Richard Wright's Life Lessons

Writing this story about an African American family in the early 1960’s more than likely influenced many other families, going through the same problems to change. I was talking to my Sociology professor yesterday and he told me about a book he read, and how it gave him entirely differently view on life. When he told me that, I thought about Sonny’s Blues, this story made me view my life as African American Male, who grew up with a mom who was addicted to crack cocaine, and father who was non-existent, as a male who had all the potential in the world.

Racism is a big part of this book. It shows the absurdity of what people thought back then, which is an important lesson. It is important for us to learn what people’s views used to be, and how important it is not to go back to that mindset.

The scorching heat of the summer day in Stamps, Arkansas made the dusty roads and cross tracks have mirages. It was a slow moving town otherwise, in my opinion. I amongst many other blacks were segregated from the whites. The whites are richer than the blacks in my town, but through hard work and determination I do have a similar lifestyle to the whites. One thing that was important to me was helping one girl accepting herself in this disconsolate town that she can do anything she puts her mind too..

Reading the content in this book made me get a picture of what it was like to be a colored person in this time. My eyes were opened to the meaning of the word “nigga”. Nigga is such a derogatory term, yet now-a-days it is used by people so much. Kids in this generation use it as a term of endearment when they see their friends, or they say it when they are shocked by something. Frankly, I don’t believe they know how serious it really is. The fact that white people could look at a person and see less than a human being when they did nothing wrong distresses me. They (white people) treated them as if they were property and below them. Even though we don’t have racism to this extent

Racism was very prevalent in the south, especially in the time this book was created and in most places still exists to an extent. It comes in many ways it may not be as blatant as obvious as it used to be but it still exists. This book has some real good examples of such. The effects it can have on a person or group of people in general can be staggering. It can emotionally damage you or depending on what people are doing physical damage you.

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.

"Whenever I thought of the essential bleakness of black life in America, I knew that Negroes had never been allowed to catch the full spirit of Western civilization, that they lived somehow in it but not of it. And when I brooded upon the cultural barrenness of black life, I wondered if clean, positive tenderness, love, honor, loyalty, and the capacity to remember were native with man. I asked myself if these human qualities were not fostered, won, struggled and suffered for, preserved in ritual from one generation to another." This passage written in Black Boy, the autobiography of Richard Wright shows the disadvantages of Black people in the 1930's. A man of many words, Richard Wrights is the father of the modern

The topic of racism is a very intriguing one for me. Other authors criticized Zora Neal Hurtson that she, being a black woman during the black liberation movement in the 1910’s, should be writing about black people being set free and how they are being suppressed by the world around them. Instead, Zora mainly deals with the issues of the women being suppressed and not allowed to be free. This idea itself mirrors that of freeing black people, but yet authors of the time were not able to see that, they called her book artificial and did not help them in their quest for freedom.

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 Conclusion , you can see how these three characters from the book were affected by racism. All of these situations were a tad bit different but you can see how they often got caught in the middle of what other people thought was right and what was really right. All humans should not be judge of their work ethic or ability to do something just cause of their skin color. We all live on the

Langston Hughes is one the most renowned and respected authors of twentieth century America not simply one of the most respected African-American authors, though he is certainly this as well, but one of the most respected authors of the period overall. A large part of the respect and admiration that the man and his work have garnered is due to the richness an complexity of Hughes' writing, both his poetry and his prose and even his non-fictions. In almost all of his texts, Hughes manages at once to develop and explore the many intricacies and interactions of the human condition and specifically of the experience growing up and living as a black individual in a white-dominated and explicitly anti-Black society while at the same time, while at the same time rendering his human characters and their emotions in a simple, straightforward, and immensely accessible fashion. Reading the complexity behind the surface simplicity of his works is at once enjoyable and edifying.

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 1901, Booker T. Washington wrote an autobiography about his life entitled Up from Slavery. This book, spans from life as a slave working on a plantation to the American reconstruction era. In this eye opening book, he talks about the many difficulties and obstacles he overcame to be an inspiring human being. This book captures the essence of Washington as he slowly improved the racial tensions in the 19th century.

Human Condition and how it relates to Literature The human condition is our characteristics and experiences that make us people. How we are able to relate to one another with our differences. How people mature and have their own characteristics some with positive outlooks in life, some with negative outlooks in life. My beliefs on human characteristics are that we inherited some of our traits and the rest are from our own free will. I will take my beliefs in the human condition and relate them to the writer’s aspect of the literature.

T On the popular book there are many scholars have put forward their own unique thought, of course, the book itself in the year academic literature has a great contribution, but there are also people listed examples of many other about racial discrimination of the books. Historians believe that in the 20's of the last century, the book's decline is the reaction of contemporary people's thoughts and emotions (The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy." - Encyclopedia Article. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr.