Come Out the Wilderness: Character Analysis

“Come Out the Wilderness”
James Baldwin’s “Come out the Wilderness,” presents the mentally isolated Ruth Bowman’s thoughts about men and her unwillingness to forget past relations. Growing up as a child, Ruth is sexually harassed by a guy whom her parents and brother think she is voluntarily sexually involved with. The events that happen in a previous era was a stepping stone into a life of low-self esteem and much insecurity that follows. The uncontrollable event causes her to be dependent on men and to have uncertainty in relationships. Ruth is educated in school, and she uses her skills on her job as a secretary, which she is promoted to. Ruth is a complicated woman in her thoughts as well as her actions. The feeling of not being wanted circulates Ruth’s mind. The memories of changed perceptions on her part by her family, devastates her. She has had past relationships but to no prevail in finding true happiness. Life in her eyes is characterized by being with a man who rarely acknowledges her features as a woman. He merely acknowledges when his urges have arisen and are in need of satisfying. Marriage to her seems as if a man is living with her whom she wants to love her and make her feel special ; though that is not the case. The relationship she has is inexplicable. Life may seem barren to a woman of Ruth’s nature. She goes to bars every night in hopes of time passing as she waits for her husband to get home. Ruth believes her husband has another woman, but does not obsess with the thought. She simply lives with his decisions whatever they may be, because she is dependent on him. Ruth is comparable to old-time wives in the way she allows her husband to do whatever he wants maybe because of masculinity or perhaps the doubt of him coming home. That signifies defeat, on her part, in the game of life.
Ruth does not have any stability in her relationship with Paul, and it is filled with disbelief. She is unsure if he loves her still, or wants