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Analysis Of The Voodoo Of Hell's Half Acre

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Richard Wright is a black kid growing up in the South in the early 1900’s. He is an intelligent young man who likes to read, and learn from the environment around him. He also has a lot of self-respect, but his black comrades are always there to remind him to lower his sense of self worth. This at times causes him to feel isolated from the black community. Wright’s experience with racism and prejudice made him to be cautious of his actions. He has a lot of dignity, which he has to hide so he can camouflage himself as a respectful black boy that avoids provoking trouble with others.
Richard’s fear of the white man was instilled in him when he was a child; a growing boy. He was never told the exact situation between the races, resulting in him …show more content…

When Richard writes his short story, “The Voodoo of Hell’s Half-Acre” and gets it published in the local black newspaper, he has his first experiences with racism and prejudice. After writing his short story, Richard receives negative feedback from the people around him. His classmates didn’t pat him on the back, but questioned why he as a black man would write a story and have it published. In addition, Richards family members criticized everything about his story. This matters because Richard Wright struggles to be the person he aspires to be due to the lack of support he receives from his family and friends. After publishing a book (which at the time was a big deal for any African American) Richard received negative feedback from people who he related with the most: family and friends. Instead of getting positive feedback and encouragement for his accomplishments, Wright is ridiculed by the people who he identifies with closely in race. In this moment, Richard experiences prejudice from people he trusts the most, but it doesn’t end there. At the end of the school term, he was chosen valedictorian of his class, and is asked to write and deliver a speech for graduation. The principal pre-writes Richard’s speech, disregarding the one that Richard had already written. After his classmate and Uncle receive this news, they both agree that he should present the principal’s speech at graduation, because it is better than the one he himself wrote. This is yet another example of the prejudice that Richard is receiving from others. Those around him are continuously doubting his intellectual ability. .This causes Richard to feel hurt because of the lack of support he is getting from his family and peers. Rather than supporting Wright, those close to him are dismissing

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He feels like the North is the place where they can be free and escape life in the South, so he does everything in his power to get their. For instance, Richard “poses as an innocent boy” (254) you have a lot of good evidence, but you will want to say how this is affecting his character. so that he could smoothly leave his job without incident. Richard is also intent on becoming a triumphant black writer in a biased community. Many people thought that black people were not meant for anything more than working for white people.

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Since they do not earn a decent wage, they don’t have the minimum amount of luxury in their lives. They are deprived of homes, food and other essential necessities. The effect of racial discrimination discloses on Wright in the guise of starvation. As a child, Richard could not grasp the concept of racism. But when he grows up, he acknowledges why he and his sibling need to feast upon the leftover sustenance of the white individuals.

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Throughout his essay, Staples is able to make the audience understand what he has to deal with as a black man. Staples does this by using words and phrases such as, “...her flight made me feel like an accomplice in tyranny” and “... I was indistinguishable from the muggers who occasionally seeped into the area…” (542). By writing and describing how he (Staples) feels, the audience is able to get an inside look into how black men are treated and better understand why society’s teachings, play a vital role in how we see each other. Staples’ powerful writing also allows the reader to take a step back and see how as a society, people make judgements on others based on appearance alone.

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“I was learning rapidly how to watch white people, to observe their every move, every fleeting expression, how to interpret what we said and what we left unsaid” (Wright 181). Richard uses his observation of whites to guide himself on how to act and react around white people. For example he must agree with the whites even if he truly disagrees. For example he must agree with the whites even if he truly disagrees. “I answered with false heartiness, falling quickly into that nigger-being-a-good-natured-boy-in-the- presence-of-a-white-man pattern, a pattern into which I could now slide easily” (Wright 234).

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The story represents the culmination of Wright’s passionate desire to observe and reflect upon the racist world around him. Racism is so insidious that it prevents Richard from interacting normally, even with the whites who do treat him with a semblance of respect or with fellow blacks. For Richard, the true problem of racism is not simply that it exists, but that its roots in American culture are so deep it is doubtful whether these roots can be destroyed without destroying the culture itself. “It might have been that my tardiness in learning to sense white people as "white" people came from the fact that many of my relatives were "white"-looking people. My grandmother, who was white as any "white" person, had never looked "white" to me” (Wright 23).

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