Black Boy by Richard Wright
analytical Essay
1411 words
Required to remain quiet while his grandmother lies ill in bed, four-year-old richard wright becomes bored and begins playing with fire near the curtains, leading to his accidentally burning down the family home in Natchez, Mississippi. In fear, Richard hides under the burning house. His father, retrieves him from his hiding place. Then, his mother ella beats him so severely that he loses consciousness and falls ill. Nathan abandons the family to live with another woman while Richard and his brother alan are still very young. Without Nathan's financial support, the Wrights fall into poverty and perpetual hunger. Richard closely associates his family's hardshipand particularly their hungerwith his father and therefore grows bitter toward him. For the next few years, Ella struggles to raise her children in Memphis, Tennessee. Her long hours of work leave her little time to supervise Richard and his brother. Not surprisingly, Richard gets into all sorts of trouble, spying on people in outhouses and becoming a regular at the local saloonand an alcoholicby the age of six. Ella's worsening health prevents her from raising two children by herself and often leaves her unable to work. During these times, Richard does whatever odd jobs a child can do to bring in some money for the family. School is hardly an option for him. At one point, the family's troubles are so severe that Ella must place her children in an orphanage for a few weeks. Life improves when Ella moves to Elaine, Arkansas, to live with her sister maggie and her sister's husband, Hoskins. Hoskins runs a successful saloon, so there is always plenty of food to eat, a condition that Richard greatly appreciates but to which he cannot accustom himself. Soon, however, white jealousy of Hoskins's business success reaches a peak, as local white men kill Hoskins and threaten the rest of his family. Ella and Maggie flee with the two boys to West Helena, Arkansas. There, the two sisters' combined wages make life easier than it had been in Memphis. After only a short time, however, Maggie flees to Detroit with her lover, Professor Matthews, leaving Ella the sole support of the family. Hard economic times return. Times become even harder when a paralytic stroke severely incapacitates Ella. Richard's grandmother brings Ella, Richard, and Alan to her home in Jackson, Mississippi. Ella's numerous siblings convene in Jackson to decide how to care for their ailing sister and her two boys.
In this essay, the author
- Describes how four-year-old richard wright becomes bored and begins playing with fire, leading to his accidentally burning down the family home in natchez, mississippi.
- Analyzes how nathan abandons the family to live with another woman while richard and his brother alan are still very young. without nathan's financial support, the wrights fall into poverty and perpetual hunger.
- Analyzes how ella struggles to raise her children in memphis, tennessee. her long hours of work leave her little time to supervise richard and his brother. richard gets into all sorts of trouble, spying on people in outhouses and becoming an alcoholic.
- Describes how life improves when ella and maggie move to elaine, arkansas, to live with their sister maggie and her sister's husband, hoskins. the two sisters' combined wages make life easier than it had been in memphis.
- Narrates how richard's grandmother brings ella, richard, and alan to her home in jackson, mississippi, to care for their ailing sister and her two boys.
- Analyzes how richard's obsession with reading and his lack of interest in religion make his home life an endless conflict.
- Narrates how aunt addie beats richard for eating walnuts, but he fends her off with a knife. similar scenes recur with frustrating frequency over the following months and years.
- Analyzes how richard picks his way through school, delights in his studies, and publishes a story titled "the voodoo of hell's half-acre." he graduates from the ninth grade as valedictorian, giving his own speech despite the -insistence of his principal.
- Analyzes how richard suffers violent encounters with racism as he enters the adult working world in jackson. two white southerners, pease and reynolds run him off his job at an optical shop, claiming that such skilled work is not meant for blacks.
- Narrates how richard decides to leave for the north to raise the cash needed for his trip. after swindling his boss at a movie -theater, selling stolen fruit preserves, and pawning stolen gun, he moves to memphis, where the atmosphere is safer.
- Analyzes how richard finds a kind, generous landlady, mrs. moss, who decides that he must marry her daughter, bess.
- Describes how a white coworker in the optical shop,falk, lets richard use his library card to check out books that otherwise would be unavailable to him. his mother, brother, and maggie soon join him in memphis.
- Analyzes how richard struggles with racism, segregation, poverty, and his own need to cut corners and lie to protect himself and get ahead.
- Describes how richard finds communism appealing, especially its emphasis on protecting the oppressed, and becomes a communist party member.
- Analyzes how richard's desire to write biographical sketches of communists and his tendency to criticize party pronouncements earn him distrust, along with the titles "intellectual" and "trotskyite."
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- Black Boyanalytical essayWhen Richard and his brother were very young, Nathan Wright, their father, abandoned the family, plunging them into poverty. Richard's constant hunger made him extremely bitter toward his absent father. Over the next few years, Ella, Richard's mother, would desperately attempt to feed, clothe, and shelter her children. Her long hours of work often meant leaving her children with little supervision. When Richard was six years old, he began begging drinks in a nearby saloon where the customers plied him with nickels if he would repeat various curse words and offensive phrases. When beatings proved ineffective in breaking her son of his growing obsession with alcohol, Ella engaged the babysitting services of an older black woman in the neighborhood.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how black boy2black boy, richard wright's autobiography, covers his childhood and early adulthood.
- Explains how richard's hunger made him bitter toward his absent father. ella, his mother, would desperately try to feed, clothe, and shelter her children. when richard was six, he began begging drinks in a nearby saloon.
- Describes how ella moved in with her sister, maggie, and silas hoskins, who owned a successful saloon. however, richard's fear of hunger returned, so he hoarded food all over the house. the whites murdered him and threatened to kill the rest of his family.
- Narrates how ella's health deteriorated, and richard was forced to write to his grandmother for help after a paralytic stroke disabled her.
- Explains that richard's grandmother was a strict seventh day adventist, but he was an atheist from an early age. his aunt, addie, joined the crusade to save his soul.
- Narrates how richard managed to graduate from the ninth grade and move to the north, where he suffered numerous frightening, often violent, confrontations with white racism. he rebuffed the attempts of his kindly landlady, mrs.
- Analyzes how richard found an ideology that appealed to him in communism. after political battles and persecution, he became estranged from the party.
832 wordsRead More - Black and White by Thomasanalytical essayBlack and White by Thomas “Who am I?” (Thomas 415). Many ask themselves this relevant question in times of self-doubt or ambivalence. Leona Thomas asks this question in her essay entitled, “Black and White.”
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how leona thomas persuades the reader that society should look beyond one's mixture and stop being racist to one another.
- Analyzes how thomas uses pathos to demonstrate the difficulties she had to endure while growing up as an interracial child.
- Analyzes how thomas uses logos to show the division between the black and white communities in america.
- Analyzes how leona thomas uses logos and pathos to bring her points together through inductive reasoning.
925 wordsRead More - A Male Authority Figure In Richard Wright's Lifeanalytical essayOne male authority figure in Richard’s life that was significant, is his father Nathaniel Wright. Growing up, Richard had hardly any ties to his father in terms of love, time, and affection. He only saw his father as a cold frightening shadow that came and left every once awhile. Because his father left with only bad memories, Richard was able to develop a sense of maturity and realization as a child. Without a figure to look up to, Richard would quickly learn to do what it took to survive with his mom and brother. When Nathaniel left, Richard was given many hardships such as starvation, fear, and a lack of a permanent home. Richard would go starving for days, which resulted in eating leftover food from customers at his mother’s job. And because
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how richard's father, nathaniel wright, helped him develop maturity and realization as a child. he learned to be street smart and learn about the racial world.
217 wordsRead More - meow meowexplanatory essay...her father’s intense racism and discrimination so she hid the relationship at all costs. Connie realized that she could never marry an African American man because of her father’s racial intolerance. If she were to have a mixed child, that child would be greatly discriminated against because of hypodecent. One day, Connie’s dad heard rumors about her relationship so he drove her car to the middle of nowhere, and tore it apart. Then, he took his shotgun and went to look for Connie and her boyfriend. Connie was warned before her father found her, and she was forced to leave town for over six months. Connie’s father burned her clothes, so she had to leave town with no car, no clothes and no money at sixteen years old. Connie had lived in poverty her entire life, but when she got kicked out she learned to live with no shelter and sometimes no food at all.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that connie whaley has lived through oppression in the aspects of class, gender and race. she was born into a dysfunctional family in newmarket, virginia.
- Explains that connie was born into a very poor family and lived in poverty for the first 18 years of her life. she followed her mother's footsteps and worked low paying, unfulfilling jobs for many years.
- Describes how connie's world was turned upside-down when she married and moved to las vegas. she went from very poor to upper class almost over night. sexism was standard in her adolescence, so as she got older she didn't realize that she was living in an oppressive situation.
- Explains that connie's mother worked full time, cooked, cleaned, ran errands, and took care of the children, while her father was not helpful in any aspect. this type of patriarchal household was common in this small town.
- Explains that connie was expected to follow her family's cycle of poverty and oppression. she did not go to college because she didn't think she was smart.
- Explains that connie moved to las vegas when she was nineteen, and began bartending and cocktailing. she had been habituated to believe that her looks and sexuality were the best way for her to earn money.
- Analyzes how connie and her husband are equal in every aspect of their lives. she does not do this out of a patriarchal household because women are meant to do things for their husbands.
- Explains that racenewmarket was an incredibly racist town, and there were only two african american families in the entire town.
- Narrates how connie began dating an african-american boy when she was sixteen years old. she knew about her father's intense racism and discrimination so she hid the relationship at all costs.
1073 wordsRead More - Death is always a hard concept with which one must deal at some point in life. Kate wonders what is loose in the world and why people close to her are taken away forever in the deaths of Mo Rhodes and her father Fred. On Independence Day, the fateful beginning of the catastrophe unfolding, Kate experiences her first adult troubles. Similar to Jem and Scout Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird, Kate moves through her innocence into experience with some obvious and some inconspicuous brushes with the adult world. As she sits with Misty observing the fireworks, she senses the troubles in her best friend.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how kate focuses on the most important thing going on with misty, despite the distractions of fireworks, her father's comments, and mrs. poole’s endless chatter.
- Analyzes how kate rationalizes that mo was killed by the town, but the question remains, why did the same people refuse to comment on mo's reason for leaving?
- Analyzes how kate ponders her sexuality as a young girl at puberty. she observes physical contact between angela and her father at ferris beach.
- Analyzes how kate sees and feels the horrible reality of what she has been wanting all along. the rape is the extreme of the arm squeezing from dean in the rhodes's car and of her wishes for a boyfriend.
- Analyzes how kate's first sexual experience is a cherished memory and she comes to this conclusion from her past experiences.
- Analyzes how kate acquires a general knowledge of humanity through her relationships with angela, mo, mrs. poole, and cleva.
- Analyzes how kate doesn't want mrs. poole as a mother, but learns lessons from her character. kate's relationship with cleva takes years of growing and maturing to achieve the level that they do.
- Analyzes how kate's coming of age, parallel to jane eyre, is full of inconsistencies that she must sort and attempt to organize to create some sort of order. kate comes to terms with death, sex, and relationships to understand everyone in her life.
- Analyzes how kate burns grapples with questions of life and death as she seeks some sort of explanation for her problems in ferris beach, a bildingsroman.
2276 wordsRead More - American Dreamanalytical essayThe drama takes place on the Southside of Chicago during the 1950’s. The main characters consist of a working-class African American family living in an inadequate living arrangement. Out of six generations four live under the same cramped roof. The matriarch of the family is Lena Younger who is still grieving the loss of her husband Mr. Walter Younger. Her daughter Beneatha, son Walter Younger, his wife Ruth and son Travis all reside with her in the tiny apartment. The entire structure of the play surrounds the fact that an insurance check for ten thousand dollars is to be expected on behalf of the death of Mr. Younger. To the Younger family this check is a ticket for a new life. Although the check is entitled for Lena it’s as though each character’s dream for the future is embodied in this single slip of paper.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how lorraine hansberry depicts lena, walter, and beneatha younger's personal aspirations in response to the american dream.
- Analyzes how the drama takes place on the southside of chicago during the 1950's. the main characters consist of a working-class african american family living in an inadequate living arrangement.
- Analyzes how lena younger's american dream consisted of an opportunity for a better life.
- Analyzes how walter younger, eldest son and determined individual, seems to focus on the finer things in life. he despises his situation and refuses to be overcome by poverty.
- Explains that beneatha, daughter of lena younger, erects much of her idea of the american dream on the ideas of freedom and equality.
- Analyzes how the younger families in "a raisin in the sun" dream of prosperity, but their understanding of success is their greatest rift.
797 wordsRead More - Black Boy by Richard Wrightanalytical essayRichard Wright’s memoir Black Boy (American Hunger): A Record of Childhood and Youth recounts the author’s personal experience growing up as an African American male in the Jim Crow South, as well as his initial years in the North in the late 1920s. While it is a personal account of one man’s life in this time period, Wright’s memoir also sheds light on the broader role of black men in American society in the early twentieth century, particularly with respect to race, gender, and class relations. By no accident, insight on these relations can be gleaned from the title of Wright’s memoir itself. I argue that Wright chose the provocative title Black Boy (American Hunger): A Record of Childhood and Youth in order to both utilize shock value and explicitly draw attention to the characteristics that had defined him his entire life, with or without his consent. In choosing this particular title, Wright was making the statement that at the turn of the 20th century, being a member of the African American race greatly determined one’s gender role and class in American society, while simultaneously impacting his or her daily conditions of existence and future aspirations. In order to demonstrate how Wright’s title selection speaks to these issues, I will analyze, in turn, the title’s implications regarding race, gender, and class for American black males in the early 1900s.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how richard wright's memoir black boy (american hunger): a record of childhood and youth sheds light on the broader role of black men in american society in the early twentieth century.
- Analyzes how the use of the term "black boy" in the memoir speaks to the fact that for wright, as well as many other african americans at this time, being black literally defined him above all else.
- Analyzes how wright drew attention to and challenged the unjust reality of race relations during his early years.
- Analyzes how wright's inclusion of the term "american hunger" in the title makes a statement about the impact of race on american life.
- Analyzes how wright's experience of poverty and hunger was not unique as an african american at this time.
- Analyzes how wright's choice of the title black boy (american hunger) speaks to the way in which race impacted gender roles in american society in the early 1900s.
- Analyzes how wright's emasculation of black men by whites is widespread in his memoir, and his use of the term "black boy" recognizes the specific gender role he was delegated due to his race.
- Explains that wright lived in an age immediately following a period of crisis of white masculinity. white southern men emasculated black men in order to regain their masculine authority.
- Opines that wright was not alone in recognizing the attempted emasculation of black men by white men in the early twentieth century. "big bill" broonzy, a blues singer of the day, draws attention to this unfair reality of gender relations.
- Analyzes how wright's title choice speaks to how, in the early twentieth century, race played a key role in determining one’s class.
- Analyzes how the term "american hunger" in the title expresses this class reality as well. wright grows hungry for words, new ways to live, human unity, and more depth and humanity in life, especially for black americans.
- Analyzes how wright's choice of the title black boy (american hunger): a record of childhood and youth illuminates the realities of life for black americans in the early twentieth century.
- Cites broonzy, william lee conley, and dagbovie, pero gaglo in engendering america: a documentary history, 1865 to the present.
- Cites era, vol. 13, no. 1 (jan. 2014): 4-27. litwack, leon f., "jim crow blues," oah magazine of history.
- Explains that manhood rights in the age of jim crow: evaluating "end-of-men" claims in the boston university law review.
1803 wordsRead More - Native Son by Richard Wrightanalytical essayNative Son Native Son is a very popular book in our days. While reading it, the reader gets introduced to the social discrimination of the past. These times were not a long time ago: not 300, not 200 years ago, but in the 20th century - the century where most of us was born. While people considered America as "White People's Country. "
In this essay, the author
- Explains that native son is popular today because it teaches us to respect everyone, black or white, because we are one nation.
- Analyzes how bigger's mom asks him to accept a job offered by mr. dalton, because of the poor conditions of thomas family.
- Analyzes how bigger trembles when he robs blum's office. he is innocent, but a black man is jailed for many years.
- Analyzes how bigger hates ms. dalton because she is white, and because whites hate blacks, but he sees it because of the big wound in his soul.
- Analyzes how bigger decides to collect money from daltons, saying that mary was kidnapped and put his girlfriend bessie to this business. when reporters saw the bones in the furnace, he leaves.
- Explains that bigger was afraid of being caught by police because he knew a white girl would die. people thought that black people were animals and animal kills human.
- Explains that the only communist who defended and understood bigger was mr. max. he understood the situation of black people and wanted to stop discrimination.
- Explains that bigger finds that only mr. max, even though he is white, respected him and understood him.
590 wordsRead More - Native Son by Richard Wrightanalytical essayPeople’s negative actions at times are products of baneful expectations. Native Son, is a novel written by Richard Wright. This novel focuses on Bigger Thomas’s struggle when living life in Chicago in the 1930s, with the burden of a racist society. Thomas’s sins are evoked by society’s negative influence due to society’s idea of equality.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how people's negative actions at times are products of baneful expectations. native son focuses on bigger thomas' struggle when living in chicago in the 1930s, with the burden of a racist society.
- Analyzes how thomas's sins are evoked by society because society portrays animosity towards blacks.
- Analyzes how thomas' sins are evoked by society because society does not accept blacks as people.
- Analyzes how society evokes thomas's sins because society expresses that blacks are destined to failure.
- Opines that thomas's sins are a product of society’s perspective because society besieges thomas’ mind, does not accept blacks, and sets blacks up for failure.
815 wordsRead More - Native Son by Richard Wrightanalytical essayRichard Wright’s main character in Native Son, Bigger Thomas, was created by many different things, both inside the novel and in the real world. Throughout the novel Bigger’s actions reflect his many flaws that had resulted from his poor childhood. Bigger’s family, although they are around him a lot because of their small house, annoy him whenever they talk to him and he feels as though he does not have a close relationship with any of them, except his little brother Buddy who Bigger can tolerate. Bigger’s poor childhood and family background, poor education, and the many prejudices contributed to the main reason he became the man
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how wright's main character, bigger thomas, was created by many different things, both inside the novel and in the real world. his actions reflect his many flaws that had resulted from his poor childhood.
- Analyzes how adolf hitler's childhood led to his need for power and his anger towards others at times.
- Analyzes how wright hints at bigger's poor childhood throughout the novel. he had a poor education, poor family background, and poor life style.
- Explains that bigger's poor education led to many in the black community being poorly educated. he never achieved a proper education and his thoughts and actions reflected an uneducated person.
- Analyzes how bigger's poverty stricken life influenced his actions and helped create what he became.
- Analyzes how bigger used fear and anger to get what he wanted or used those feelings against others. stalin used propaganda to put fear into many of russia's people, which helped him gain power.
989 wordsRead More