The Aha! Moment

This may sound strange, but I have always loved the Aha! moment in books and movies; especially when it is totally unexpected. I really enjoyed reading The Wife of His Youth, by Charles Chestnutt, because that moment was very unexpected. As I have reflected on my reading of the short story, I have come to realize that there are so many little clues that point to the fact that the old slave women is actually the wife of Mr. Ryder's youth. The most obvious clue is in the title; it should have been a red flag that this women was his wife when she showed up asking him if she new her husband from her youth, but even then it didn't click. Other clues also begin to pop up, but they are significantly more subtle. Mr. Ryder mentions the fact that he had never married, but the fact that he was still "single" could have implied that he was almost holding onto something, and that fact connects to Liza's statement of "He wouldn' marry no yuther 'ooman 'tel he foun' out 'bout me. I knows it". The interesting part was that Liza was correct; even though he thought he was in love with Mrs.Dixon, he still dropped everything and went back to the wife of his youth at the end. The end is where the true Aha! moment occurs; from that moment, every little detail makes sense. I believe that moment of ultimate understanding was more gradual in Frances Harper's poem, Learning To Read. At least to me, I could tell that the narrator had ambition and was going to learn how to read, know matter what. The narrator explained how slaves would learn how to read through hearing the children spell. From that, they were able to out words together and learn how to read. The narrator's determination to read is ultimately shown in the last three stanzas. Harper writes "But as I was rising sixty / I had no time to wait. / So I got a pair of glasses / and straight to work I went, / And never stopped till I could read / The hymns and testament". Those few lines are the true Aha! moment in Learning To Read. They show determination and persistence, two very admirable qualities. Both works leave readers on their toes through out the work, regarding the meaning of the work as a whole.