Prejudice And Discrimination In Kay Boyle's Black Boy

By the time she was seventeen, Kay Boyle had written “hundreds of poems, short stories, a novel, and a children’s version of the outline of history” (“Boyle, Kay”). Kay Boyle, a short story writer, editor, novelist, was born on February 19, 1902. Kay Boyle grew up with a prosperous family who traveled throughout the world. During her childhood, she spent most of her time living in Europe, acquiring admiration for architecture and literature. Many of her short stories have been published throughout magazines, such as the New Yorker. Surprisingly, most people do not know that she was also interested in music. Kay Boyle studied violin at Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, but was given up for her husband. She has written 13 books, hundreds of

This short story shows major racial discrimination. The exposition starts off talking about the setting where the story takes place (Boyle 50). Also, “Black Boy” is in first person point of view, having the narrator being one of the main characters. She is a young girl who loves to take her horse on rides to the beach. She is a round and dynamic character because the reader knows know a lot about her during the story. She lives with her grandfather, Puss, who loves to sit and look at the seaside. He is a flat and static character because the readers does not know a lot about him. Also, he does not change his opinion about racism. He loves to get pushed on chairs with the narrator to the Million Dollar Pier by the black boy (Boyle 51). Later on, the rising action of the story happens when the girl starts a friendship with the black boy. She loves to go down to the boardwalk to talk with him about optimistic ideas. Later on, they become close friends, but soon this is ruined by Puss. The climax of the story takes place when Puss tells the girl that they could not be friends (Boyle 53). It is quite easy to predict the theme of “Black Boy” because of the grandfathers