Symbolism In Richard Wright's Black Boy

When Richard Wright was fighting to go north, he was struggling to get away from was a hate filled South, where he never seemed to be able to escape the laughter and malice of white people. In his autobiography, Black Boy, Richard Wright describes his fight to survive and his want for knowledge. In Richard’s life, white people dictate how he acts and speaks. He has the desire to get away, and his only ally in getting him there is his passion for reading and writing. Becoming increasingly aware of the racism around him, Richard continues to fight for his journey north. Even though white people are trying to take from him the little that he has, Richard’s will continues to push him on. In the end, the North has never been so far yet so close. This quilt square represents Richard’s knowledge and how it helped him get his goal of moving north and how white people continuously try and take his knowledge away. The books that Richard is standing on in the quilt represent his love of reading and writing. That fervor was one of the big things that helped Richard go north. He was able to learn from those books and become more conscious of his

White people do not want black people to go north and be free, white people want black people in a place where they have control over what they say and do. White people do not like the “positive knowledge or manly self-assertion on the part of the [black man]” (144). When Richard works at the optical building and he lets the staff there know that he is going north, they are all confused because it is not the same as the south. White people do not want black people to have opportunities, and they do all they can to take it away those opportunities. The white people reaching to take the books out of under Richard’s feet show the opportunities Richard created for himself, being unjustly taken from