Equality and White Superiority in The Little Black Boy

Throughout the matriculation of a black boy 's’ life, there are many, (labeled natural, yet are culturally, socially and institutionally based) factors, that govern the holistic views and beliefs entailed to the child. From that moment on, challenging the social structures that these norms entail suggest a sense of sensitivity, homosexuality or weakness, ultimately emasculating the highly regarded social stigmas attached with being a man. Despite being indoctrinated into the minds of black boys from an early age, there are many long lasting effects of masculinity that are in turn reciprocated in the role of black fathers, husbands, brothers and friends. Black masculinity is the self-deteriorating idealisms that attack the identity and social positions black men ascribe to.

Each and every person on this Earth today has an identity. Over the years, each individual creates their identity through past experiences, family, race, and many other factors. Race, which continues to cause problems in today’s world, places individuals into certain categories. Based on their race, people are designated to be part of a larger, or group identity instead of being viewed as a person with a unique identity. Throughout Richard Wright’s Black Boy, Richard is on a search for his true identity. Throughout Black Boy, one can see that Richard’s racial background assigns him with a certain identity or a certain way in which some

In Elie Wiesel’s Night and Richard Motley’s “The Almost White Boy”, the authors both reveal that hatred for others exists because one is taught to hate. The two narratives are similar because people were discouraged and unwelcomed based on the race they are. Each piece is unique because in the narrative Night, you are punished for who you are; even if you are a citizen to the country you live in. Throughout the narrative, the Holocaust is taking place, tons of jews are being killed or worked like animals. The powerful leader known as Adolf Hitler was responsible for the traumatic event that took place from 1933 to 1945. However in the narrative “The Almost White Boy” if your race is hated, you are unwelcomed and treated as if you are

Secondly, the speaker of the poem can be described as underprivileged, and this is shown throughout the entire poem. For example, line 1 of the poem it states "some are teethed on a silver spoon” and line 5 it states "some are swaddled in silk and down”. This shows that the speaker is not the same as the person who is teethed on a silver spoon or cared for very carefully. This inclusion also shows that the speaker was not born into a wealthy family and so the speaker must fight for what they need pertaining to themselves and the family.

Cullen uses auditory imagery to draw his readers in to hear what he hears. The meaning of this poem is to take the reader on a journey of what the negro felt about

“Whenever my environment had failed to support or nourish me, I had clutched at books.” –Richard Wright, Black Boy. The author suffered and lived through an isolated society, where books were the only option for him to escape the reality of the world. Wright wrote this fictionalized book about his childhood and adulthood to portray the dark and cruel civilization and to illustrate the difficulties that blacks had, living in a world run by whites.

The poem describes the weather and its effect on cotton flower by pointing out the dying branches and vanishing cotton. The image of insufficiency, struggle and death parallel the oppression of African American race. The beginning of the poem illustrates the struggle and suffering of the cotton flower; which represent the misery of African Americans and also gives an idea that there is no hope for them. But at the end the speaker says “brown eyes that loves without a trace of fear/ Beauty so sudden for that time of year” (lines 13-14). This shows the rise of the African American race, and their fight against racism. The author used mood, tone and

To begin, Douglass uses imagery to describe the heart wrenching experience of a slave child on a plantation. Without adequate food or clothing, slave children begin the process of dehumanization. Denied blankets or beds, the children slept on the cold and damp floor and Douglass describes with horrid detail his “feet [being] so cracked with the frost, that the pen which [he is] writing might be laid in the gashes”(1836). This painful description creates empathy for a mistreated child whose only “crime” results from his birth to a black mother. In the most dehumanizing comparison, Douglass uses animal imagery to reveal the conditions and manner in which the children are fed. Douglass writes:

In the poem “Hanging Fire” is written from a point of view of a 14 year old girl who is worried about her life ending to early and seems to be impatient about when her life will start to turn around and go the right away. The first and second line “I am fourteen and my skin has betrayed me” means that this girl believes she is missing out on things because she is not white. Many young children are unaware of their race and how they can become affected by it, but as they get older around the time of puberty they start to notice the difference. In line three, four and five “the boy I cannot live without still l sucks his thumb in secret” since she is fourteen, she is a young woman but in other ways she is still a child. She thinks she is old enough of all in love but the boy that she loves is still childish. She doesn’t seem to see her own childish , but we can because most young girls always want to think by teenage years they are old enough for many

In Hughes’ poem, “Mother to son,” a mother explains to her son how her life was never easy. She tells her son that even though she has come across many hardships, she kept on pushing. The mother advises her son to never turn back, no matter how hard the obstacle is to overcome because she hasn’t given up in her old age. This poem is a free verse written in the vernacular. “The Little Black Boy” by William Blake is about a black child telling the story of how he began to find himself and know God. He explains how his skin is black and his soul is white as that of an English child. His mother introduces him to God who lives in the East and gives light and life to all creation, and comfort and joy to men. The mother in this poem is a loving character who wants the best for her child. The little black boy passes on

Race plays a big part in this poem. He speaks on Harlem and its culture and this environment but also about mutual interest with people

keep your mouth shut or the white folks Ôll get you too." As a teenager Wright

The main observation readers could take from this poem is that the “lower” individual has to take care of and pick up after the white man. It is even hinted at that the poems the mother chant rival the alleged master of poetry’s own works.

William Blake and his works have been discussed all his life and he always portrayed them in is poetry. It is his experiences and disgust with London society in the late 18th century .