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Racism And Violence In Richard Wright's Black Boy

671 Words3 Pages

The novel Black Boy by Richard Wright exhibits the theme of race and violence. Wright goes beyond his life and digs deep in the existence of his very human being. Over the course of the vast drama of hatred, fear, and oppression, he experiences great fear of hunger and poverty. He reveals how he felt and acted in his eyes of a Negro in a white society. Throughout the work, Richard observes the deleterious effects of racism not only as it affects relations between whites and blacks, but also relations among blacks themselves. Black Boy, however, explores racism not only as an odious belief held by odious people, but also as an insidious problem knit into the very fabric of society as a whole. Growing up, Richard tried to leave behind his violent lifestyle—even when his new friends wanted him to fight. “I knew that my life was revolving about a world that I had to encounter and fight when I grew up” (Wright 125). It’s …show more content…

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). Wright’s critique of racism in America includes a critique of the black community itself—specifically the black folk community that is unable or unwilling to educate him properly or accept his individual personality and

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I’m no dog or rooster”(Wright 240). His own morals keep him from inflicting unjustified violence upon someone else, unlike how his family treats him. Altogether, nature versus nurture proves to be an underlying theme in the autobiography Black Boy by Richard Wright. Wright demonstrates resilience against his family’s beliefs, refusing to be influenced by anything except his own experiences and himself.

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Richard Wright's Autobiography, Black Boy

835 Words | 4 Pages

Richard, being a rambunctious and disadvantaged black boy living in a time when America was still firmly planted under the thumb of prejudice, struggles to relate to the wide array of people around him. From his childhood bullies, white and successful bosses, and his racist coworkers, Richard lives in a world where he is always an odd man out, an outlier and exception to almost every privilege. He himself says “…I knew that Negroes had never been allowed to catch the full spirit of Western civilization, that they lived somehow in it but not of it. And when I brooded upon the cultural barrenness of black life, I wondered if clean, positive tenderness, love, honor, loyalty, and the capacity to remember were native with man. I asked myself if these human qualities were not fostered, won, struggled and suffered for, preserved in ritual from one generation to another…”

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Poverty In Richard Wright's Autobiography, Black Boy

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The historical memoir of Richard Wright, Black Boy, frequently used motifs to demonstrate a common theme. The most prominent one was hunger, which represented the need for food and the eagerness to escape the restraints of the segregated South. During the early to mid 90’s, the southern United States was in a time period of severe prejudices, which promoted violence and inequality against the African Americans. In effect to this, Richard was always desperately hungry throughout his childhood, both literally and figuratively. For African Americans of this time period, employment was hard to come by and paid next to nothing.

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1277 Words | 6 Pages

It is not until an incident occurs which Wright then learns a bit more about the way his society functioned. Wright learns that a white man beat a black man and explains, “ It was in this manner that I first stumbled upon the relations between whites and blacks, and what I learned frightened me”(pg.23). Although Wright is now exposed to the way whites and blacks behave, he still does not understand it very well. Wright questions the whole “white” and “black” notion, due to his grandmother looking like any other “white” person, but still not appearing “white” to Wright (pg.23).

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How Did Frederick Douglass Kill Victims Of Poverty?

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Black Boy delves into the upbringing of Richard Wright, who comes from an impecunious and broken home. He illustrates that the absence of a father figure can result in an abrupt end to one’s childhood, and the early start of adulthood, where new responsibilities must be met. When Richard is ordered to get food for his family, he gets accosted and robbed by a gang in his neighborhood. As he returns to the store once again, he “kept [his] stick poised for instant use…that night [he] won the right to the streets of Memphis”(Pg 25). In other words, Richard was forced to withstand danger and learn how to defend himself with the means of providing food to his family.

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