Richard Wright Blueprint For Negro Writing Summary

Throughout history a vast collection of literature and other media forms accumulated, widely encompassing different literary aesthetics. Thus shaping representations of society, and laying groundwork for the different approaches to social changes evident in history, and in present times. The concept of social constructions of differences and race is an intricate and prominent matter developed through history which is key to understanding the literature and analysis laid out in this paper. The whole ideology of this social construction will be at the root of analysis as this paper delves into a text from Richard Wright, Blueprint for Negro Writing, and then takes the concepts and shows its interconnectedness to a more modern experience, a film,

Wright’s ideas express that the Negro experiences can be appreciated by the white majority group, however will need to gain a different kind of acceptance in their craft if changes are to be made. This is surely evident at some level in the film as we can consider the family’s view at the beginning of the journey. As mentioned some family members had somewhat of a passive viewpoint in which they express agreement with the problems indicative of the slave trade, but yet fall into the trap of the bias presented earlier. Consider Wright’s words “one would have thought that Negro writers in the century of striving at expression would have continued and deepened the folk tradition, and would have tried to create a more intimate and profound social system.”(1408) Flowing directly from this problem is that Wright clearly expresses that the Negros have the struggle of validation, self-validation at that. The Negros have to face the struggle of representing themselves as basic human beings, which instead the Negro should be working on acceptance and awareness of their race as a whole. Now discovering the parallel, Browne and the family inserted themselves in the societies of Ghana and Cuba, which is the real illustration of Wright’s ideas. The journey intertwined their cultures, folklore was viewed, and the roles were reversed as the privileged family

They learned that the names were taken from the children and family ties were dissolved during the slave trade. Consider the words or Ronald Takaki, “whatever happens we can be certain that much of our society’s future will be influenced by which mirror we chose to see ourselves in.”(1) It is certain that the family has seen themselves in a different mirror and not merely a “distant mirror” as Takaki would say. Reading Takaki’s words we see him conveying that while the study of the past can provide deep information, it often just reflects a particulars person’s view of the world at the time period and the question remaining is what is left out? This is seen by the family’s endeavors to study the history of Bristol, Rhode Island and the general view of Rhode Island as such an innocent place, especially the notion of regarding the DeWolf mansion and estate, made possible by honest good work. Little is done to attest to the real roots of the DeWolf’s wealth. That is not what holds any potential for social consideration and change. What has the potential is the awareness, the family’s awareness of Takaki’s “social divide”, which given the instances mentioned earlier the family did become aware of. The stories from the natives of Ghana and Cuba created that image for the family. These images do not have to be complicated, much like the