Sunday, June 3, 2018

The Wife of his Youth and other stories



I really like Chesnutt.  He was a mixed author.  He stated that he was 7/8’s white but was proud of his African American background.  I read his short story The Sheriff’s Children for school in my American Literature class.  It was one of the best stories featured in this collection.  It’s about a sheriff who realizes the African American person in his jail is his child.  I also liked The Wife of his Youth where a dark black woman tells a man a story about how she got sold into slavery but is still looking for the husband that she lost.  There’s a cool twist.  Also, A Matter of Principle shows hypocrisy well.  The Bouquet is a lovely story about a black girl who dearly loves her teacher but can’t attend her funeral because of racism.  I never heard of Chesnutt before until this year.  He’s not that well known compared to authors like Zora Heale Hurston but he’s worth discovering.  

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