This novel takes place in the Jim Crow South, that mandates back to the 1900s, where a young boy is trying to find himself in a society built on segregation. Black Boy (The American Dream) is Richard Wright’s powerful movement of his journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South. Richards environment within his society and his community consists of whites and negroes, where whites stand on the top of the food chain, suppressing African Americans will and bending it to fit their needs. Richard faces hardships left and right in his life such as; family conflicts, white and black community, and even Richards personal hungers. Richards nature drives him to fulfill his hungers for knowledge, literature, and freedom of expression, despite
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One day Richard got one of his stories published by the local newspaper called “The Voodoo of Hell’s Half-Acre” so excited that for the first time one of his stories were acknowledged, proving that he his a well educated person with a sense of literature in the eyes of an editor in chief, who enjoyed his writing. But no one supported him. His classmates cannot even comprehend why he has written and published a story simply because he wanted to do so. Richard’s family is hostile simply because Granny and Addie equate literary fiction with lies, while Ella thinks that with this Richard’s writing will lead people to think he has a weak and feeble mind and thus no one will want to hire him. His Granny believes this is devils work, literally the newspaper editor is the only person who encourages him to continue his writing. No matter how much grief his family can throw his way, Richard will continue to be strong. “..this ninth grade diploma isn’t going to help me much in life. I’m not bitter about it, it’s not your fault. But I’m just not going to do things this way.”(176) Richard was voted valedictorian of his class, but once his principal threatened to make sure Richard won’t get into any great school nor will he dis …show more content…
Richard is unable to accept the treatment he receives. He constantly challenges the system he lives in, questioning those around him at every opportunity possible, he tries his hardest to obey whites and continuously blames himself for not getting along with them, it’s in Richards nature that he can’t stand by and take these acts of excursion towards him, others may adapt to these civil disobediences by Richard is different, he has a sense of drive in him that no one else has. “I wanted to understand these two sets of people who lived side by side and never touched…”(47). Richard wants to be able to wrap his head around how whites and African Americans can’t get along? Where did this segregation come from? He wants to be able to live in an environment where everyone can get along, why does it have to matter by which color of skin you have? One of Richards jobs he worked at an optical shop where he cleans and runs errands, one night a group of whites instigate a fight between Richard and his friend, were afterwards Richard says “I felt that I had done something unclean, something for which I could never properly atone.”(243) Richard hates what has become of him in his environment controlled by whites, he bares himself in a continuous dream from his books but wonders how long can you continue these shenanigans? In the end Richard leaves
One day Richard got one of his stories published by the local newspaper called “The Voodoo of Hell’s Half-Acre” so excited that for the first time one of his stories were acknowledged, proving that he his a well educated person with a sense of literature in the eyes of an editor in chief, who enjoyed his writing. But no one supported him. His classmates cannot even comprehend why he has written and published a story simply because he wanted to do so. Richard’s family is hostile simply because Granny and Addie equate literary fiction with lies, while Ella thinks that with this Richard’s writing will lead people to think he has a weak and feeble mind and thus no one will want to hire him. His Granny believes this is devils work, literally the newspaper editor is the only person who encourages him to continue his writing. No matter how much grief his family can throw his way, Richard will continue to be strong. “..this ninth grade diploma isn’t going to help me much in life. I’m not bitter about it, it’s not your fault. But I’m just not going to do things this way.”(176) Richard was voted valedictorian of his class, but once his principal threatened to make sure Richard won’t get into any great school nor will he dis …show more content…
Richard is unable to accept the treatment he receives. He constantly challenges the system he lives in, questioning those around him at every opportunity possible, he tries his hardest to obey whites and continuously blames himself for not getting along with them, it’s in Richards nature that he can’t stand by and take these acts of excursion towards him, others may adapt to these civil disobediences by Richard is different, he has a sense of drive in him that no one else has. “I wanted to understand these two sets of people who lived side by side and never touched…”(47). Richard wants to be able to wrap his head around how whites and African Americans can’t get along? Where did this segregation come from? He wants to be able to live in an environment where everyone can get along, why does it have to matter by which color of skin you have? One of Richards jobs he worked at an optical shop where he cleans and runs errands, one night a group of whites instigate a fight between Richard and his friend, were afterwards Richard says “I felt that I had done something unclean, something for which I could never properly atone.”(243) Richard hates what has become of him in his environment controlled by whites, he bares himself in a continuous dream from his books but wonders how long can you continue these shenanigans? In the end Richard leaves