This book is the autobiography of Richard Wright. Written in a vary blunt and easy to understand style, this book details Richard Wright's childhood in the shamefully prejudicial South. Although it is easy to understand, Black Boy is not simple. It discusses many touchy subjects and also divulges Richards Wright's anger towards the racism that existed around him. This book is well written, provides an interesting and important viewpoint from an important part of history and I hope you will enjoy it.
Important Themes from Black Boy
- Richard Wright's harsh upbringing- “Take this money, this note and this stick,” she said. “Go to the store and buy those groceries. If those boys bother you, then fight” (pg.17).
- Racism in the South- “Mr. Hoskins … he done been shot. Done been shot by a white man,” the boy gasped. “Mrs. Hoskins, he dead” (pg. 54).
- Richard Wright's violence- “Now, I told you to stop,” I screamed. “ You put that knife down!” “Leave me alone or I'll cut you” (pg. 108)
- Richard Wright's determination- “Then your going to be blacklisted for teaching jobs,” he said. “Who the hell said I was going to teach?” I asked. “God, but you've got a will,” he said.
Passages from Black Boy
“I stood fighting, fighting as I had never fought in my life, fighting with myself. Perhaps my uneasy childhood, perhaps my shifting from town to town, perhaps the violence I had already seen and felt took hold of me, and I was trying to stifle the impulse to go the the drawer of the kitchen table and get a knife and defend myself. But this woman who stood before me was my aunt, my mother's sister, Granny's daughter; in her veins my own blood flowed; in many of her actions I could see some elusive part of my own self; and in her speech I could catch echoes of my own speech. I did not want to be violent with her, and yet I did not want to be beaten for a wrong I did not commit” (pg. 107).
- This passage shows Richards internal struggles as a child.
- This passage also shows the violent environment Richard was brought up in.
- This passage shows Richard's confusion as a child; he is fighting many different impulses and decisions; he is between a rock and a hard place.
“To protect myself against the pointed questions about my home and my life, to avoid being invited out when I knew that I could not accept, I was reserved with the boys and girls at school, seeking their company but never letting them guess how much I was being kept out of the world in which they lived, valuing their casual friendships but hiding it, acutely self-conscious but covering it with a quick smile and a ready phrase” (pg. 126).
- This passage shows Richard's isolation from people. Richard has no real friends and his relatives are his enemies. Richard is alone in the world; from a young age he has no advocates or supporters and must find his own way through life.
“Summer. Bright hot days. Hunger is still a vital part of my consciousness. Passing relatives in the hallways of the crowded home and not speaking. Eating in silence at a table where prayers are said. My mother recovering slowly, but now definitely crippled for life. Will I be able to enter school in September? Loneliness. Reading. Job hunting. Vague hopes of going north. But what would become of my mother if I left her in this queer house? And how would I fare in a strange city? Doubt. Fear. My friends are buying long-pants suit that cost twenty dollars, a sum as huge as the Alps! This was my reality in 1924” (pg. 161).
- This passage is a list of the problems facing Richard in 1924, when he is just 16 years old. Many of you (my students) can barely get your homework done whereas Richard is worrying about his mother's health, moving away from his family, finding a job and just being able to go to school. This is enormous pressure for such a young person, but Richard has been facing problems equivalent to these ones all his troubled life.
