Journal # 10 The Aha! Moment

Both Chesnutt's story, The Wife of His Youth and Harper's poem, Learning to read, had "aha moments." Aha moments are when the reader discovers a hidden meaning behind the story that gives the story an even greater significance than it once had, and the reader an even greater insight to the story.

When reading The Wife of His Youth, I was extremely surprised after I read, "permit me to introduce to you the wife of my youth." That moment was definitely the aha moment for me because I did not expect that the visitor looking for her long lost love would of been Mr. Ryder. Throughout the story I was convinced that he was going to propose to Ms. Dixon at the grand ball as he said he was going to. But after he explained his story to everyone at the ball and confessed his true love for the old woman, it was a turning point in the story. There was one moment in the text that said, "he went upstairs to his bedroom, and stood for a long time before the mirror of his dressing-case, gazing thoughtfully at the reflection of his own face," and after finishing the story I realize that it was foreshadowing what was to come. At that moment he had knew that the man in the picture the old woman gave him was himself, and that after 25 years, she was still faithful to the man she once loved.

In Harper's Learning to read the reader is influenced to believe that the old freed slave was not able to read because she explains different ways in which slaves would try to learn how to read. One by greasing the pages of his book and hiding them in his hat, another by listening in on the children spelling. She describes that the slave owners would not allow them to read or write because it would make the slaves "too wise." So I, the reader, wouldn't of never expected the end stanza of the poem. She says, "and never stopped til i could read, the hymns and testament," from The Bible. At that moment I understood that she was actually able to read. This hidden meaning established just how important literacy was to slaves, and that once they were able to read it enabled them to finally be independent and sit "upon [their] throne."

Both of these stories were very interesting, I really enjoyed reading them because the endings were unexpected. I've always thought that a sense of surprise or a twist in a story makes it better, and now I know that it also deepens the readers understanding.