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Religion In Richard Wright's Black Boy

1118 Words5 Pages

Ben Kwon
Ms. Rodriguez
ENGLISH I
26 May 2023
Uniformity vs. Individuality: Richard’s Relationship with Religion in Black Boy
In Richard Wright’s Black Boy, Wright explores his perspective on religion as he starts to understand the religious world. Richard gets a first glimpse of Christianity, but he begins to grow a distaste for it after he observes the distinction between the church and the life of reality. His disdain for religious ideals grows as he notices the bland, malicious mannerisms of strict Christians. This causes Richard to make his faith based on his beliefs and realities. In Richard Wright’s Black Boy, the conflict between Richard’s individuality and his discordant feel about the atmosphere of his church community represents his …show more content…

Shortly after, Richard gets disrespected by his relatives when he exerts his disliking for religion. When they use another religious kid to try to convince Richard to come back to the faith, he decides to make a change in what he thinks: “I had given God’s existence a sort of tacit assent, but after having seen His creatures serve Him first hand, I had had my doubts. My faith…was welded to the common realities of life, anchored in…what my mind could grasp” (115). Richard shows that he had before viewed religion with general indifference with the phrase “tacit assent”, but after seeing the malicious actions of religious beings, his opinion has been altered. Wright’s decision to dub people of God as “His creatures” highlights the absurdity of their actions and only purpose: to serve God. Though, the way that they are serving him has damaged Richard’s perception of Christianity as a whole. In the second half of the quote, Richard goes on to talk about how he has shifted away from Christianity and has created his own faith. He says that this faith is “welded to the common realities of life,” proving he wants to base his ideals on the reality he is affected by instead of what he perceives as fiction. Richard saying that his faith was anchored in “what [his] mind could grasp” illustrates his maturity, as he knows he doesn’t understand every aspect of religion and his mind, but is willing to make judgments based on what he does know. Richard has used his individuality to get him through life so far, and now he has developed even more independence through his experience with

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