Richard Wright an African-American writer in the 1900s, is known for his classic text, Native Son(1940) and Black Boy(1945), his autobiography. Born in Mississippi, Wright was the grandson of slaves and a son of a sharecropper, he was fascinated with American literature and yearn to escape the Jim Crow South. After struggling with poverty during the Great Depression Wright started his writing career in New York City. In Richard Wright’s novel, Native Son and Black Boy, Wright depicts the theme of alienation through his protagonists, Bigger and Wright who lives a tough life growing up and experiencing racism, yet realizing their situations they intend to fix it. One thing that is first noticed in the two books when comparing them is the condition
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Both of the protagonists did not know about racism at first when they were young. Their parents had told them they were too young and white supremacy was unclear. It was only through experienced that they formed their hatred for it. While Bigger and Gus were “playing white”, Bigger tells Gus about his fear of being black and how whites are powerful against them, he had “felt like something awful was going to happen to[him]” (Native Son 19). Wright at a similar age had also felt different from those surrounding him since he wanted change between the relationship of blacks and whites while others were just willing to accept and endure the suffering. The buildup of anger in Bigger leads him to his violent actions after he had killed Mary. After realizing he had killed Mary, Bigger knew he had to hide the body and the only way was to burn her, yet he had to decapitate her head when in order to fit her body. In the end Bigger felt relief when he was caught, the “two murders were the most meaningful things that had ever happened to him”(Native Son 197). Because of racism, Bigger had never felt his own emotions since he was always taught to obey whites and it was only whites that dictated how he act and felt. Wright however had a different turn of events. Wright could not discuss his emotions to anyone because whites didn’t want blacks to think and the blacks he did talk to warn him of speaking about white oppression and inequality. Wright had many hungers, one of those was knowledge and to escape racism, and he was only able to “find vague glimpses of life’s possibilities only in literacy, reading, and writing”(Dykema-VanderArk). Wright could only achieve his escape by forging library notes so he could take out books from his white co-worker since at the time blacks weren’t
Both of the protagonists did not know about racism at first when they were young. Their parents had told them they were too young and white supremacy was unclear. It was only through experienced that they formed their hatred for it. While Bigger and Gus were “playing white”, Bigger tells Gus about his fear of being black and how whites are powerful against them, he had “felt like something awful was going to happen to[him]” (Native Son 19). Wright at a similar age had also felt different from those surrounding him since he wanted change between the relationship of blacks and whites while others were just willing to accept and endure the suffering. The buildup of anger in Bigger leads him to his violent actions after he had killed Mary. After realizing he had killed Mary, Bigger knew he had to hide the body and the only way was to burn her, yet he had to decapitate her head when in order to fit her body. In the end Bigger felt relief when he was caught, the “two murders were the most meaningful things that had ever happened to him”(Native Son 197). Because of racism, Bigger had never felt his own emotions since he was always taught to obey whites and it was only whites that dictated how he act and felt. Wright however had a different turn of events. Wright could not discuss his emotions to anyone because whites didn’t want blacks to think and the blacks he did talk to warn him of speaking about white oppression and inequality. Wright had many hungers, one of those was knowledge and to escape racism, and he was only able to “find vague glimpses of life’s possibilities only in literacy, reading, and writing”(Dykema-VanderArk). Wright could only achieve his escape by forging library notes so he could take out books from his white co-worker since at the time blacks weren’t