Big Black Good Man

Throughout the whole novel Bigger had felt cornered and intimidated by the white man and who they were. However, this man was different from the others. He treated Bigger as a normal human being, not as a downtrodden person or a murderer, just a normal human being. This is the only instince in which this happens in the whole novel. Wright used it primarily to show that he himself did not feel as if all whites were bad but that because of stereotyping, many were. Wright goes out of his way to show that this man was not under the inlfluence of stereotyping and to show the decent side of some whites.

The idea of racism and prejudice has seemingly always been apart of society. Whether it were to be as bad as a full out segregation of schools or just underlying thoughts. In the short story “Big Black Good Man” by Richard Wright. The narrator has a limited omniscient point of view. This gives us great insight into what the main character Olaf Jenson is thinking about the other character Jim throughout the story. Richard Wright did a great job of giving us a look into what was then and may still be today, an example of the average racist.

2. The novel “Black Boy” by Richard Wright is structured into twenty chapters and two parts. Part one is about Richard Wright childhood and growing up in a difficult time where whites are cruel to all African Americans. Part two focuses more on Richard’s life as an adult and how he struggles to maintain a good job. The story starts from when he is a young child and to when he is an adult.

Richard Wright was born after the Civil War but before the Civil Right Era. If he were writing an autobiography titled Black Boy today (2016) about a black boy growing up in the United States, he would write about racial profiling against African Americans, the wide education gap between black and white, and the unequal job opportunity for African American.

The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine black students who enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1957. Their attendance at the school was a test of Brown v. Board of Education, a landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional. On September 4, 1957, the first day of classes at Central High, Governor Orval Faubus called in the Arkansas National Guard to block the black students’ entry into the high school. Later that month, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent in federal troops to escort the Little Rock Nine into the school.

In his autobiographical work, Black Boy, Richard Wright wrote about his battles with hunger, abuse, and racism in the south during the early 1900's. Wright was a gifted author with a passion for writing that refused to be squelched, even when he was a young boy. To convey his attitude toward the importance of language as a key to identity and social acceptance, Wright used rhetorical techniques such as rhetorical appeals and diction.

Soldiers gave a sense of hope to the Little Rock Nine as stated by Minnijean Brown “For the first time in my life I feel like an American Citizen” (“Miller 59”). The soldiers became a symbol of acceptance of the integration efforts. They helped assure the Little Rock Nine students in their actions, made them feel secure that they were fighting for equality, and that the integration was even worth fighting for. During the turmoil, two harsh groups formed: the Capital Citizens Council and the Mother’s League of Central High School which served to promote segregation (“Integration” 2). These two groups became a challenge that strengthened the Negro students, because no praiseworthy battles are without a commendable opposing side. On the side of the segregationists, it united them together as a group. Furthermore, A report by The New York Times was issued on September 25, 1957, which explained that several of the African-American students had a positive first day of school, but others were routinely harassed and violence occurred throughout the remainder of the year (“Integration” 4). Thus proving, desegregation was not a pointless effort. It was conceivable for these students to successfully integrate and people were open for change. This is another example of how the media focuses on the negativity of a situation. One student, in particular, effectively changed and is historically remembered as an African-American hero; Ernest Green. Green was Central’s first black student to graduate on May 27th in 1958 (“LRNE” 2). He proved his skin color did not limit him, and he was as capable as the white students to receive a diploma. He inspired the remaining eight Little Rock Nine students and other people of color. Finally, African-Americans were impending at acquiring one of the most basic human rights: the right to an

Tangerine, a realistic-fiction novel, by Edward Bloor, tells about a boy that slowly uncovers dark truths about his new home in Tangerine County. The motif used throughout this novel is sight, motif is a symbolic detail that the writer adds in to set the theme or mood. Paul is challenged daily with his sight and what he can see what other people may not want to see. Through the motif of sight, Paul, the main character of the novel, has a growing understanding of his friends, family, and himself. To begin with, Paul experiences a growing understanding of his friends.

The protagonist in the short story “Big Black Good Man”, written by Richard Wright, is a sixty year old man named Olaf Jenson. Jenson works as a night porter at a hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark. Jim, an American sailor, enters the hotel and requests a room. Jenson is startled by Jim’s usual black complexion and gigantic size. Before meeting Jim, Jenson views himself as respecter of all men. In fact, Jenson justifies his belief by dawning upon his experiences as a sailor, which exposed him to many different cultures and peoples. However, his encounter with Jim causes Jenson to realize his racial prejudices. Although Jenson refuses to accept this revelation his words and actions testify otherwise.

Wright was one of the first American writers to confront racism and discrimination (Fabre 102). Through the book Eight Men, which includes this story, Wright alienated impoverished black men who

In the short story “Big Black Good Man” by Richard Wright there are few different themes that take place in the story. This story is about an old man, named Olaf Jenson, that was a night porter in a cheap hotel on the waterfront in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. On one night, Olaf talked to himself about how there were only three rooms left, and he was going to take a nap because it was midnight. Before Olaf could take a nap, a big black man came into his hotel looking for a room and a whore. Within this story, there are three themes that are important, and the themes are judgment, fear, and suspense.

This experience was not unique to Wright, however; it was a reality felt by many blacks sharing his time and place. Wright was growing up in the Jim Crow era in the South, when, despite the North having won the Civil War, blacks had been successfully segregated by law and custom in “practically every conceivable situation in which whites and blacks might come into social contact”. This was a time when signs dictating where blacks could and could not walk, eat, live, and enter were everywhere, impacting the daily lives of black Americans and shaping their mannerisms to a huge degree. Wealth, skill, and personality did not matter; if one’s skin was black, one was subject to these laws and customs. Thus, skin color at this time was the most significant defining feature among Southern individuals with or without their consent, and by using the term “Black Boy” in his title, Wright drew attention to and challenged this unjust reality of race relations during his early years.

Black Boy is a denunciation of racism and his conservative, austere family. As a child growing up in the South, Richard Wright faced constant pressure to submit to white authority, as well as to his family’s violence. However, even from an early age, Richard had a spirit of rebellion. His refusal of punishments earned him harder beatings. Had he been weaker amidst the racist South, he would not have succeeded as a writer.

Since Richard exited his mother’s womb, he had to undergo bigotry and unseen detestation from white southerners because of his color (Hart 35). Starting his first day of life on September 4, 1908, Richard Wright overcame several impediments and later became one of the first famous African-American authors. The Wright family lived in Natchez, Mississippi, and his parents worked, during his toddler years. Nathaniel Wright, Richard’s father, was a sharecropper. He labored for the rich plantation owners, while Richard’s mother was a school teacher. (Shuman 1697)Because of the constant beatings, Wright was obedient to all types of authority but anxiety and distrust formed in his mind. Richard unintentionally set his grandparents’ house

He does explain that oppression and racism affected both whites the oppressors and blacks the oppressed. He also explains how a white like girl, befriended a black man, and that a lot of what happened was because of the lack of understanding of the others culture. Yet, I feel that Mr. Wright’s emphasis was more on the struggles that the African Americans endured during the 1930’s. I feel he felt that this oppression and racism affected them the most so he tends to favor their plight more than that of the whites. Wright uses this quote to express how Bigger felt, “To Bigger and his kind, white people were not really people: they were a sort of great natural force, like a stormy sky looming overhead or like a deep swirling river stretching suddenly at one’s feet in the dark.” (109) Wright does not downplay the suffering that they endured at the hands of the whites. He depicts their poverty, in Bigger’s case the cramped rat infested apartment his family lived in. Wright uses this quote to express the living conditions, "Gimme that skillet, Buddy," he asked quietly, not taking his eyes from the rat. Wright tells of some of their racial struggles and inequalities like not being able to be educated, being forced to live in areas that were not as good as those the whites lived in but still over paying for them. It reads “black people, even though they cannot get good jobs, pay twice as much rent as whites”(248) Wright also declares that Bigger was not even allowed a fair trial to defend himself even though he was guilty of what he had done because of this racism. The headlines “NEGRO RAPIST FAINTS AT INQUEST was featured in the Tribune and in the article, Bigger is described as looking “exactly like an ape with “exceedingly black skin” (279). Wright allows the reader to know that he feels this misguided oppression and racism shows that both races lost the realization that all men are