Familial Insufficiency
Family is one of the largest influences in any one person’s life. The traditional familial structure takes the form of the two parents supporting their children, allowing them to grow up and mature at their own pace. Many black boys were not granted the opportunity because they lived in the Jim Crow South — an environment teeming with racism and prejudice, hostile rumors of any race, and separate yet unequal treatment of black people in contrast to those of whites. In Black Boy by Richard Wright, Wright argues that the lack of financial, intellectual, and spiritual support from his family growing up in the Jim Crow South molded him into the stubbornly independent man he became.
His father’s absence, his experience in …show more content…
Richard experiences a metaphorical hunger for new information. He makes himself “a nuisance by asking far too many questions of everybody” and is excited to return to the schoolhouse because he “had not had a single, unbroken year of school” caused by the constant moving of his family. Richard constantly wants to learn more of everything for himself. Richard’s grandmother does not support reading books, calling it the works of the devil, which furthers Richard’s rebellion against her. Behind her back, Richard would “steal a book and take it back to the barn and try to read it”, even swearing to himself that “as soon as [he] was old enough [he] would buy all the novels there were and read them”. Despite the objections stemming from his grandmother’s religious beliefs, Richard refuses to follow her orders and stop reading. Uncle Tom does not support Richard’s decision to use his own speech during his graduation, opting for the principal’s instead. Although Richard acknowledges the principal’s speech as “much simpler and clearer”, he continues to use his own written speech because “it said what [he] wanted it to say”. Despite the lack of support from Uncle Tom, Richard pursues what he believes is right and remains …show more content…
The attempts of his family to make Richard’s faith in God strong lead him in the opposite direction. Richard does not believe in his faith as strongly as the people around him; he “had [his] doubts” and after he is exploited by his church into being baptised, he continued to believe “the entire thing was a fraud and [him and other boys] played hooky from church.” Richard continues not give in to religious pressure easily, although his family and friends write him off for his lack of faith. Richard’s grandmother is too religious and attempts to control him with religion. Both Richard and his mother are tired “of the half dozen or more daily family prayers that Granny insisted upon,” and Richard believes that his lack of belief in the church also stems from the fact that “the hymns and sermons of God came into [his] heart only long after [his] personality had been shaped and formed by uncharted conditions of life.” Richard’s skepticism and the absence of an ardent belief in God is attributed to not being introduced into the early enough into the convictions of his religion and the allowance for his experiences to shape his beliefs growing up instead. The reaction of Wright’s grandmother to a misinterpretation of seeing angels causes her relationship with Wright to stumble. To ease his grandmother’s frustration in Wright’s lack of
Family is one of the largest influences in any one person’s life. The traditional familial structure takes the form of the two parents supporting their children, allowing them to grow up and mature at their own pace. Many black boys were not granted the opportunity because they lived in the Jim Crow South — an environment teeming with racism and prejudice, hostile rumors of any race, and separate yet unequal treatment of black people in contrast to those of whites. In Black Boy by Richard Wright, Wright argues that the lack of financial, intellectual, and spiritual support from his family growing up in the Jim Crow South molded him into the stubbornly independent man he became.
His father’s absence, his experience in …show more content…
Richard experiences a metaphorical hunger for new information. He makes himself “a nuisance by asking far too many questions of everybody” and is excited to return to the schoolhouse because he “had not had a single, unbroken year of school” caused by the constant moving of his family. Richard constantly wants to learn more of everything for himself. Richard’s grandmother does not support reading books, calling it the works of the devil, which furthers Richard’s rebellion against her. Behind her back, Richard would “steal a book and take it back to the barn and try to read it”, even swearing to himself that “as soon as [he] was old enough [he] would buy all the novels there were and read them”. Despite the objections stemming from his grandmother’s religious beliefs, Richard refuses to follow her orders and stop reading. Uncle Tom does not support Richard’s decision to use his own speech during his graduation, opting for the principal’s instead. Although Richard acknowledges the principal’s speech as “much simpler and clearer”, he continues to use his own written speech because “it said what [he] wanted it to say”. Despite the lack of support from Uncle Tom, Richard pursues what he believes is right and remains …show more content…
The attempts of his family to make Richard’s faith in God strong lead him in the opposite direction. Richard does not believe in his faith as strongly as the people around him; he “had [his] doubts” and after he is exploited by his church into being baptised, he continued to believe “the entire thing was a fraud and [him and other boys] played hooky from church.” Richard continues not give in to religious pressure easily, although his family and friends write him off for his lack of faith. Richard’s grandmother is too religious and attempts to control him with religion. Both Richard and his mother are tired “of the half dozen or more daily family prayers that Granny insisted upon,” and Richard believes that his lack of belief in the church also stems from the fact that “the hymns and sermons of God came into [his] heart only long after [his] personality had been shaped and formed by uncharted conditions of life.” Richard’s skepticism and the absence of an ardent belief in God is attributed to not being introduced into the early enough into the convictions of his religion and the allowance for his experiences to shape his beliefs growing up instead. The reaction of Wright’s grandmother to a misinterpretation of seeing angels causes her relationship with Wright to stumble. To ease his grandmother’s frustration in Wright’s lack of