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Theme Of Violence In Fist Stick Knife Gun

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Early memories of violence play a significant role in Geoffrey Canada's Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America and Richard Wright's Black Boy. Both had experiences being rob as very young boys and both found this memory crucial enough to include it at the beginning of their memoir. While their stories echo one another in many ways, there are also important differences. Both Canada and Wright experience a share of violence and fear, however Wright had to fight his own battle and conquered his fear but Canada still suffer with fear and constant violence.

In “Fist Stick Knife Gun” and “Black Boy” both boys suffers with the fear of other children. In Canada’s story, Canada was excited to make a new friend at first. “Since …show more content…

For example, “Hit him, hit him!”’ my mind screamed. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t hit him” (Canada 10), this quote states that Canada had the instinct to act towards the violence but he could not, instead, he let the boy walk away from him. In contrast, Wright chose to approach the violence and attack although he was frighten but he took his chance, “They closed in. In blind fear I let the stick fly, feeling it crack against a boy’s skull. I swung again, lamming another skull, then another” (Wright 4-5). They both used and imagined weapons but different one, Canada imaging using a can of pork and beans to defend his self, but Wright uses a stick to defend his self. Canada had the desire to fight and Wright had the need to fight, for example, “I clutched the stick, crying, trying to reason. If I were beaten at home, there was absolutely nothing that I could do about it; but if I were beaten in the streets, I had a chance to fight and defend myself... I walked slowly down the sidewalk, coming closer to the gang of boys, holding the stick tightly.” (Wright 4). The quote portray that Wright had the need to fight back because if he did not defend his self, his mother would not let him come back home. He had to conquer his fear, put them to the side, and fight his way through the

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