Free Narrative Essays: Mitch's Black Boy

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

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 novel, The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man by James Weldon Johnson shows a story of a man with mixed blood of white and coloured. Throughout the story, the man is conflicted with his heritage, sometimes accepting his coloured heritage and at other times rejecting his coloured heritage and passing himself off as a white man. The main character travels all around the United States and Europe while observing how whites and coloureds behave separately and with each other. The nameless man goes through tough times and prosperous times his whole life and comes out with quite a few revelations.

Gov. Montagu, lying on a king size bed, rolls off his stomach onto his back. He wakes up with a moan, holding his head in pain, as if from a night of drinking.

“Oh my, Jesus!”, Adoniram yawns, slowly sitting up from his grand luxury bed, lifting his body up from his nightly stupor, Adoniram looks to the side of his large bed as he realizes

Black Like Me is a research diary kept by John Griffin in 1959. Griffin, a white male, is bothered by racism and wants to experience what it is like to be black. He begins taking medication and rubs shoe polish on himself to darken the color of his skin to temporarily pass as a black man. Sepia, a black oriented magazine, sponsors Griffin’s study in exchange for written articles about the experience.

The last few weeks were worse than I could have ever imagined. If I had known what it this job would consist of I might not have taken it in the first place. I sailed to Africa with the crew, expecting to pick up cargo when, to my shock, it turns out we were bringing a more alive supply of 140 young African slaves. Why do people want slaves anyway? I had questioned Mr. Slater with this. “They’re better with agriculture and cattle, ” he had replied. “The Indians are no good… they’re all dead, ahahaha.” I did not have the energy to tell him why his joke was grossly unfunny. He strangely did not recognize even a slight problem with forcing people to work for us, just because they had immunities to our diseases and their government allowed it.

All characters in the stories truly found themselves through their epiphanies. Most of the stories heavily depended on it throughout the story. Each character had these crucial moments in order to continue growing. Moreover, I interpret having an epiphany as a sudden realization or understanding of an essence or a larger meaning, leading to something impactful.

I feel as if so many innocent lives are being took and there needs to be a changed . Michael Brown , Trayvon Martin , Eric Garner these are the names of three African American men that were murdered in the street , two of which were in broad daylight. Trayvon Martin was simply walking home from the store minding his own business when he was racially profiled by George Zimmerman . Zimmerman called Sanford police to report Martin for suspicious behavior, the two later had an altercation and Zimmerman shot Martin in the chest . In fact, just like Martin , Garner was innocent minding his own when officer Daniel Pantaleo tried to arrest Garner after telling him and another officer he was not selling cigarettes without tax stamps they tried to arrest

In the racist South, African Americans constantly lived in fear under the oppressive rule of the white Southerner. Richard Wright, an African American from the South writes about his experiences with racism. His memoir reveals the pain and danger African Americans faced on a daily basis. In Black Boy, Wright reveals the economic effects of racism on African Americans in the United States of America.

Throughout history, African Americans have gone through numerous experiences, both good and bad, that have shaped their community to show that they are more than just a race. Some periods in time such as the segregated South and the Vietnam War have shaped and changed the lives of many African American families. Black Boy, a memoir by Richard Wright, talks about his youth and experience in the segregated South. Bloods by Wallace Terry, on the other hand, showcases a collection of stories, events, and experiences of African Americans that have gone through the Vietnam War. Both of these periods in time are very different, but similar in small ways. African Americans who were enlisted and fought during the Vietnam War wanted to prove to others and themselves that they had a purpose and were worth more than what other people viewed them to be. They got drafted and fought for the US in hopes of showing people that they deserved the rights they were supposed to be given. On the other hand, African Americans during the segregated South were mainly used as construction workers and to aid soldiers. However, as the war continued, they were drafted to be soldiers to fight in the war. But in the segregated South, African Americans had to suffer through lack of equality and education. Both of these eras have impacted African Americans dearly and have shown what they have gone through in the past. However,

In the James Weldon Johnson’s “Audio biography of an Ex-Colored Man”, Jonhson’s narrator at face first is written to be perceived as a white male, when in fact he is inherently of colored descent in regards to societies principle of the one drop policy. Consequently, the narrator is faced with an identity complex who finds it difficult to understand whether he is black because of societies has categorized him on the account of his bloodline, or white because of his appearance. For in the end of the novel, he makes the conscious decision to pass as white. Yet in erasing the traces of his his negro descent, this questions whether the narrator’s decision violates particular morals in “passing” as white. Or whether the narrator’s decision demonstrates that one must recreate themselves out of necessity to liberate themselves from societies categorization, in order for the individual to obtain their desired concept of happiness. For the notion of recreating oneself through concealing traces of the past to progress towards a future goal is understood in F.Scotts Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”. For lowly Jimmy Gatz is given an opportunity to recreate himself as Jay Gatbsy, yet can only do so through concealing his past identity from society. Yet in effect this enables Gatbsy to progress towards his idealized future. Therefore, this paper will the combine significant similarities between the two novels, to argue how the modes of recreation is an essential concept in progressing

When a big black man who loved to talk about sex and hip hop entered my life, I thought I would die of mortification. I soon learned, however, this ridiculous man would dramatically change my life for the better. His actions and kind heart taught me an invaluable lesson that I will carry with me forever. I have always heard stories about strangers entering one’s life and forever changing a person, yet I never thought I would have the honor to live such a tale.

He hopped out of bed, feeling slightly irritated by his current state. He should have seen the damage done and remedied his previous state with a few packs of ice and proper bandaging; sleeping only made his situation worst. He shed his clothing and stepped into

He slipped out from the messy sheets, a tired yawn as his feet sank lightly into the below carpets. He reached for the lamp by the bedside table, a soft click as the room was warmly illuminated in its glow. Getting up onto his feet, he drew the curtains slightly to