Overview Of The Rights To The Streets Of Memphis By Richard Wright: Summary

Hunger can drive people to accomplish the unthinkable, like conquering your fears. In the short story, “The Rights to the Streets of Memphis,” by Richard Wright, it talks about a young boy, Richard, who is struggling with poverty and hunger. The way Richard describes and illustrates his hunger proves how difficult his life is. The way the author describes Richard shows how young and fragile he is. All these aspects come into the ultimate problem of his family not having the sufficient amount of income to put food on the table. It shows you the reality of not being able to know when your next meal is coming. A problem people all around the world sadly have to go through. In the short story, “ The Rights to the Street of Memphis,” characterization,

Characterization is important to the plot because it shows how Richard changes based off the situations around him, it makes the plot move forward. In the short story, there was a discussion between Richard and his mother about him being hungry. Only problem was, she had nothing to feed him. This led to him becoming frustrated that there was no food or explanation as to why there wasn’t. In the story it states,

“I sensed she was teasing me, and it made me angry. ‘But I’m hungry. I want to eat.’ ‘You’ll have to wait.’ ‘But I want to eat now.’ ‘But there’s nothing to eat,’ she told me. ‘Why?’ ‘Just because there’s none,’ she explained. ‘But I want to eat,’ I said, beginning to cry” (pg

Conflict is important to the progression of the plot because it shows how Richard handles the tough situations around him. In the beginning, richard asks for an explanation as to why there was no food. His mother had no other option but to tell him the truth even if she too didn’t know the full answer. In the story, it states, “‘Who brings the food into the house?’ my mother asked me. ‘Papa,’ I said. ‘He always brought food.’ ‘Well your father isn’t here now,’ she said. ‘Where is he?’ ‘I don’t know,’ she said” (pg 120). The discussion between the two shows how Richard’s mother is trying to protect him from knowing why his father has left. There was no explanation as to what really happened to his father, but it was evident that he was the sole income provider for the family. This type of conflict is man vs society because of the fact that his family no longer has the income to buy the food they need to survive. It seems clear his father won’t come back, so his mother has to step up to the plate, get a job and become the financial provider. The plot is able to move forward because there is a problem that is presented so there needs to be a resolution for it. The conflict of not having enough money to buy food led to other conflicts of the story to be created. Another piece of evidence that supports my thesis is when Richard conquered his fears and