Black Boy-Oppression

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*Black Boy Essay: Oppression Growing up as a Negro in the South in the early 1900's is not that easy, some people suffer different forms of oppression. In this case, it happens in the autobiography called Black Boy written by Richard Wright. The novel is set in the early part of the 1900's, somewhere in Deep South. Richard Wright, who is the main character, is also the protagonist. The antagonist is no one person specifically, it takes many different forms called "oppression" in general. The main character over comes this "oppression" by rebelling against the common roles of the black, society. Richard Wright's character was affected in early childhood by the effects of society oppression, but he became a great American author despite the negative factors in his life. Today everyone encounters some form of oppression. One of the forms Richard is encountering is called societal oppression. As an example, after Richard sees a "black" boy whipped by a "white" man, he asks his mother why did the incident happen. His mother says, " 'The "white" man did not whip the "black" boy...He beat the "black" boy, '. This quote is showing racism, which is one way of society keeping Richard, and all other blacks in the South down. Another example is when is at the rail road station with his mother, and as they are waiting for the train, he sees something he has never seen, "...for the first time I noticed that there were two lines of people at the ticket window, a "white" line and a "black" line”. This is demonstrating how laws keep a certain group of people apart, which is also another form of society oppression. Society oppression occurs again when Richard is "hanging" out with his friends, and their conversation with each other leads on to the subject of war. One of his friends gets really into the subject and says, " 'Yeah, they send you to war, make you lick them Germans, teach you how to fight and when you come back they scared of you.’ This means that the "white" people put the "black" people on the front line to defend our country, and when they come back, they can not accept them, therefore they oppress them in different ways, which is society oppression. These are examples of society oppression that Richard overcomes and rises to the top on his own.

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