Society Against Individual In Richard Wright's Black Boy

In Richard Wright’s novel, Black Boy, Richard is struggling to survive in a racist environment in the South. In his youth, Richard is vaguely aware of the differences between blacks and whites. He scarcely notices if a person is black or white, and views all people equally. As Richard grows older, he becomes more and more aware of how whites treat blacks, the social differences between the races, and how he is expected to act when in the presence of white people. Richard, with a rebellious nature, finds that he is torn between his need to be treated respectfully, with dignity and as an individual with value and his need to conform to the white rules of society for survival and acceptance.

A constant need for love and care develops in Richard when he is young. One of the first major events that occur to Richard during his autobiography is the abandonment by his father. As soon as his father leaves him and his mother, Richard begins to be deprived of the love he needs most

He comes from an extremely religious family, and as someone who doesn't fully believe in the church, he is very much so isolated. However, the abusive way they try to push their religion on him leads to further isolation. When he was a young child, his grandmother and Aunt Addie tried to force him into trying to join the church in order to save him. At one point, they even forced him to spend an hour a day praying (120). However, Richard did not believe in the church;this would isolate him from the rest of the family. “They begged me so continuously to come to God that it was impossible for me to ignore them without wounding them. Desperately I tried to think of some way to say no without making them hate me” (116). Richard’s family want him to join their church, to the point where he is afraid that they will not love him if he says no. This feeling causes Richard to feel isolated from his family. This feeling is furthered when his mother joins in on the cause. In chapter 6, Richard’s mother tries to force him to join her Black Methodist Church. Richard, still feeling disillusioned with the church, is further isolated from his family due to this incident. “It was no longer a question of my believing in God; it was no longer a matter of whether I would steal or lie or murder; … If I refused, it meant that I did not love my mother, and no man in that tight little black community had ever been

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.

Though his education is ruined and disrupted, Richard seems not to give up. Instead, he is more strong and ready to conquer all his life’s challenges. In Richard’s life, the hardest challenge is racism, and it is a problem among many other black people during that period. Black Boy, however, discovers racism not only as a loathsome belief held by hateful people but also as an insidious challenge that has fabric roots in the society. For Richard, he discovers that the challenge of racism does not simply exist but its roots are so deep in the American culture.

In Richard Wright’s autobiography Black Boy he explains his struggles of living in the Jim Crow south in extreme detailed stories that some up many obstacles throughout his life that were set forth to block him for achieving his goal of becoming a successful writer. During Wright’s time in Mississippi, he encountered many situations were he faced society telling him to do things that he really had no interest in doing. Society was also very unhelpful when it came to

What would one expect to become of a boy who is overwhelmed by manipulation, segregation, and discrimination throughout his life? It is such a boy--growing up in the South during the height of Jim Crow Laws--who Richard portrays himself to be in his autobiography, Black Boy. An analysis of Richard Wight reveals that through his actions, and often despite the consequences, Richard usually demonstrates a strong will to be an individual or do things his own way rather than comply with society. Before all else, Richard’s childhood exhibits his strong will despite the harsh pressures of his family. Most of his family members believe in a rigid and dictatorial standard, and often try to make Richard abide by this standard also.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Black Boy by Richard Wright both show the theme of the American Dream throughout the books. The American dream is the possibility of making a good life for yourself, the idea of rags to riches was the most popular concept of getting a better life. The American dream can both be found in the concepts of character decisions and conflict. The American Dream of getting rich was a goal that every immigrant had coming to the United States, but it was hard to find a way to obtain that amount of money.

For Richard Write, in Black Boy his personal experiences affect him in a positive way. Richard learns how to his life to the fullest with the things that are handed to him. He lives without much parental guidance, with his mother being on the verge of life and death, and his father leaving him at an early age. “But it never occured to me that his absence would mean that there would be no food”(Pg 15). Without his parents there to tell him what is right or wrong, he has to figure these things out himself.

If Wright were writing an autobiography “Black Boy” in today's present society about a Black Boy Growing up in the United States he would write about , Police Brutality , the first Black President, and Cultural Appropriation. As we see in today’s news and social media, there’s been a positive out roar of success for young afro americans, but also sadly the misuse of power of authorities.

This experience was not unique to Wright, however; it was a reality felt by many blacks sharing his time and place. Wright was growing up in the Jim Crow era in the South, when, despite the North having won the Civil War, blacks had been successfully segregated by law and custom in “practically every conceivable situation in which whites and blacks might come into social contact”. This was a time when signs dictating where blacks could and could not walk, eat, live, and enter were everywhere, impacting the daily lives of black Americans and shaping their mannerisms to a huge degree. Wealth, skill, and personality did not matter; if one’s skin was black, one was subject to these laws and customs. Thus, skin color at this time was the most significant defining feature among Southern individuals with or without their consent, and by using the term “Black Boy” in his title, Wright drew attention to and challenged this unjust reality of race relations during his early years.

In the book Black Boy, Richard goes through the worst childhood experience and does not have the ideal parents to give him what he needs. This boy’s father left him and his mom does not treat him correctly, which makes Richard act out in ways that are not acceptable. Throughout this book Richard does things that kids his age should not do. No one could tell him not to do it because he either would not listen and fight back or not get told at all.

This chapter features letters written by Richard to his wife and family. It also has a couple of letter from people who knew Richard and who wrote about him. In Richard’s letters to his wife and children he wrote from foreign countries and described the activities he took part in. He talked about meeting a queen and king, the architecture in Poland, Greek culture, and how much he missed his loved ones. The letters from Richard’s friends focussed on Richard’s personality. They said how he was always so interesting, funny, and kind. They spoke so highly of him in their letters. I feel like these letters are important because they reiterate how amazing Richard was. They explain that although Richard was a brilliant and intelligent man, he also

He kept everything separate and tried not to allow powerful emotions to touch him. Like Papa Midge, Richard lived before men expressed emotion. Partitioning emotions might have been something they learned to cope with the horrors of war, but raising a family, as I am learning now, “doesn’t love a wall.” That phrase belongs to Robert Frost who wrote about stone walls. He wrote about a pair of neighbors who would meet each spring to repair an old wall that was damaged during the winter. Walls make good metaphors, as Updike knew when he sat down to write Richard’s story “Separating,” but they don’t serve the bonds between family

Black Boy is a denunciation of racism and his conservative, austere family. As a child growing up in the South, Richard Wright faced constant pressure to submit to white authority, as well as to his family’s violence. However, even from an early age, Richard had a spirit of rebellion. His refusal of punishments earned him harder beatings. Had he been weaker amidst the racist South, he would not have succeeded as a writer.