Themes of Race and Identity in Richard Wright's Big Black Good Man
This paper analyzes the major themes in Richard Wright's 1958 short story "Big Black Good Man," focusing on racial stereotyping, fear, and the possibility of cross-racial understanding. Set in Copenhagen during the summer, the story follows a white Danish night clerk, Olaf Jenson, whose deep-seated prejudices toward a large Black American sailor named Jim spiral into paranoia and near-violence. Drawing on scholarship by Robert J. Butler and Jean-François Gounard, the paper explores how Wright uses humor, interracial relationships, and a climactic act of compassion to dismantle racial stereotypes and suggest that meaningful human connection across ethnic lines is possible.
- Introduction: Wright's career and story overview
- Characters and Setting: Olaf, Jim, and Copenhagen night setting
- Racial Fear and Stereotype: Olaf's prejudice rooted in American experience
- Interracial Relationships: Jim, Olaf, and a humanizing white connection
- Confrontation and Resolution: Paranoia dissolved by Jim's act of compassion
- Wright's Broader Literary Legacy: Wright's theme of racial violence and truth
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What makes this paper effective
- Integrates direct quotations from two scholarly sources — Butler and Gounard — to support its interpretive claims rather than relying solely on plot summary.
- Maintains a clear analytical thread by connecting the story's setting, characters, and resolution to the overarching theme of racial stereotype and its dissolution.
- Balances close reading of specific story moments (the violent gesture, the gift of a shirt) with broader commentary on Wright's literary project.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates thematic analysis supported by secondary scholarship. Rather than merely summarizing the plot, the writer uses critics' interpretations to anchor claims about character motivation and symbolic meaning — for example, citing Butler's phrase "black beast" to show how Olaf's dehumanizing perception of Jim drives the narrative's tension toward its humanizing resolution.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with brief biographical context on Wright before identifying its analytical goals. It then moves through setting and character introduction, escalates to an examination of racial fear and paranoia, addresses the interracial relationship subplot, and resolves with the story's climactic act of compassion. A concluding section situates the story within Wright's wider body of work. The Works Cited page follows MLA format with two scholarly monographs.
Introduction
Richard Wright was one of the most controversial writers of his time. He wrote about life as an African American man, and in many cases sought to teach white America a lesson about Black people through his novels and short stories. Wright's most popular work was the novel Native Son; however, he also wrote several short stories. Among these was "Big Black Good Man," published in 1958. The purpose of this discussion is to examine the themes used throughout the story, including its location, time of year, and how the narrative reflects the racial and ethnic composition of the main characters.
Characters and Setting
Throughout the story, Wright uses humor to set the tone and to develop the characters. One of the main characters is Olaf Jenson, a white Danish night clerk of a boarding house. The other main character is Jim, a Black sailor from the United States. The story takes place during the summer in Copenhagen, and all of the scenes occur at night as the sailor and the clerk interact with one another.
Racial Fear and Stereotype
Olaf immediately fears Jim because Jim is a very large man with very dark skin. The clerk even attempts to discourage Jim from staying at the boarding house, yet Jim ends up spending six days there. The author of The Racial Problem in the Works of Richard Wright and James Baldwin explains Olaf's attitude toward Jim as follows: "…the American sailor's size and his color arouse anger and hate in him because he feels diminished. His attitude is probably due to the ten years spent in New York, where he had ample time to adopt the prejudices of whites towards blacks. Olaf Jensen feels that his race is threatened by Jim" (Gounard et al.).
Works Cited
Butler, Robert J. The Critical Response to Richard Wright. Greenwood Press, 1995.
Gounard, Jean-François, Jean F. Beranger, and Joseph J. Rodgers Jr. The Racial Problem in the Works of Richard Wright and James Baldwin. Greenwood Press, 1992.
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