During the struggle to achieve a higher social class, many African Americans have chosen to embrace white ideals while rejecting their heritage and everything that associates it with their “blackness” ” This type of rejection of one's culture has been shown many times in African American literature. In “The Wife of His Youth,” by Charles Chesnutt, and Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, the authors use their writing to show this disconnect; both Chesnutt and Ellison are able to capture the struggle and help their characters overcome it by embracing their past, which can be a very difficult ideal in the African American tradition. In "The Wife of His Youth", the main character, Mr. Ryder, is a man who left slavery behind and was able to build a completely new life based on prestige, becoming the leader of the leader of the wealthy Blue Vein Society and being known throughout the city as an influential and educated person. The only reason he was able to reach this stature is by freeing himself from his slave roots. However, his whole new life is thrown into question when an old slave, not well educated or tall in stature, comes to visit him. She was described as “a little woman… very black – so black that her toothless gums, revealed when she opened her mouth to speak, were not red, but blue” (Chesnutt 627). This woman has come to ask for Mr. Ryder's help in finding her long-lost husband, Sam Taylor, whom she has been searching for since she was freed from slavery. After being told this woman's story and her husband's name, Mr. Ryder tries to discourage the woman from his search. State scenarios like: "'"Do you really expect to find your husband? He might have died a long time ago'" and "'He might have... half the paper... I'm my birthmark," I said. "I am what I am!" (Ellison 266). In "The Wife of His Youth ", by Charles Chesnutt, and Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, the authors used their characters to show the disconnect between African Americans and their heritage. Embracing the past of slavery is a struggle for both the white and black communities .By providing specific examples of these struggles, Chesnutt and Ellison target African Americans who are caught in this web; they are able to show and overcome the rejection of black heritage. " Cancelli. 624-632. Print Ellison, Ralph. The Invisible Man. 2nd International Vintage ed. New York: Vintage International, 1995. Print. Gates Jr, Henry Louis and Nellie McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. 2nd edition. New York, New York: Norton & Company, 2004