Religion In Richard Wright's Black Boy

Lucas Fugate
Ms. Rodriguez
ENGLISH 1
17 May 2023
The Importance of Religion in Richard Wright’s Black Boy In Richard Wright’s autobiography Black Boy, Wright explores his difficult relationship with religion and how it impacts him while growing up. As a young child, after the paralysis of his mother, Richard lives in a very religious household with his grandmother and Aunt Addie. He grows deeply resentful of his life in the household, angry at the lack of control that he feels. As a result he turns to writing as a method of expression. Wright’s experiences throughout the novel display how his contentious relationship with religion is the catalyst for his development as a writer. As a child, Richard lives in an atmosphere permeated by religion

The naked will to power seemed always to walk in the wake of a hymn” (136). The words “always” and “whenever” are used in conjunction in this quote to show how in terms of complete control and power, the extent of his knowledge comes from religion. The word “power” is used, and in this passage has a meaning synonymous with control, and this expounded upon with his use of “rule over.” Control over his life is something that Richard values dearly, and something he is deprived of. This leads to religion being the main opponent in his life right now, and thus he constantly feuds with people he views as embodiments of religion, such as Aunt Addie and his grandmother. He hates religion less for what it is, and rather due to what it represents in his eyes, control and oppression. This theme comes up later in the book as well; he hates White society for the control and oppression it represents. Earlier In the same passage Wright writes, “There were more violent quarrels in our deeply religious home, than in the house of a gangster, a burglar, or a prostitute…I too fought, but I fought because I felt I had to keep from getting crushed” (135-136). Wright compares the “deeply religious” home to those that are associated with violent and

After mistakenly telling his grandmother that he saw an angel and forcing himself to devote an hour of his free time to religion, Richard writes his first story. Wright writes, “My environment contained nothing more alien than writing or the desire to express one’s self through writing… Her inability to grasp what I had done or what I was trying to do somehow gratified me.” Richard uses writing as a way to mentally cope with the crushing religious atmosphere that he suffocates under. Wright uses the phrase “My environment,” and in conjunction with the earlier quote shows that he associates his environment with violence and control. His way of expressing himself through control is writing. The phrase “nothing more alien” is used in a hyperbolic fashion, Wright exemplifies the rarity of his thoughts and how strange that they would seem to the community he lives under. This shows his way of rebelling, by doing things that he knows his community and by association religion would disapprove of, such as writing. The word “gratified” is used to show how he is happy that he managed to do something that nobody else expected, with “gratified” being tied to “inability.” He realizes that he did not write something incredible and thus is not gratified that he wrote something great, but rather that he did something incomprehensible to the