Black Boy Reflection

Richard Wright lived in a constraining world of race, family, and religion. Mr. Wright dealt with terrible events through his life. He did not whatsoever let it tear him down though. I believe he dealt with and coped with those horrific events through writing, believing, and using his bright imagination. Mr. Wright’s writing not only influenced me to become a better person but others too. In his book Black Boy, he helped me empathize and sympathize with him, his family, and the black community through his writing. When Richard Wright was young he went through terrible situations that no child should ever go through. He was almost beaten to death by his mother, discriminated towards by whites, and felt alienation with his own black community. …show more content…
The most disgusting and sad, but at the same time understandable scene in Black Boy is when Richard was nearly beaten to death by his mother. This disgusted me in so many ways. It makes me feel for Richard, I imagine him at four years old, seeing the fear in his eyes while getting beaten. It made me loath the mother, wanting to know how her brutal actions would teach the boy anything. Richard Wright sits by himself with his brother. He is curious, and puts a white curtain in flames of a fire, causing the house to set fire. Half the house is destroyed and luckily no one is injured. Richard Wright is punished severely by his mother though. Richard Wright writes in Black Boy, “ I was lashed so hard and long that I lost consciousness. Packs of ice were were put on my forehead to keep down the fever. Whenever I tried to sleep I would see huge wobbly white bags, like the full udders of cows, suspended from the ceiling above me”(Wright 7). After I read this passage, I wondered how a mother could do this to her young innocent son, why would she cause so much pain and damage to him. Without question, it was a vile action she did, but I realized as I kept reading the book the overwhelming emotions I would have felt …show more content…
We are influenced by religion, society, racism, and family. These influences determine who we are as people. From reading Black Boy, Richard is without a doubt, one of the strongest people I have ever come across. Those who would have gone through what Richard experienced, few could show the resilience he demonstrated. Through it all, he knew what was right and wrong and when seeing immoral activities he did not try to defend with weapons or force nor did he want to sit there and not take action, so he wrote. Just like Martin Luther King, James Baldwin, and Maya Angelou: They, too wrote about their experience as African Americans in The United States, helping all of us see how tremendously painful and terrifying it is to not feel safe and free in their own