Liza Jane and never being discovered, or even changed if he moved on and would

have had an entirely different life if he had thought to move on higher into society.

Mr. Ryder also had to deal with people whiter than him also. Those in this society are

light skinned and look more white than black and are looked at as privileged class. His lover,

Mrs. Molly Dixon, whom he was going to propose to, was also well-liked, well-known, and part

of society. Within this story, it tells a story about a man who must deal with the pressures of

having to forget his history to go higher in society. When he then is about to propose, he brings

out Ms. Liza Jane, and introduces her as “The Wife of His Youth”, finally acknowledging his

past, and remembering his history. (Chestnutt 8) Without that, he would have been forever

moving on higher and higher into his new society in a way, as well as being able to move on

higher as well. His life was different and really varied when he had time to understand it when he

acknowledged it.

After learning about The Wife of His Youth, there are increased points and elements

revealed as the story continues to expand and go on. Ms. Liza Jane is looking for her husband,

Sam Taylor, and little does she know, the man standing in front of her is her slave husband from
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those many years ago. This story brings out points of societal change as described in Tanfer

Tunc’s Journal Article as well, she explains more on the problem of having to forget that past,

what their culture is and where they come from. Changing what they are now, should not change

what their culture is or what skin color they are. Showing how they are made up does not mean

they must forget it and decide to change it better, or even keeping it the same. With that, having

to move on is an effective way to help themselves improve on what they can truly be. She goes

on to explain the critiques on Charles Chesnutt originally portraying Mr. Ryder’s character as

believing only his white mixed side helped him to excel higher in society and to forget his past.

Even with the story, she shows how Mr. Ryder could have gone forth and married Mrs. Molly

Dixon, but then goes back on that point and goes to the ball and explains Liza Jane as the wife of

his youth and knows he should have accepted his past instead of abandoning it entirely. The

story has many inspirational points on how forgetting their past can come back to them in the

end, but then they realize how important, or how little changing themselves can be. When they

change their past, they understand that they can have issues on letting things go, or even trying to

become better at doing newer things with their life.

In June Socken’s Journal Article “Charles Waddell Chestnutt and the Solution to the

Race Problem” she describes the purpose behind how the race issue was described in Charles

Waddell Chesnutt’s stories to show the rejection of black culture to move up higher in the social

status. Within this journal, she explains the issue of having to reject their history to move on to a

higher social status. Understanding the issue of having to leave what they had to find a better

future can be confusing and hard at some points. While knowing they must move on, there are

many times to believe they must stay in the past. Trying to move on from their past can be a

harder issue if they believe their past is a nicer representation of themselves. While knowing
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about their past is hard to forget, when knowing about it they can improve and become better at

acknowledging it more. When knowing that they had to decide between moving on and staying

in the past, moving on was a better idea.

With this story, there could be a few issues against being in favor of forgetting their past,

as it could lead to more opportunities and a better life. However, these stories made me conclude

in favor of the argument that they should always acknowledge their past and learn from the

mistakes or negative experiences. Despite the negatives, it can turn into a life lesson. Mr. Ryder

was living a life of prestige and honor. However, his past was lurking and came to the forefront.

He looked down on many people due to the shade of their skin and status, and even the Blue

Vein Society did as well. Therefore, the life lesson he learned was that the prejudice and

criticism that he faced, he had in turn inflicted on others, in the end it made him realize that his

past was a part of him, and he must acknowledge it. It made him a stronger man and lifted a

weight off his shoulder despite losing his status in society. He had realized his past and knew

how important it was to move on to the future and to improve on what he had already put in.

When he decided to acknowledge his past and not move on, he had learned a a huge life lesson in

deciding to stay in his past rather than to move on and forget about it.
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Works Cited

Chesnutt, Charles Waddell. The Wife of His Youth: And Other Stories of the Color Line.

Houghton, Mifflin, 1899. The Atlantic Monthly,

nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai2/identity/text1/chesnuttyouth.pdf.

Socken, June. “Charles Waddell Chesnutt and the Solution to the Race Problem.” Negro

American Literature Forum, vol. 3, no. 2, 1969, pp. 52–56. JSTOR,

doi.org/10.2307/3041383. Accessed 9 Mar. 2023.

“TOP 14 QUOTES BY STEPHANIE DOWRICK | A-Z Quotes.” A-Z Quotes, www.azquotes.-

com/author/37899-Stephanie_Dowrick. Accessed 31 Mar. 2023.

Tunc, Tanfer Emin. “THE DE(CON)STRUCTION OF BLACK/WHITE BINARIES Critiques

of Passing in Charles Waddell Chesnutt’s ‘“The Wife of His Youth” and Other Stories of

the Color Line.’” Callaloo, vol. 37, no. 3, 2014, pp. 676–91. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/sta-

ble/24265164. Accessed 9 Mar. 2023.