Richard Wright’s novel, Black Boy Essay

Black Boy is an autobiography written by Richard Wright from the age of four to his early twenties. Right from the beginning of the novel, Wright faces violence both mentally and physically. Violence is a theme that reoccurs throughout the novel frequently. To further understand why Wright acted violent and why he used violence so many times in the novel, three biographies were used. The biographies used as a lens to explore the meaning and importance of Black Boy were The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain by Langston Hughes, The Enduring Importance of Richard Wright by Milton Moskowitz, and Richard Wright Biography from Biography.

“What is a rebel? A man who says no.” (Albert Camus, The Rebel) Black Boy is more than a mere autobiography, dealing with a man during the time of Jim Crow laws. Indeed, though the book is generally advertised as such, the greater theme here is not of the black man versus the white; it is of Richard’s fight against adversity, and the prevalent and constraining attitudes of not just his time, or the “White South”, but of the attitude of conformity throughout all time. Richard develops from birth to become a nonconformist; a rebel, and we can see this attitude throughout his whole life. As a child, he refuses to simply follow orders if they make no sense to him; for this, he is lashed repeatedly. As he grows older, he begins

Richard Wright’s theme in Black Boy is that of survival. In his autobiography, he struggles to pull through life by rebelling. He rebels in many ways. In the first stage of his life, when he is just a young boy he often rebels against his parent’s authority. When he is a young adolescent, he rebels against being beat unfairly or into submission. As a young man, he fights against the Southern way of African American life. As Richard Wright grows, his rebellious acts grow larger and more daring in order to survive the harsh Jim Crow life of the South.

Even though Richard knows he is black, he feels that he should still have the opportunities and fair treatment given to others, which is why he fights so hard for himself. Despite the fact that his friends and everyone around him tell him to act more “black”, Richard perseveres to create his own identity not shaped by racial pressures. Finally, Richard is able to get out of the South and head north, where he can be more himself and escape some of the racism. “An hour later I was sitting in a Jim Crow carriage, speeding northward, making the first lap of my journey to a land where I could live with a little less fear” (Wright 244). In order to create a life where he could be himself and not live in fear of being discriminated against for doing so, Richard is forced to leave his family and his hometown in the South. The fact that Richard was willing to leave everything he knew behind shows how strongly he believed in himself and the hope that he can be more himself in the North. Rather than constantly being torn between the stereotype of a black man and who Richard actually wanted to be, escaping to the North allowed him to be himself and create his own identity. Overall, Richard faces the struggle of his identity as a black man by fighting against the stereotypes in order to give himself a better

"Whenever I thought of the essential bleakness of black life in America, I knew that Negroes had never been allowed to catch the full spirit of Western civilization, that they lived somehow in it but not of it. And when I brooded upon the cultural barrenness of black life, I wondered if clean, positive tenderness, love, honor, loyalty, and the capacity to remember were native with man. I asked myself if these human qualities were not fostered, won, struggled and suffered for, preserved in ritual from one generation to another." This passage written in Black Boy, the autobiography of Richard Wright shows the disadvantages of Black people in the 1930's. A man of many words, Richard Wrights is the father of the modern

Richard Wright’s autobiographical novel, Black Boy, illustrates his character development. He encounters a lot of hardships which he eventually grows from. Throughout the course of the story, Richard develops from an oblivious young boy to a responsible young adult.

In the rural south Richard Wright is experiencing racism and witnessing violence because of race. In the 1920’s, race was a major factor in the way you grew up and how you were treated. As an African American boy he would be denied certain rights which caused him to become angry, among other things. When Richard gets mad or feels threatened he displays behavior that is seen as unacceptable. He is constantly being exposed to racism and violence so much that he is becoming influenced to display that behavior with people around him.

When Richard finally learned to read and count, he got even more curious. He would ask questions about everything, and that is how he learned about the differences between whites and blacks. He heard about white people, but he never pondered about the meaning. He saw them so many times that is was normal. To Richard they were people like everybody else and lived life like everybody did. When he asked about the different names of people he never got a clear answer to his question. This caused Richard to stare at the white people and try to make sense of the differences. This was one of the first steps of the loss of innocence in Richard’s life. A moment of realization. (122 words)

In Richard Wright's Black Boy Richard refuses to conform to the expectations that others have for him to shows his moral strength. First Richard crosses the white people in many ways without knowing that he is doing such a thing. Living in the Jim Crow law era Richard does not believe in the expectations that he should follow. Second Richard differs from his family's expectations of their Religion. His family members are devout seventh day adventist and Richard does not like organized religion.

Years after African Americans were stripped of their identities and sense of worth when they were brought here as slaves, the Jim Crow laws continued to curtail their rights and freedoms. Racism and violence were the tools permitting whites to produce a social order characterizing inequality. Richard Wright explores this within his memoir Black Boy, in the opening scene by depicting the events and aftermath of Richard setting his family home ablaze; Wright is able to set the stage for a tale of struggle with authority, fear, and perseverance as an African American growing up in the south at the height of the Jim Crow Laws.

In the excerpt from "Black Boy", Wright utilizes dialogue in order to establish Wright's first full recognition of his identity as a “colored boy.” While Richard and his family are traveling via train to Arkansas, he begins to notice the separation of blacks and whites. This acknowledgement sparks questions about his grandmother, who is a white woman. Richard is faced with the conflict “Man vs. Society.” He is struggling to understand the separation among blacks and whites because his grandmother has lived in the same home with them.

At first Richard is young and doesn’t understand why people with their color skin tone are treated different and why white people seem to be more superior in terms of power and authority. Questioning the violence that happens around him and the racist quotes on newspaper, Richard learns the position that African Americans are in, and the fear that many of his race carries everyday. “But the color of a Negro's skin makes him easily recognizable, makes him suspect, converts him into a defenseless target”(Chapter , pg ). This quote really tells the reason for the struggle that African Americans face, which is based merely on their skin tone. During Richard’s time many racist whites take their authority and power to the limit, beating Blacks, young and old, and even killing them. These white people who don’t have any regard for the human life of all people are shown in many of Richard’s jobs. One of which, Richard decides to leave because he could not take the racist remarks and attitudes of the white individuals.“It was not until I had left the delicatessen job that I saw how grossly I had misread the motives and attitudes of Mr. Hoffman and his wife. I had not yet learned anything that would have helped me to thread my way through these perplexing racial relations.” (2.15.33). Richard is still learning how to deal with these situations, as he would need this

Black Boy by Richard Wright is a well written novel that talks about him growing up in the Jim Crow south. By the title you know he is African American and living in the Jim crow south he soon found out that white folks were about to do more and were better than blacks. The two races were not equal and blacks were often discriminated, hated, and punished for the most simple things. Many were punished for simple things such as looking the wrong way at a white women, things that in todays society would be completely acceptable. Richard did not know why things were how they were in life, but he soon figured out. A huge theme for this book is hunger, the actual physical aspect of it and metaphorically he was hungry.

“Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason”(Abraham Joshua Heschel). This relates to Richard Wright’s autobiography, “Black Boy”. Richard Wright depicts his extremely difficult life as a black man in the heat of the south’s racism and oppression. Unlike most of the blacks Richard meets throughout his life, he is extraordinarily freethinking and open minded for his social class. Richard prefers to question the norms of society rather than fit in and take the verbal and physical abuse from whites and sometimes blacks. From a very young age Richard is confused and does not understand the concept of racism. Richard Wright learns at a very young age that if he is to survive, he must do so independently.

Conflict is an unfortunate part of everyday life and they vary from person to person. Some involve people that we know, some involve complete strangers. Some conflicts are in a person’s control and are caused by them, and some are at the mercy of their circumstances. In the autobiography “ Black Boy” by Richard Wright, Richard gives the reader insight into his personal life and the different conflicts in them. He shows the reader not only conflicts between him and family members, but also between him and conflicts with strangers and how he reacts in both, especially in the first six chapters of the autobiography. In chapters 1-6 of Black Boy, Richard faces conflicts with family members and members of his community. To maintain a sense of self