Richard Wright Research Paper

The life of Richard Wright, was not that of a simple one. Since day one of his life, things would always be complicated for him, and not just because he was black in the early 20th century. He is brought up in a rough domestic life and was more often than not in poverty. He wasn’t taken seriously because of his color, but proved all the doubters wrong. Wright handled every obstacle in his path, maybe not always elegantly, but he overcame it in a way he could feel satisfied with. Many events through his childhood, and young adulthood shaped him into the man he became, and fueled the fires for motivation; his Uncle being murdered for having to prosperous of a business for a black man, his first first hand encounters with racism at school, and

Growing up he never seemed to live in the same spot for to long. They kids always moved due to one problem or another. Seeing how he was only a second generation to non-born slaves, most of his family was uneducated, or had a basic education. “His father, Nathaniel, was an illiterate sharecropper and his mother, Ella Wilson, was a well-educated school teacher. The family’s extreme poverty forced them to move to Memphis when Richard was six years old. Soon after, his father left the family for another woman and his mother was forced to work as a cook in order to support the family. Richard briefly stayed in an orphanage during this period as well. His mother became ill while living in Memphis, so the family moved to Jackson, Mississippi, and lived with Ella’s mother.” (“Richard Wright.” MWP: Richard Wright (1908-1960), mwp.olemiss.edu//dir/wright_richard/.) Even when Wright was in a singular spot, or in back at his original home, he wasn’t actually at home. He stayed out of the house most of the time because his mother or grandmother often whipped him for being naughty. Although his home life couldn’t excuse all his crazy actions, such as spying on people in out houses, and drinking at the age of six at the local saloon, it could explain why he did things. The situation at home wasn’t so healthy, and an outsider couldn’t really say things got better after he got out of home and school