Richard Wright Short Biography

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.

The personal essay “A Visit to the Library” (1945), written by Richard Wright suggests that reading can change the way racism is interpreted and its connection to the personal life of the Negros in the south. Wright supports his theses by explaining and giving details about his experience with co-workers, a librarian, and other white men. Wright purpose was to let people know that reading was important in order to be able to help understand racism and why it is so frowned on in the south.

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.

In his essay, Wright explains that the simple act of a black person writing was astounding to white Americans. Black artists were never taken seriously or treated with the same respect as white

“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.

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.

"I want my life to count for something," he told a friend. This shows us that Wright was motivated not only by his longing to leave the racism and crap that he had to deal with in the south. But he also wanted to make it better so that other black folk didn't have to go through the same thing. He had a true desire to change they way society acted and it takes a true man to set of in this journey. But this is also the reason Wright wrote, so that other people could see how his kind fair and that they really are just the same as the white people. his first book was a book called black boy. Wright continued to plow through books and write. He later joined the Federal Writers’ Project, and in 1937, with dreams of making it as a writer, he moved to New York City,A year after, Wright published Uncle Tom's Children, a collection of four stories. The book proved to be a significant turning point in his career. The stories earned him a $500 prize from Story magazine.

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.

Undoubtedly, Richard Wright was a patient who was anything but stagnant. Almost every aspect of the youth was fickle, especially the world surrounding him. However, there was one significant feature of Richard that was not prone to transition: his frame of mind. After my first session with Richard, I perceived almost instantaneously that Richard was the sufferer of major depressive disorder. On the disposition spectrum, Richard lingered at the bottom with perpetual melancholy. His frame of mind was virtually static, with episodes of mania and normal mood few and far between. I took Richard under my wing with the sole intention of helping him contend with this monster of the human psyche. Let us review the progress Richard and I have made in that psychological strife.

Richard was born, raised, and grew up in a difficult period of life. However, when Wright was sixteen, a short story of his was published in a Southern African American newspaper. After leaving high school, Wright worded a few odd jobs, but still showed his true love for writing. In 1927, Wright decided to pack up his belongings and head to Chicago. A short ten years later, Richard moved to New York City, where he was told it would be easier getting published. One year later, Wright’s first book was published. Since then, Wright has wrote a number of books, series and short stories until he died in 1960. With that being said, Richard Wright’s short stories, The Man Who Was Almost A Man and Big Boy Leaves Home were both written to show what coming with age and responsibility truly mean.

Though Richard suffered abuse throughout his childhood without knowing why, he decided that he was going to change his attitude so he would never get in trouble again and change his future for the better. There are multiple incidents in the book where a member of Richard’s family has whipped him for actions he did that he did not fully understand, since he was still such a young child. Each time he was beaten he resented the person who beat him and was humiliated but as Richard got little older, he decided he wanted to change his actions that were causing his pain and embarrassment, and tried to please his family so he would never be beaten again. One night when Richard was only about seven or eight years old, his grandmother was giving him

While in the Communist Party, Richard's writings began to have a direct influence on many people. He was a leading contributor to the magazine and newspapers -"Daily Worker" and "New Masses" which held very controversial beliefs for the time. His novels, Uncle Tom's Children (1938) and Native Son (1940) were written while he was in the party. Richard was one of a few black men in the Communist Party and it was because of him that many black American's began to look to the Communist Party. Because of a lack of results and his outspoken militancy, Wright broke away from the party in 1944. The essay, "The God that Failed", gives an oversight to why Richard disagreed with the Communist party. According to the Communist Party, Richard was not writing about what they wanted such as ways to come together and fight against others,he was reflecting the life of the black American and the Communists found this to have little importance to what they were trying to portray.

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

no matter how hard Richard made their lives they still manage to keep their faith in Christ. And although, later on Aunt Addie and Grandma Wright give up on Richard, they still managed to keep their faith.

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