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Richard Wright's 'Big Boy Leaves Home'

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Recommended: Racism and identity

Richard Wright's short story,” Big Boy Leaves Home” conveys the idea that life for african americans, in the Jim Crow south, is constantly full of assumptions of personal guilt, and one must give up immaturity in order to survive. During this time period, african american lives revolve around assuming guilt. They must convict and obligate themselves to the whites way of life; that all african americans are untrustworthy and dangerous. This constant assumed guilt towards them is everywhere and it is what defines life in the Jim Crow south. Bobo,Big Boy, Lester, and Buck are african american teens who decided to skip school and intrude on a white man's property to go swimming. Not everyone was in agreement, but they decided to go anyway. On …show more content…

Big Boy reacts by fighting the man, resulting in the white man being killed. The two boys, Bobo and Big Boy run away. Big Boy runs home and explains what had happened. As his family was frantically trying to find a solution, his mother tells his father what occurred and how, “‘Big, Boys done got n trouble wid the white folks.’ The old man’s mouth dropped, and he looked from one to the other. ‘We gotta get im erway from here’” (Wright). The african americans in this story are actively showing the danger of this reputation. The assumption of guilt is everywhere, from no alternative solutions to no questions being asked. Grave danger is upon them and no one will listen to them. They all know how they are viewed and how people will react. The family is knowledgeable of the hate projected towards them and how they are confined to live under rash decisions. This assumption doesn't just represent african americans according to crime, but also trustworthiness. They are not wanted and especially not trusted. The author uses the short response “ we gotta get im erway from here” to indicate the severity of the situation. This was a big mistake, resulting with a big, over the top …show more content…

African americans during this time have always been expected to act out and in order to make it through, they had to give up a lot in order to survive One of these factors was immaturity. In the story, Bobo, Buck, Lester, and Big Boy were out swimming in a white man's swimming hole. When they were swimming, they decided to have some fun and act like hippos. Each of the boys, “Went to a corner of the creek and put his mouth dust below the surface and blew like a hippopotamus. Tiring, they came and under the embankment” (Wright). At this moment, the boys were out just having a good time. They felt normal and were fooling around like any teenagers. This immaturity caused them to look past the danger of being on the property in the first place, just to have a little fun. Its sad to think that they must give up a normal, rebellious and immature teen characteristic just to survive, however, it must be done. This event lead to many serious problems and underthinking was very foolish of them. African americans deprivation to normal things is extreme, but it prevents so much. If they were to think and justify their reasons to swim, they would not have gone. But, they deserved a chance to experience what it would be like to have normal participation in immature activities. The author uses the word “hippopotamus” to further characterize and enhance the immaturity of the

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