Mr. Ryder’s Immorality
The question of morality is one that a person struggles with throughout his/her life.
During the course of living, one is certainly faced with situations that require decisions between
right and wrong to be made. But, between the two, how does one know which to pick?
Do you depend on what you feel and believe- the self- or do you seek answers from
society? Some people choose to listen to society. Society has the ability to shape the
morality of a person. In The Wife of his Youth, Charles W. Chestnut exemplifies the
influence a society can have on making moral decisions for some people.
Chestnut constructs a story about a man who builds a life for himself within a
community, and gains a lot of respect. Mr. Ryder, a man who is part of the Blue Veins
society, which is a group of mixed colored people, made quite a success of himself. But,
with his amount of success, he faces a moral dilemma.
When Mr. Ryder’s life seems to have settled in a comfortable stance, and he feels
ready to take upon a wife, a woman from his past reappears- the wife of his youth. The
moral dilemma he faces is choosing between his wife, who he now sees as “very black,
so black that her toothless gums, revealed when she opened her mouth to speak, were
not red, but blue. She looked like a bit of the old plantation life, summoned up from the
past by the wave of a magician’s wand,” (5) and a woman who he knows “would help to
further the upward process of absorption he had been wishing and waiting for” (3).
Mr. Ryder, who “might aptly be called the dean of the Blue Veins” (1) is a
man who has become accustomed to the lifestyle of the Blue Veins community which
“establish[es] and maintain[s] correct social standards among a people whose social
condition presented almost unlimited room for improvement” (1). He has built his high
rank status to fit into this community for most of his adult life.
Additionally, Ryder is described as a very intelligent man who, even though did
not join the Blue Veins as early as its other members, was a “genius for social leadership”
(2) so much “that he had speedily become its recognized adviser and head, the custodian
of its standards, and the preserver of its traditions” (2). So, does Mr. Ryder appear to be
a noble and well respectable man? Certainly. After all, he "shaped social policy of the
Blue Veins, was active in providing for its entertainment, and when the interest fell off,
as it sometimes did, he fanned the embers until they burst again into a cheerful flame”(2).
Ryder was indeed a charming man within his society. He was also praised for his skill of
poetry, “He could repeat whole pages of the great English poets” (2). Ryder must have
been a man who was good with his words and therefore admired for his speech. Ryder
seems to reek with nobility according to the way he is described. He appears to be a level
headed man, who is able to set up moral standards and live by them on his own. He was a
man who could create sound theories about life and make certain he lived by them.
For instance, Ryder produced his very own theory about being of mixed race,
which made him even more admirable within his community. His theory stipulates:
“...we people of mixed blood are ground between the upper and the nether millstone.
Our fate lies between absorption by the white race and extinction in the black. The one
doesn't want us yet, but may take us in time”(3). Also diligently adding, “we must do the
best we can for ourselves and those who are to follow us. Self-preservation is the first law
of nature”(3). Ryder is encouraging the people of mixed race to know their place within
society and know what they stand for, thus, preserve themselves by being faithful and
truthful to who and what they are.
Also, words echo great insight into the mind of a mixed raced person, and how
they might view their existence in society. Being in the middle of black and white, a
person of mixed race could feel a sense of no solid belonging, thus, needing to identify
with other people who are in his very situation for support and the building of morals
to strengthen him. Moreover, a man of such words and status was clearly admired for
his virtuous lifestyle. Ryder appears to be a man of great morals, status, and is well
respected.
Perhaps, like any other man of high rank, he is expected to always make the right
decisions whether or not he personally agrees with the idea or not. Mr. Ryder has to
model his status to the community and be a man of honor. But, could Ryder possibly be
a man of no morality? It is possible. Mr. Ryder did question taking in his long lost wife,
because he felt him and her were in completely different worlds then when him and his
wife married.
During the course of his life, Mr. Ryder finds himself attracted to a woman
who fits the description of his status. Ryder being from a community where the lighter
and more educated you are, you are considered as being most achieved and respected,
admired a woman who “was whiter than he, and better educated. She had moved in the
best colored society of the country, at Washington, and had taught in the schools of that
city”(3). This union would appear as perfect. The two appear to have been made for
each other as, Mr. Ryder “had been regarded as quite a catch, and young ladies and their
mothers had manœuvred with much ingenuity to capture him”(2). While, Mrs. Molly
Dixon was “Such a superior person had been eagerly welcomed to the Blue Vein Society,
and had taken a leading part in its activities”(3).
Moreover, the need to be married to Mrs. Dixon goes further than just satisfying
a humanistic needs to have a partner. This marriage will to help him climb even higher
into the ladder of status within his community. Being a man of mixed color, he felt
as though he needed to keep improving his status to better identify himself within the
community. This is presumably because “In the United States, race became the main
form of human identity, and it has had a tragic effect on low-status "racial" minorities and
on those people who perceive themselves as of "mixed race." (Smedley, par 1). So the
people of mixed raced, as well as the minorities, always feel the need to love a life that is
considered as being of high standards or rank. These people have been made to think and
believe that the way that they should live is through the acceptance of the mannerisms
and the lifestyle of the white people, so they always try to live up the standards of the
white race. While talking to his wife, Ryder tries to convince the woman that the man that
she is looking for has moved on. He adds, “Perhaps he’s outgrown you, and climbed up
in the world where he wouldn't care to have you find him”(7).
Partly, Ryder might have denied his wife at first because he did not want to go
back to the life that he used to live which might be viewed as low class. He might have
felt that he has grown into becoming someone who is of greater value than he used to be,
and might feel he is too good to be living with the wife of his youth, whom he does not
see as precious anymore. Unfortunately, the wife of his youth thinks that her husband
is a man of greater integrity. In her mind, “Sam ain’ dat kin’ er man” a man who was
good to his wife even though “he wuzn’ much good ter nobody e’se, fer he wuz one er
de triflin’es’ han’s on de plantation” (7). Clearly the woman has a different idea of who
and what Sam is. Ryder has become a person who lives to please other people, mostly his
Blue Vein community. But, what moral role should Ryder play in his wife’s life now as
Mr. Ryder?
The wife of his youth spent twenty-five years believing that “he’s be’n huntin’ fer
me all dese years,‘less’n he’s be’n sick er sump’n, so he couldn’ work, er out’n his head,
so he couldn’ ‘member his promise”(5). This woman from his past deserved to be told
the truth about the man she thought was looking for her all these years, but wasn’t. So,
was Ryder’s decision to deny his wife at first, then accept her after the approval of his
community a moral one or not? To answer this question, morality needs to be defined and
analysed first in order to determine whether this decision was moral or not.
The morality of a person is defined by examining a person’s character. In order
to determine whether or not a person is moral there should be a question of whether the
purpose in virtuous or not. In philosophy, the theory of virtue ethics states, a person “can
experience fear, confidence, desire, anger, pity, and generally any kind of pleasure and
pain.... But to experience all this at the right time, and toward the right objects, toward
the right people, for the right reason, and in the right manner... is the mark of virtue”
(Pojman, 173). And, since a virtuous person is one that performs moral actions based
on his moral character, making the right decisions at the right time, for the right reasons
means that the person is being moral.
Therefore, Ryder could not make a decision solely on his own but, instead, sought
to find answers from his community. Ryder was unable to take up his own character and
practice morality by accepting his wife the moment the woman came to his doorstep
looking for him.
In conclusion, Ryder did make a bad decision by thinking about denying his wife.
This is the point where one can question if Ryder is moral or not. But, a person cannot be
judged on the thoughts that he has as long as the act of being immoral is not performed.
Maybe his seeking advice from the community was a way for him to make certain that
he is doing the right thing, even though it would have been more pleasing if he had the
ability to make that moral decision on his own. It seems, the reason that Ryder decided to
take his wife back in, is guilt. Ryder felt some kind of remorse for the woman who had
spent twenty- five years of her life waiting for a man who clearly went on with his, and
forgot about the wife of his youth.
So, this does not make Ryder a bad person because, “Having sinned, “good” people
feel intense remorse, and regret a grinding force of shame, and denouncement of self”
(Greenberg, Koole & Pyszczynski, 156). Because Ryder felt some remorse and guilt for
denying his wife, this did lead him to making a moral decision.
Book Summary: http://www.enotes.com/topics/wife-his-youth
Works Cited:
Greenberg, Jeff, Sander Leon Koole, and Thomas A. Pyszczynski. Handbook of
Experimental Existential Psychology. New York: Guilford, 2004. Print.
Pojman, Louis P. How Should We Live: An Introduction to Ethics. Australia:
Thomson/Wadsworth, 2005. Print.
Smedley, Audrey. ""Race" and the Construction of Human Identity." Online Library.
Wiley Online Library, 1999-2013. Web. 21 Feb. 2013.
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