Comparing One Writer's Beginnings And Black Boy

The purpose of nonfiction writing is to write based on facts with real events and real people. Literary nonfiction includes similar elements that would be found in a fiction piece, but literary nonfiction uses a skilled set of words and tone because the author assumes the reader is as bright as them. Similarly, the goal of creative nonfiction is to communicate information to the reader, but in a way that reads like fiction. Examples of this type of work is found in Eudora Welty’s One Writer’s Beginnings and Richard Wright’s Black Boy. Eudora Welty was born in 1909 and Richard Wright was born in 1908. They both grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, therefore, while reading both of these books, the reader gets a better understanding of the differences

The vivid details they both were able to express, in addition to using the “show don’t tell” requirement, allowed the reader to build the scene in their own head. For example, when Welty talked about one of her teachers, Miss Duling, she stated “Miss Duling dressed as plainly as a Pilgrim on a Thanksgiving poster we made in the schoolroom, in a long-ish blank-and-white checked gingham dress, a thick wool sweater the red of a railroad lantern- she knitted it herself – black stockings and her narrow elegant feet in black hightop shoes with heels you could hear coming rhythmical as a parade drum down the hall” (p. 26). By using this amount of description in her work it made the reader feel like a part of her story. Wright did this as well throughout all of Black Boy, but one specific example was after he set his house on fire he stated, “I was lashed so hard and long that I lost consciousness. I was beaten out of my senses and later found myself in bed, screaming, determined to run away, tussling with my mother and father who were trying to keep me still” (p. 7). Not only does this allow to reader to sympathize with him, it gives them a better understanding of the type of relationship he had with his parents growing

In Black Boy, hunger is repeated a lot throughout the book. Wright was physically hungry all of the time because his family was not able to provide for him. Wright became ashamed of his hunger and would not take money from anyone who offered it to him. He stated, “I was used to hunger and I did not need much food to keep me alive” (p. ). When he was delivering a pair of eyeglasses to a white man he was questioned about if he was hungry because the man wanted to give him money for food, however, he refused it and denied his hunger. Even when Wright went to live with his Aunt for a short time, he was not used to the amount of food that was on the table every night, so he continued to hide food in his pockets just incase he needed it for another day. Wright makes it a point to bring up his hunger in most of the chapters, which means there is a deeper meaning. He was not only physically hungry for food, he was hungry for acceptance and an education. He was struggling with being able to fill this hunger in his life because he was not able to figure out how to be accepted by his family and friends. Since he could not fully understand why the blacks were treated so differently than the whites, he struggled with fitting in. Wright continuously questioned why there was so much hate between the blacks and whites, but never received an answer. This angered those around him because he was always trying to figure out what was going on