Fires’ influence in Richard Wright’s life and writings
As evident in Richard Wright’s autobiography, Black Boy, fire is a symbol that has created an everlasting presence in his life and writing. Fire is used time and time again in Black Boy as imagery for turns in Wright’s life and as a recurring theme in his religious upbringing. It is clear that fire has become a part of how he identifies events and has been transposed into his writings. “Fire, which Keneth Kinnamon has described as “a central metaphor of [Wright’s] creative imagination” ( Richard Wright New Readings in the 21st century) is the best way to describe fires recurring appearance in Richard Wright’s writing.
Throughout Wright’s younger years, his religious grandmother keeps …show more content…
When he describes the aftermath of his mother beating him after he burns down their house he says “...my body seemed on fire...” (Wright). As Wright reflects on that memory, fire is the best way for him to describe the pain that he felt. Later in Black Boy, when Wright talks about his father and his interactions with him after his father leaves Wright and his family, fire is a central motif. “My father and a strange women were sitting before a bright fire...” (Wright 41), “I looked at my mother, the strange woman, at my father, then into the fire.” (Wright 42). When Wright reflects on his father he remembers fire as apart of the environment. Whether the fire was actually there is debatable but it is clear that at this turning point in his life, the fire’s symbolism was present and continues to be a presence through his struggles later and demonstrated when Wright talks about seeing his father later in life and says “Many time in the years after that the image of my father and the strange woman, their faces lit by the dancing flames...” (Wright 42), which is also noticed in Richard Wright New Readings in the 21st Century when they state “...he is haunted for many years afterward by the hellish imagine of “my father and the strange woman, their faces lit by the dancing flames.”” and they describe that fire is “...linked with Wright’s fears that he lives in a hellish world that …show more content…
Fire imagery is throughout his memories of his father and how he describes his imagination when Ella is reading to him. It is used to portray strong emotions and the dramaticness of the tragedies that Wright faced. His use of this particular element stems from his religious upbringing and the churches continuous use of fire that stuck with him down the
As evident in Richard Wright’s autobiography, Black Boy, fire is a symbol that has created an everlasting presence in his life and writing. Fire is used time and time again in Black Boy as imagery for turns in Wright’s life and as a recurring theme in his religious upbringing. It is clear that fire has become a part of how he identifies events and has been transposed into his writings. “Fire, which Keneth Kinnamon has described as “a central metaphor of [Wright’s] creative imagination” ( Richard Wright New Readings in the 21st century) is the best way to describe fires recurring appearance in Richard Wright’s writing.
Throughout Wright’s younger years, his religious grandmother keeps …show more content…
When he describes the aftermath of his mother beating him after he burns down their house he says “...my body seemed on fire...” (Wright). As Wright reflects on that memory, fire is the best way for him to describe the pain that he felt. Later in Black Boy, when Wright talks about his father and his interactions with him after his father leaves Wright and his family, fire is a central motif. “My father and a strange women were sitting before a bright fire...” (Wright 41), “I looked at my mother, the strange woman, at my father, then into the fire.” (Wright 42). When Wright reflects on his father he remembers fire as apart of the environment. Whether the fire was actually there is debatable but it is clear that at this turning point in his life, the fire’s symbolism was present and continues to be a presence through his struggles later and demonstrated when Wright talks about seeing his father later in life and says “Many time in the years after that the image of my father and the strange woman, their faces lit by the dancing flames...” (Wright 42), which is also noticed in Richard Wright New Readings in the 21st Century when they state “...he is haunted for many years afterward by the hellish imagine of “my father and the strange woman, their faces lit by the dancing flames.”” and they describe that fire is “...linked with Wright’s fears that he lives in a hellish world that …show more content…
Fire imagery is throughout his memories of his father and how he describes his imagination when Ella is reading to him. It is used to portray strong emotions and the dramaticness of the tragedies that Wright faced. His use of this particular element stems from his religious upbringing and the churches continuous use of fire that stuck with him down the