Black Boy: A character analysis of Richard Wright

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• Publisher: GRIN Verlag
• Year: 2004
• eBook ISBN: 9783638266031
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: North American Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1, Southern Connecticut State University (English Department), course: Wright, Ellison, and Baldwin, language: English, abstract: Richard Wright is the author, narrator, and protagonist of Black Boy. Growing up in anabusive family environment in the racially segregated and violent American South, Richardfinds his salvation in reading, writing, and thinking. He grows up feeling insecure about hisinability to meet anyone's expectations, particularly his family's wish that he accept religion.Even though he remains isolated from his environment and peers, at the autobiography's endRichard has come to accept himself.The book literally throbs with the passionate expression of a young boywho lived through hell and agony, through trauma after trauma, whoescaped into books and continually sought to know the meaning of hislife. [...] He is seeking most of all to find and know himself – his trueidentity (Walker 190).Charles T. Davis identifies three themes in Black Boy. The first is survival, the second theme is the making of the artist and the third theme is didacticismcharacterized by social purposefulness (432).Richard Wright's most essential characteristic may be his tremendous belief in hisown worth and capabilities. This belief frequently renders him willful, stubborn, anddisrespectful of authority, putting him at odds with his family and with those who expect himto accept his degraded position in society. Because almost everyone in Richard's life thinksthis way, he finds himself constantly punished for his nonconformity with varying degrees ofphysical violence and emotional isolation. Richard Wright continually faces a world thatrelies on force, rather than sound judgment and truth. Richard is cursed, beaten, or slappedevery time he stands up to Granny, Addie, or other elders, regardless of how justified he maybe in doing so. Robert Felgar argues that the book's entire plot is about "self-proclaimedinnocence meet[ing] with a brutal response at nearly every tur n" (63). According to him, Richard lives in world that "readily substitutes emotion for thought", making Black Boy "aplea for rationality over physicality" (73). [...]