Hunger In Richard Wright's Black Boy

What is hunger? Hunger to us is just the mere thought of not getting something we desire and therefore not eating. But for Richard in the book Black Boy written by Richard Wright, hunger is much more than that. Richard suffered physical hunger in which he doesn't have any food to eat. Yet he also experiences mental and emotional hunger is which he wants to be noticed. This autobiography shows what hunger is like to Richard and what he does to end it.

Richard is constantly battling physical hunger. When his father leaves him, his mother, and brother he spends his days trying to forget he's hungry but he feels hunger "nudging and twisting his body until he would get dizzy". "Hunger had always been more or less at my elbow when I played, but now I began to wake up at night to find hunger standing at my bedside, staring at my gauntly. The hunger I had known before this had been no grim, hostile stranger; it had been a normal hunger that had made me beg constantly for bread, and when I ate a crust or two I was satisfied."(p.14)Richard experiences this hunger after his father abandons him. This hunger keeps popping up in his life afterwards. He held his father responsible at the time for his hunger pangs thinking of him with a "deep biological bitterness."(p.16)Richard can only imagine eating full meals with items such as meat as a simple …show more content…
He craves attention but feels that he Isn't loved or cared for by his family as much as his other family members are."I felt that the affection shown him by the family was far greater than which I had ever had from them." (P. 174) Richard also feels very lonely and thought his " loneliness became organic". In other words he thought it was becoming normal to fell alone and to think he had know one there for him. He also feels emotionally/mentally embarrassed when he has to go the relief station to get food. He feels as if he is telling everyone one he is hungry and needed