Wright\'s Black Boy: A Journey

Wright's Black Boy: A Journey of Growth and a Search for Self through the Salvation of Art

Richard Wright's novel, Black Boy is a combination of themes that explore the depth of life as an African-American in the Jim Crow South. While racism if the obvious theme of the book, Wright delves deep into the individual character of Richard, allowing readers to experience his hopes and dreams and what he will do to achieve them. Richard's journey of self begins and end with the same strong-willed individual, completely comfortable questioning anything that seems awkward to him. His willingness to ask questions is just one of the reasons fate has destined him to be a writer. He seeks the answers and seeks to share them with the world. His journeys are varied but they are real and give the novel texture and credibility.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Historical Context

1-2

Discovery of Self

2-3

Spirit of Independence

3-4

Racism

4-5

Writing

5-8

Richard Wright's novel, Black Boy is more than one man's tale being an African-American during Jim Crow. It encompasses other tales as well, including the literary technique of the Bildingsroman to emphasize Richard's growth. Richard's journey is complex, painful, and fraught with experiences that challenge his sense of self. The strong will that causes him trouble in his childhood is the same strong will that will not allow him to give up his dream. It is also the same will that will not allow Richard to conform to the pressure of society -- be them from his African-American community or the white one. He learns to survive but he never completely understands the real reason for the difference between races. Another important aspect of the novel is Richard's attempt at discovering his identity. This yearning is bolstered with an innate desire to create art with words. Without the opportunity to write and express his emotions, he may have become a different individual altogether. Black Boy is Richard's story but it includes many layers that allow us to see the importance of self-knowledge - especially in a world that attempts to break the independent spirit. Richard's story is also about the salvation of art and how literature -- reading and writing it -- saves his life on more than one occasion simply because he could be removed from his immediate circumstances through reading. Black Boy gives us a slice of Richard's life that comes full circle, with the individual caught in the mesmerizing effects of creating something wildly courageous and dangerous.

Historical Context: Black Boy is, undoubtedly, a novel to be viewed with racism in mind. Additionally, it helps to understand the character knowing he is living in the South during Jim Crow. During this time, most African Ameican men were dehumanized and, while they were free, could never find anything better than lowly jobs that whites did not want to do. The Great Depression compounded things for all and Richard watched his father work a series of menial jobs to raise his family.

The most important aspect of the novel from this instance is the fact that we have first-hand accounts of events and circumstances that directly shape our protagonist. This point-of-view is important because we see, just as our protagonist begins to realized, just how poised against the success of African-Americans society actually was. This reality is important to Richard because of his independent personality. He experiences restrictions and rules in his and when he ventures outside the home, he begins to discover only more rules and regulations that seem to reinforce oppression. The most shocking of these realizations is how African-Americans are so accepting of the ways things are. They support subordination through their behavior and only make their plight worse. To discover this, Richard had to get out there in the world and that he does a t a relatively young age. Race is only a part of what causes Richard problems early in his life. He is also plagued with a strong will. It is not so much that he wants to be a nonconformist for white society, he wants to be a nonconformist altogether. While he was told he was too young to comprehend many of the difficult issues of life, Richard knew certain truths. He experiences distance from his friends and is left with only himself to contemplate the troubles of the world. He moves from city to explore the to options life may have for him. He leaves the South to find a better way. He discovers there will always be those bent on tearing others down if they choose to disagree or make trouble. Some of these issues stem from racism but some are the result of humans living on the same planet. Richard acts upon his convictions instead of allowing the world to convince him it is right and he is wrong. He learns we make our own destiny but the only way to do that is to do it on our own terms.

An important aspect of the novel is Richard's discover of self. Wright introduces us to a classic Bildingsroman when we see young Richard lost in the glow of the fireplace. From this early experience, we begin to see how events shape Richard's personality. The incident with the fire reveals a significant aspect of Richard's personality: he is rebellious and he will do as he pleases without giving much thought to consequences. He even defies his father when he kills the kitten, explaining that he finally has a way to challenge his authority -- by simply taking him literal when he says things. He thought is his father beat him for killing the kitten he would "never give serious weight to his words again" (Wright 13). His mother, however forces him to dig the kitten a grave and whisper a prayer for his own life before retiring. Here we see the young boy attempting to outsmart his father in hopes of never receiving another beating again only to be subjected to his mother's wrath. After he finds himself out of work one summer, he contemplates the nature of the world in which he lives. He writes that he grows "silent and reserved" (193) as he begins to understand the "bleakness of the future" (193). He questions what he can do for a living and he wonders why things are such that life is so difficult for the African-American. The "problem of living as a Negro was cold and hard . . What was it that made the hate of whites for blacks so steady, seemingly so woven into the texture of things? What kind of life was possible under that hate?" (193). When he asks people these questions they "either remain silent or turn the subject into a joke" (193-4). Here we see how the difficulty of the African-American is not just with the whites -- it is also within the minds of the African-Americans. They may believe they are worth more and they may feel they deserve a better life but they are either too afraid of the system or they believe there is nothing they can do because they have no power and no powerful voices to speak on their behalf. These events shape Richard into someone that begins searching for the truth that must be out there -- between what he has learned and what he can imagine. It is difficult for Richard to discover a sense of self because his environment is hostile. He must deal daily with hunger and violence on some level. What is interesting is how his hunger changes over the years. The search for self leads Richard into a place that few are brave enough to enter.

The first step in self-discovery is realizing things can be different and acting upon that knowledge. These actions may not always be wise but they lead to knowledge abut oneself. Richard's personality is such that he is strong enough to ask the right questions and challenge the conventions of society. This is difficult for a boy living in the South where most African-Americans are segregated and treated poorly. At an early age, Richard realizes what is important to him. He experiences freedom at an early age because his grandmother and aunt have written him off. However, he does not abuse this freedom the way that one might expect. He walks around neighborhoods to get a sense of the world around him. Knowing once he went home, he would be forced to stay home, he simply did not go home until late. He writes, "I would eat mush at eight in the morning and greens at seven or later at night. To starve in order to learn about my environment was irrational, but so were my hungers" (148-9). He admits to feeling overwhelmed with hunger at times but the "happiness of being free would lift me beyond hunger, would enable me to discipline the sensations of my body to the extent that I could temporarily forget": (149). Here we see Richard is learning the importance of priorities. He is learning what it means to sacrifice. These choices, however, help him reach an ideal he has in his mind of who he wants to be. He wants to understand things because he feels he has something worth saying. At the end of the day, Richard wants to write. To write anything meaningful, one must know his world and his place in it. This type of contemplation alone sets Richard apart from many in his environment because they cannot read. In addition, it sets him apart because he does not think of himself like a "black boy" the way the rest of his community does. This is directly related to his sense of self and his desire to discover who he is. This includes reading and writing. Even in the title of the book, Wright brings attention to the fact that Richard is just a black boy and while this would be reason for some not to try, it proved to be nothing of the sort for Richard.

Richard is unique in that he does not allow the world to beat him down. So often, people are told they cannot do something for one reason or another. Too often, they accept these words as fact instead of doing what they want to do to defy the odds and live life on their own terms. Richard is different and believes somehow anything was "possible, likely, feasible, because I wanted everything to be possible" (83). He also realizes that he cannot control the outside world but he can control himself. His world is barren, so he uses his imagination to realize possibilities. He allows himself to be hungry so he never forgets what it is he is searching for in the world. This is a difficult thing for one to do. However, since he learned to do stave off hunger in a variety of ways at an early age, Richard becomes quite good at it. One of the most compelling aspects of Richard's growth in the novel revolves around his refusal to be continually beaten down by a societal system. He understood, like other African-Americans around him, that he was part of an oppressed group of individuals. The difference with Richard is that he is looking for a way to make that system work for him. He refuses to believe that an African-American cannot have a successful, satisfying life -- or at the very least, a life different from the ones he witnessed growing up. He wanted to be his own man and while he was not clear on what this meant, he knew it had to be more than a subservient individual, grateful for anything anyone would give him. Richard is not afraid to find his own way in the world. While younger children often look to their elders for guidance and support, Richard does just the opposite. His grandmother and Addie give up on him, telling him "they were dead to the world . . . From urgent solicitude they dropped to coldness from hostility" (143). It is worth noting that his mother still does encourage him to study and "make up for squandered time" (143). He follows this advice and is promoted from the fifth grade to the sixth. He goes to school dressed in rags and hungry feeling his "life depended not so much upon learning as upon getting into another world of people" (143). His search leads him away from home and into places he did not know but the search was something our young protagonist knows he must do to know himself.

Racism becomes an integral aspect of Richard's life because it shapes almost every situation in which he finds himself. However, he sees it differently than most. He comes to see that racism and the oppression of African-Americans is a problem with both races. He also learns at an early age that African-Americans are simply different from whites but he is not clear on why this is so. He knows "negroes had never been allowed to catch the full spirit of Western Civilization, that they lives somehow in it but not of it" (43). To fully understand this idea, he writes, "My life as a Negro in America had led me to feel . . . that the problem of human unity was more important than bread, more important than physical living itself" (374). Here we see Richard experiencing the plight of poverty across the masses. The world is more than just him and he has been wrong to think his situation, his life, is isolated. He resists feeling and behaving like an animal and he admits to "keep humanly alive through transfusions from book" (374). He encounters conflicts that arise when an individual attempts to be an individual in a society that attempts to make that individual one of the masses. Furthermore, society operates under certain conventions that make it literally impossible for an African-American to seek out individuality. As a result, Richard seems to bump heads with either a white society that wishes to transform him into something he does not want to be or an African-American society that wants him to blend in with all the other Black me and choose a subservient life. Neither of these choices is acceptable for Richard and he spends a good amount of time defying certain conventions when he can. From his early experiences with his grandmother to his experience with the Communist Party, he is willing to take nothing in exchange for his sense of self. Richard's interest in the Communist Party is significant to his development because he encounters the same type of attitude he does from some white men in the South. At first, he has hope for his involvement with them. He knows they Party is not perfect and he realizes the Communists had a "program, an ideal, but they had not yet found a language" (377). He also realized that the Party "oversimplified the experience of those whom they sought to lead . . . they missed the meaning of the lives of the masses" (377). Richard does not see this as a lost cause, however, and decides he can help them with his writing. He would make "voyages, discoveries, explorations with words and try to put some of that meaning back" (377). These people, who seem to be looking out for the people attempt to tell him what to say and how to act. They threaten him with expulsion from the party if he does not comply with their wishes. They do not understand him. In short, he does what he feels is the only thing he can do, which is leave the party. The accusation of being an intellectual offends him and he steps away from them altogether. He realizes they are "did not know anything and did not want to know anything" (389). Just before the trial, He begins to see how the Party had "did not recognize the values that it had sworn to save when it saw the; the slightest sign of any independence of thought or feeling, even if it aided the party in its work, was enough to brand one as a dangerous traitor" (438). For them, all of the questions had been asked and had answers already and Richard posed a threat to their safe community. The act is something that causes him some distress, however, because it pulls him away from his connection with humanity. Once again, he feels as though he is on the outside of something rather than within a group, doing well. He follows his intuition with this circumstance. This is important in understanding Richard, as we see an aspect of his character that has developed throughout Black Boy. Richard's discovery has been fraught with disappointment and painful realizations but they have not stopped him from doing what he knew he wanted to do as a small boy. His adventures have proven to him that the world is and will always be imperfect and the best one can do is attempt to find the beauty in it. He realizes that he can help other find that beauty with words.

The third aspect of the novel that is worth noting is Richard's seemingly innate desire to become a writer. This desire is sparked with the act of reading. When Ella reads to him, Richard is cognizant of the transformation that is occurring inside him. While reading to him "reality changed, the look of things altered, and the world became peopled with magical presences. My sense of life deepened and the feel of things was different" (45). This early encounter with fiction would never leave his mind and Richard knows this as his grandmother steps up and demands Ella leave because non-religious books are the "Devil's work" (46). He vows that when he is old enough, he will "buy all the novels there were and read them to feed that thirst for violence that was in me" (46). Richard also admits that sitting there while Ella read to him elicited his first real emotional response - he says he "tasted what to me was life, and I would have more of it, somehow, someway" (47). As Richard becomes aware of that fictional world around him, his mind opens up to the possibility of what literature can do. This understanding is pivotal in his life and in understanding his character. The magic of literature had flooded his mind and it was so powerful, he never forgot it. This type of passion and excitement is what drives some of the greatest artists of their day. They feel a connection with the art and must seek it out. Richard's imagination was on fire and this flame was one he could control and turn to good. When he reads Mencken, he realizes that people can use words as weapons and he is inspired to read more. This mood also allows him to look at the world in a different way. He admits to understanding a new way of seeing and looking. Stories affected him because they allowed him to understand people in his life in a new light. He sees his boss differently after reading Main Street and reading became "like a drug, a dope" (295). He states, "All my life had shaped me for the realism, the naturalism of the modern novel, and I could not read enough of them" (295). He also realizes that he may the only person in his life that reads what he does why he does. He knew these things and he knew he was different from most African-Americans. He knew he did not want a life like his father's life yet the probability of becoming something great seemed impossible to him. He had something his father did not have and that was a burning desire to explore creativity with words.

Wright's attempts to pursue writing are fulfilling two roles in his life. One role is that of describing a life in a time that many should know. He is writing for African-Americans, whites, and anyone else who will hear history. He is also writing to fulfill his own desire of being an artist and contributing something to the world. His first story, "The Voodoo of Hell's Half-Acre," is published in a local paper and his grandmother accuses it of being the "Devil's work" (198). His family's in ability to accept this success, however minimal, proves to be a recurring stumbling block as Richard attempts to be creative. No one but the editor of the paper in which the story was published offered Richard any encouraging words about writing. However, in line with his independent nature, Richard does not let others squelch his dream. We read that he "dreamed of going north and writing books, novels. The North symbolized to me all that I had not felt and seen; it had no relation whatever to what actually existed. Yet, by imagining a place where everything was possible, I kept hope alive in me" (199). Here we see the importance of dreams. On a grand level, the notion of a dream can be enough to keep one pushing through the hardships of life. Dreams and goals make life worth living and the belief that dreams can come true is an important aspect of life. On a more personal level, we see how dreams serve as an escape for Richard. He knows hope is extremely important. He may not know where he will end up but he knows he cannot stop. At fifteen, he realizes that "in me was shaping a yearning for a kind of consciousness, a mode of being that the way of life about had said could not be, must not be, and upon the penalty of death had been placed" (200). Again, Wright uses the notion of belief as a powerful motivating factor.