Amelia Wang 11/4/16 8-3 English FLE
Black Boy by Richard Wright is an autobiography depicting Richard’s childhood through young adulthood. Richard is born on a plantation in Mississippi, where he is brought up until the age of four after an accident in which his curiosity leads him to burn down the house. This is the first display of Richard’s burning curiosity that stays with him, continuing to land him in trouble and sparking his desire for knowledge. Richard eventually moves in with his relatives, who never approve of him because he casts religion aside entirely and behaves so unmanageably that they cease to care for him and almost completely abandon him. As a child, he does not understand the concept of the racial …show more content…
Despite his efforts to fit in, Richard is an outsider to the “black” community in the sense that he avoids them because he does not understand them, and they avoid him because they do not understand him. After he graduates from ninth grade, his only option is to search for a job, since his family will not support him. Richard continues to fail to hold a steady job due to his attitude and speech, and when he meets his old friend Griggs, who introduces him to a job at an optical company, Griggs tells him that in order for him to hold a job, he has to learn to keep his mouth shut and act like a “black” person. “‘I’ll tell Mr. Crane about you and I’ll get in touch with you.’ [Griggs said.] ‘Do you suppose I could see him now?’ I asked. ‘For God’s sake, take your time!’ He thundered at me. ‘Maybe that’s what’s wrong with Negroes,’ I said. ‘They take too much time.’ I laughed, but he was disturbed.” (185) Prior to graduating from ninth grade, the principal asks Richard to read a speech on the night of graduation written by the principal. But instead of accepting the principal’s speech, he decides to prepare his own graduation speech. Immediately after giving the speech, he is desperate to distance himself from his classmates and the “black” community. “When my voice stopped there was some applause. I did not care if they liked it or …show more content…
His family rejects him and Richard’s anti-religious attitude separates him from the church, and even the Southern Register, a local “black” newspaper in Jackson, takes advantage of his writing for their benefit and does not appreciate his writing. When Richard presents his story to the editor, he does not care much for it. “‘I’ll read this and let you know about it tomorrow,” he said. I was disappointed; I had taken time to write it and he seemed distant and uninterested.”... “But you’re asking me to give you my story, but you don’t give your papers away,” I said. He laughed. “...This story will put your name before our readers. Now, that’s something.”... “I’ll give you a chance to learn to write.” (165-166) After a friend introduces Richard to the John Reed Club in Chicago and he makes a number of friends there, Richard writes a few poems and submits them to the editor of Left Front, who accepts them and validates Richard’s writing. “‘This can be published,’ he said… ‘What do they mean to you?’ ‘This is the vision of the disinherited,’ he said. ‘If you’re going to publish these to recruit me into the party, then nothing doing,’ I said. ‘They’ll be published whether you join or not,’ he said… The editor of Left Front accepted two of my crude poems for publication, sent two of them to Jack Conroy’s Anvil,
Black Boy by Richard Wright is an autobiography depicting Richard’s childhood through young adulthood. Richard is born on a plantation in Mississippi, where he is brought up until the age of four after an accident in which his curiosity leads him to burn down the house. This is the first display of Richard’s burning curiosity that stays with him, continuing to land him in trouble and sparking his desire for knowledge. Richard eventually moves in with his relatives, who never approve of him because he casts religion aside entirely and behaves so unmanageably that they cease to care for him and almost completely abandon him. As a child, he does not understand the concept of the racial …show more content…
Despite his efforts to fit in, Richard is an outsider to the “black” community in the sense that he avoids them because he does not understand them, and they avoid him because they do not understand him. After he graduates from ninth grade, his only option is to search for a job, since his family will not support him. Richard continues to fail to hold a steady job due to his attitude and speech, and when he meets his old friend Griggs, who introduces him to a job at an optical company, Griggs tells him that in order for him to hold a job, he has to learn to keep his mouth shut and act like a “black” person. “‘I’ll tell Mr. Crane about you and I’ll get in touch with you.’ [Griggs said.] ‘Do you suppose I could see him now?’ I asked. ‘For God’s sake, take your time!’ He thundered at me. ‘Maybe that’s what’s wrong with Negroes,’ I said. ‘They take too much time.’ I laughed, but he was disturbed.” (185) Prior to graduating from ninth grade, the principal asks Richard to read a speech on the night of graduation written by the principal. But instead of accepting the principal’s speech, he decides to prepare his own graduation speech. Immediately after giving the speech, he is desperate to distance himself from his classmates and the “black” community. “When my voice stopped there was some applause. I did not care if they liked it or …show more content…
His family rejects him and Richard’s anti-religious attitude separates him from the church, and even the Southern Register, a local “black” newspaper in Jackson, takes advantage of his writing for their benefit and does not appreciate his writing. When Richard presents his story to the editor, he does not care much for it. “‘I’ll read this and let you know about it tomorrow,” he said. I was disappointed; I had taken time to write it and he seemed distant and uninterested.”... “But you’re asking me to give you my story, but you don’t give your papers away,” I said. He laughed. “...This story will put your name before our readers. Now, that’s something.”... “I’ll give you a chance to learn to write.” (165-166) After a friend introduces Richard to the John Reed Club in Chicago and he makes a number of friends there, Richard writes a few poems and submits them to the editor of Left Front, who accepts them and validates Richard’s writing. “‘This can be published,’ he said… ‘What do they mean to you?’ ‘This is the vision of the disinherited,’ he said. ‘If you’re going to publish these to recruit me into the party, then nothing doing,’ I said. ‘They’ll be published whether you join or not,’ he said… The editor of Left Front accepted two of my crude poems for publication, sent two of them to Jack Conroy’s Anvil,