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Rhetorical Devices In Black Boy

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The pages 50-51 of Wright’s Black Boy, depict the reunion of Richard and his father, twenty five years after they had last seen each other. In this event the two are shown to be “forever strangers” (Wright 51), with the father now being a sharecropper in Mississippi. Wright uses tone, imagery, and characterization to portray the difference in character between the two, caused by the environments they lived in and the way society is structured. The way Wright describes the event in terms of tone is telling of how the experiences shaped their lives in different ways. Particular examples include the description of his consciousness as “greatly and violently altered”(Wright 50), describing how Richard’s experience with society had made him …show more content…

Examples of imagery include “I could see a shadow of my face in his face, though there was an echo of my voice in his voice, we were forever strangers” (Wright 50). By presenting their faces as similar and related, Wright is able to establish a connection between the two, while also being able to continue describing them as separate in mind, and not truly related. Earlier in the text, Wright describes his father as “a sharecropper, clad in ragged overalls, holding a muddy hoe in his gnarled, veined hands” (Wright 50). The image of the father as a rugged sharecropper conflicts with the identity that Richard is later associated with, one of a writer who resides in the city. Instead of simply stating that the two live vastly different lives despite being related, Wright uses imagery to create this difference, allowing the reader to come to the conclusion on their …show more content…

The father is described as having “direct, animalistic impulses” (Wright 51), that “Joy was as unknown to him as was despair” (Wright 51). These descriptions characterize Richard’s father as having little emotion, which is implied to have been a result of the way he was treated by his landowners, shown by Wright stating “From the white landowners above him there had not been handed to him a chance to learn the meaning of loyalty, of sentiment, of tradition”. To Richard, his father has been altered by the society around him, conditioned to work for those above him without issue. Characterization allows the reader to understand the personality of Richard’s father without ever meeting him, without ever using

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Peter Guo 219 Mr. Beyer English 10 1/5/23 Extra Credit Assignment: Black Boy, Part II In "Black Boy," Richard Wright tells the story of his life growing up as a black child in the American South and his eventual move to the North. The first half of the book, which covers Wright's childhood and adolescence, is set in Mississippi and Tennessee, while the second half takes place in Chicago, Illinois after he escapes from the well-dreaded South.

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The Nonfiction Novel, Black Boy was written By Richard Wright. In the Novel Richard uses various tools of rhetorical to convey his point of determination and aspiration while growing up as an African American boy in Jim Crow South, facing the social and economic struggles that were very stereotypical for African Americans during the time. Black Boy is about a long lived struggle of hunger. Wright is faced with daily obstacles and struggles living in poverty as he is determined to leave behind these circumstances of African Americans.

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Through this imagery, Wright gives the readers a chance to understand the ways in which racism was not just a matter of laws and policies, but a lived reality that had consequences for individuals and communities. Later in the memoir, Wright says "I would huddle in a corner, afraid to face the things I feared, trying to probe my past, to explore the depths of my feelings, to know myself. In the silence of my room, I would spend hours staring at the cracks in the ceiling, searching for the meaning of my life, seeking some glimmer of hope in the midst of despair" (Wright 71). In this quote, Wright uses imagery to describe the struggle to understand and define

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In the memoir “The Black Boy” by Richard Wright, it tells a story in first person view of a young six-year-old boy who lives his life during the Jim Crow time period. The memoir tells a story of young Richard growing up in the south, living with his family he experienced many struggles growing up, beaten and yelled at by his family; his mom, grandmother, employer/employees and the kids at school. He would try his best to learn what he considered acceptable to the society and what is not. Due to his race, skin color, and the time period, he struggles to fit in with the people around him, and all he wish he could do is for everyone around to accept who he is. Wright tries to convey this theme that Richard tries to join the society on his

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Growing up as an African American living in the South, Richard is striving to become more than what White society expects of him and what other African Americans expect of themselves. While in search for a job to earn enough money to go to the North, Richard finds one with a white woman, but soon realizes that he wouldn’t go back because she had “assaulted” and “assumed” his “place in life” when she totally degrades him and his idea of ever becoming a writer (147). Richard knowing he lives in a racist world illustrates how he is still not letting nobody bring him down from his aspirations and what he wants to do with his life. Also, when Richard gets a hint that he may have an opportunity to teach in the city's school system, it helps him “emotionally” and makes him “hope faintly” (174). Richard being able to have such an opportunity illustrates that he is not paying attention to what White society expects of him and is exceeding what any other African American at this time would consider a success.

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Richard quickly grows up and is mature enough to ask questions about his race, which is clear when Wright says, “My grandmother, who was as white as any white person, had never looked white to me” (23). RIchard is starting to ask himself an important question: What does it mean to be white? He wonders why his grandmother is black instead of white, which commences his wonderings about what the roots of racism really are. RIchard begins to curiously ask more and more questions, showcasing his curiosity and need for answers, when he says, “Granny looks white.. Then why is she living with us coloured folks...did granny become coloured when she married grandpa?”

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Richard Wright, being a young Black boy, is also forced to endure stifling experiences before finding success. While he is in school, before he is a proficient writer, Wright is asked to write his name on the blackboard; however, “[he] could remember nothing” (Wright 75). Despite his attempts to succeed, he finally gave up when “[he] realized how utterly [he] was failing” and his whole body “grew weak” (Wright 75). The words “nothing,” “failing,” and “weak” evoke a sense of defeat, and they prove how Wright was incapable of succeeding in this moment.

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So it is due to hunger, hardship and scarcity that he is introduced to the harsh actualities of bigotry. On occasion, things deteriorated that Richard and his family had nothing to consume in view of the extraordinary level of poverty. In order to save themselves from the conditions

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However, they expose him to religion in violent and mentally abusive ways that make their purpose larger than religion itself while completely ignoring Richard’s attempts to make his own choices with religion. Even as Richard becomes older and more able to think for himself, his family’s actions only intensify and they forever change his opinion on religion. However, while Richard’s family was unethical in the way they exposed him to religion, their actions truly reflect the hardships that are associated with a poor African American family during their time. Throughout his childhood, Richard is constantly exposed to religion in unethical ways by his family.

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“I was learning rapidly how to watch white people, to observe their every move, every fleeting expression, how to interpret what we said and what we left unsaid” (Wright 181). Richard uses his observation of whites to guide himself on how to act and react around white people. For example he must agree with the whites even if he truly disagrees. For example he must agree with the whites even if he truly disagrees. “I answered with false heartiness, falling quickly into that nigger-being-a-good-natured-boy-in-the- presence-of-a-white-man pattern, a pattern into which I could now slide easily” (Wright 234).

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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).

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