Hunger In Life In Richard Wright's Black Boy

Black Boy by Richard wright is a well written novel that talks about him growing up in the Jim Crow south. By the title you know he is african american and living in the jim crow south he soon found out that white folks were about to do more and were better than blacks. The two races were not equal and blacks were often discriminated, hated, and punished for the most simple things. Many were punished for simple things such as looking the wrong way at a white women, things that in todays society would be completely acceptable. Richard did not know why things were how they were in life but he soon figured out. A huge theme for this book is hunger, the actual physical aspect of it and metaphorically he was hungry. The first true mention he …show more content…
Today the average middle classes calls it hungry when there is nothing around that we would like to eat or just miss one meal and say we are hungry. Richard had nothing he was even able to eat when his dad left and they had absolutely no food. He had living this way his whole life and he could not even imagine living without the feeling of hunger always with you. It shows how these blacks in the Jim Crow south were in poverty. They did not get to eat much and were very poor. Those who worked a job made little money and could only afford some amounts of food to just get by. Many would become so hungry they began to come weak and restless. Once their father had left them their mother tried to take him to court to get him to pay for the kids some food and support them. In court they did not get a thing the father gets the judge to believe his story and he did not have to pay for his kids. Richard knew he was always hungry but he did not want his Dad to feed him. He left them and if he were going to feed him then he would have already done it no matter what the judge says. On page 28 he speaks again about hunger always being with them. Sometimes the neighbors would feed them or their grandmother would send them a dollar in the mail. It was always part of his life and if continuously shows up through-out the book. In chapter four Wright says”Once again I knew hunger, biting hunger, hunger that made my body …show more content…
The hunger in the book really takes you through the book and make you want to know all that he went through and strived for to be what he is today. He always had the physical hunger in his life and it was just part of being a black in the Jim Crow south era. The racial separation really had negatives effects and Richard learned and understood more as he got older about the racism in America. What really pushed him to be successful was the true hunger for knowledge. He want to be educated and learn everything he could. He was a great learner and strived to gain knowledge on everything he could. It was not the easiest due to his race and the time period but he endured through the troubles to become the success his is