Richard Wright's Poetry Essay

Richard Wright authored about a dozen books and numerous poems and essays, most of which address the evils of racism and man’s inhumanity to man. He emerged an international literature figure championing the cause of social and racial justice. Mr. Wright was born on September 4, 1908, in the Mississippi. As any black child born and growing up in the Deep South, he suffered poverty, hunger, racism and violence. These experience imprinted on him and later on became the main part of his work. The increasing absence of his father during his childhood grew Wright’s anger and estrangement. Richard’s father had left to live with another woman, at first Richard felt relieved for not having to presence his father’s abusive behavior but later on he realized this brought severe poverty. His mother had to be the

In November of 1927 he decided to take a train for Chicago. There, he started working as a clerk at the post office. While working for the post office Wright was invited by some radical intellectuals to attend John Reed Club, a communist writers’ organization. Exposed to Communist literature and Marxist ideology, Richard was encouraged to pursue a writing career. By the time, Wright’s interest in race relations and radical thought had led him to join the Communist party. He had found a group sharing a common goal of promoting racial and social equality. Early in 1936, after the Communist party disbanded and Richard decided to go to New York, he formed part of the Federal Theater Project and also wrote for the Daily Worker and started working on a collection of short stories and a novel. In Chicago his studies of philosophy, psychology, sociology and literature led to question the rigid policies of Stalinism and the aesthetic aspect of socialist realism. Later on in 1937, he was accused of betraying the Communist