Garnette Cadogan's Essay Based On The Sequence Of The Movement By Richard Wright

During the twentieth century, many African American writers wrote several texts that tell the story of their lives and experiences in the society that they had lived. This includes the author, Richard Wright who often wrote gruesome poems, criticisms of other African American writers, and short stories. Many of Wright’s text, like “Between Laughter and Tears,” “Between the World and Me,” and “The Library Card,” has challenged and reflected the brutal discrimination of African-American, socially, politically, and philosophically.

Richard Wright and Malcolm X are two African Americans that struggled so much in the pursuit of knowledge in other to gain power and figure. Richard wright is from Natchez, Mississippi; he was in the south around the year 1925 and worked for the white men helping them get books from the library. During the process of obtaining books for the white men, he wants to read and know of the black history. Malcolm X is from Omaha, Nebraska, he was in prison for burglary, during his time in prison then came the passion for knowledge and he wants to build his vocabulary on how to speak, and write letters appropriately to Mr. Elijah Muhammad. Richard wright becomes motivated when he comes across an article that made mention of H. L. Mencken being a fool and wants to know the reason for such a saying, Richard wrights’ difficulties was how to get a library card without cut reading the novel of H. L. Mencken. Richard Wright becomes transformed greatly not only has his vocabulary improved but had known a great deal of black history. Malcolm X is motivated to read so he can write good letters to Mr. Elijah Muhammad. His difficulties was learning how to read, write and himself not having enough time to read because the lights had to go off and they were watched by a moving guard, he becomes transformed by studying the dictionary to improve his knowledge of vocabulary in reading, speaking and writing good letters to Mr. Elijah Muhammad.

His first stop living in the States, was in New Orleans. For the very first time during his walks Cadogan had to be mindful of how his presence affected others. One technique I immediately noticed is that Cadogan is skilled in dialogue and scenarios that make it an ease to read along and visualize. He adds just enough detail without over explaining. Cadogan shares that he has to wear his university sweaters so he wouldn’t be so threatening to strangers, thicken his Jamaican accent and “accidently” give the police his student I.D. rather than his license like his other peers told him to do. Cadogan gives “a cardinal rule: Keep a wide perimeter from people who might consider me a danger. If not, danger might visit me.” If the author was writing to familiar readers, he wouldn’t have the need to share ways he maneuver around town.

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.

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.

According to Frederick Douglass, “it was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass. It was a most terrible spectacle. I wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I beheld it (p.4).” Frederick Douglass and Toni Morrison literatures examine the stigma of slavery, and the perceptions of its dangers. They illustrate what life was like and the mental as well social impact it had on enslaved African-Americans and their life after gaining freedom. Richard Wright convinces his audience in Black Boy that he was tired of the limitations and outcries in the South “I was not leaving the South to forget the South, but so that some day I might understand it, might come to know what its rigors had done to me, its children (284).” Alice Walker obtains her readers attention by transforming young women into their own characters with a voice using spiritual guidance. In Native Son, Bigger has achieved is lost after being apprehended and brought into captivity, as he transitions back into silence and passivity and begins to recover only in his final confrontation, whereas Douglass in the same prevailing convention, only heals after the regaining of his freedom. Through these literatures, and many others, African-Americans find multiple ways to alleviate and recover from the intensity of undesired bondage and bigotry.

Richard Wright is known to be one of the most influential African American writers of the 20th century. He was well known for his sometimes controversial essays and short stories. Much of his work dealt with racial themes and is said to have paved the way for many other African American writers in the fight against racism in the 1900s. One of Wright’s essays “The Living Ethics of Jim Crow” (1937), demonstrates the conditioning of African Americans through the acceptance of disenfranchisement and inferiority through a personal look in Richard Wright’s life. This conditioning is brought through childhood upbringings, the stigmas placed by society, and the internal acceptance of those stigmas through reoccurring experiences.

Although, white men no longer owned black men, they still held power over them. The Jim Crow Laws severely limited the freedoms of colored people and gave white people the right to persecute them for a variety of reasons. Wright, was raised in an extremely impoverished family and was often neglected attention as a young child because his mother was forced to provide for the family. This lack of guidance, isolated him from many aspects of society, one of which was the interaction with white people. Unfortunately for Wright, while he tried to understand the system, he was denied answers to his questions, “I had begun to notice that my mother became irritated when I questioned her about whites and blacks, and I could not quite understand it.” (Page ??). The Jim Crow system was based on colored people following the rules that white people had set, so questioning these rules was just as dangerous as not following them. This made is very difficult for Wright to learn how to interact with white people, yet as he got older and experienced the interactions between the two races he began to share the fear that kept white people in

Richard Wright was born after the Civil War but before the Civil Rights Movement. Blacks were no longer slaves but were still oppressed in the South. They were terrorized by the Ku Klux Klan and everyone around them, and had to constantly fear for their lives. Through the Civil Rights Movement, blacks fought for equality and an end to protest lynchings and the Jim Crow laws. Now, more than forty years after the Civil Rights Movement, things are not as dangerous for blacks but underlying remnants of racial discrimination still exists. It is a drastically different era from Wright's time and as he had many social comments back in his day about blacks in society, he would surely have something to write about today. If Wright were writing

My attempt to comprehend the guiltless letters smothering the lifeless tree in my hands was of interruption as the bus flew over another speed bump. The predestined occurrence led to a sigh, Richard Wright’s autobiography, Black Boy, no longer in my hands, and the bus driver silently cursing under their breath once the rear end of the yellow mobile and a mailbox kissed. Contemplations about the book clouded my thoughts, but my hand didn’t have the audacity to pick up the autobiography and bring it to my eyes once more. Alternatively, I peered out of a dirty window and questioned the horrors previously read about Richard Wright’s childhood. ‘What exactly were his intentions?’, ‘Why were so many rhetorical devices used?’, and ‘When will racism

Today is the question is: Shall Negro writing be for the Negro masses, moulding the lives and consciousness of those masses toward new goals, or shall it continue begging the question of Negro’s humanity?” What Wright is trying to say is that there are two types of writing, one to educate black people and the other to talk about how bad it is. This quote corresponds with the theme connections between African Americans and Africa. He’s talking about the struggles of being an African American. Africans people wouldn’t be writing things this if they were still in Africa they would be writing about other things, perhaps things that happened in Africa.

My analysis of W. E. B. Du Bois’s story is that he stood up to people for what he believed in and used his experiences to become one of the founding members of the NAACP. Reading Du Bois’s story, made me realize how easy it is to leave out facts and change point of views to how the writer wants you to perceive it. My analysis of Richard Wright’s story is that being a target of racism, he tried to be the bigger person by trying to get along with white people, even going to such lengths as leaving a job in order to keep from getting hurt. I believe that Richard Wright overcame his discrimination and mistreatment by using his experiences to become a writer. Instead of letting it beat him down, he learned from these experiences and made them a profession for him. My analysis of Gunnar Myrdal’s story is that he didn’t look at racism as a man’s color point of view, but more of a number and group’s point of view. His point of view, to me, was more of an opinion about how white people wanted majority over black people. He didn’t know firsthand what it was like for a Negro during that time, he was more trying to scientifically explain Negroes experiences. I have always felt that people should not discriminate or treat someone differently just because of the color of the person’s skin.

In his autobiographical sketch, Richard Wright highlights several instances in which African Americans are not only excluded from the general rights of a citizen but how they are also subjected to injustice and mistreatment. Wright divides his memories into nine sections, in the first one we are introduced to his home. He lives behind the railroad tracks and has nothing in his backyard but black cinders. On one occasion Wright recalls that his group of friends engaged in a fight with white kids. Wright's friends used cinders and the white kids used broken bottles. The fight ended, soon after Wright returned home and waited for his mom in the steps nursing his wound. Wright told her what happened and is mom proceeded to ask why he was always fighting. Instead of consoling him or treating his injuries she proceeded to inflict more damage on him. The motive for this was to “impart to

   In the early twentieth century black American writers started employing modernist ways of argumentation to come up with possible answers to the race question. Two of the most outstanding figures of them on both, the literary and the political level, were Richard Wright, the "most important voice in black American literature for the first half of the twentieth century" (Norton, 548) and his contemporary Ralph Ellison, "one of the most footnoted writers in American literary history" (Norton, 700). In this paper I want to compare Wright's autobiography "Black Boy" with Ellison's novel "Invisible Man" and, in doing so, assess the effectiveness of their conclusions.

Richard Wright’s Blueprint for Negro Writing uses criticism to aid in promoting the success of African-American writers. He did this because of how he viewed the literature standards and works of the writers