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Hunger In Richard Wright's 'Black Boy'

615 Words3 Pages

Freja Järvegren Uecker
Honors English 10 period 4
10/20/15

Hunger was a very prominent theme in Richard’s life; and this severe theme went beyond his physical hunger. There is literal hunger throughout the book; Richard was starving most of his life. In Black Boy, Richard Wright also experiences hunger in the form of desire. Richard desires for normal things like love and acceptance. But the thing that drove Richard the most was his hunger for knowledge; this desire pushed him to do all that he did in his life regardless of whether it was good or bad.
The literal hunger was introduced when his father left him. Hunger haunted Richard always; but after his father left, Richard writes “Now I began to wake up at night to find hunger standing at my bedside, staring at me gauntly” (156). Despite this extreme hunger plaguing him through most of the autobiography, Richard values self worth and …show more content…

His strong hunger for love probably came from the little amount of love he received while growing up and if he got any, it was tough love. Most adults in his life argued with him and barely praised him for the good he did. The only person who much cared about Richard’s wellbeing is his mother, but due to her sickness it is was often hard for her to take care of him. Richard also craved acceptance, he was an outcast because of racism he experienced on account of being black. As well as he will always be considered an outcast in society because of the racism in his world. At this time white people have yet to accept blacks as their equal He was also cast out from family and social groups. Due to his upbringing he had a hard time fitting in even with people seemingly similar to him. Richard expresses this feeling by writing "I longed to be among them, yet when with them I looked at them as if they were a million miles away. I had been kept out of their world too long to ever be able to become a real part of it."

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