Black Boy Research Paper

965 Words4 Pages
As the author, narrator, and protagonist of Black Boy, Wright portrays himself as an unpredictable bundle of contradictions. He is timid yet assured, tough yet compassionate, enormously intelligent yet ultimately modest. Passive-aggressive as a young boy, Richard either says very little or becomes melodramatic and says too much. Growing up in an abusive family environment coupled with his living in the racially segregated and violent American South, Richard discovers reading, writing and the art of thought to be his salvation. The age old adage that knowledge is power is one that would truly resonate with him. He grows up feeling insecure about his inability to meet anyone’s expectations, particularly his family’s wish that he accept religion.…show more content…
This gives us the sense that most people have the means to afford this luxury and therefore gain access to it. Conversely, Wright was born poor and education was an extravagance his family could ill-afford. Nevertheless, education is the catalyst for his eventual metamorphosis. Education is more than just the sum of years spent learning from a book. It’s the everyday choices and lessons learned through living life. The racially segregated South is prime real estate for leaning on the fly. In his early days, Wright showed himself to be a bright kid. He was indeed a trouble maker and at times could get a bit too theatrical; however, he had a propensity for defending his beliefs and using the world around him as a free…show more content…
His uncle, Hoskins, owns a successful saloon that made their constant plight of hunger a thing of the paste. This saloon opened the door to a new hunger in Wright: liquor. By the age of six he had become an alcoholic who was paid in cash and liquor to repeat swear words. Before that he had taken up the habit of peeping and that is what attracted him there in the first place. His mother, fearing for his life, beat him until she was sure he couldn’t get the message, so instead she employed the aid of an older black woman to watch him. Her strictness benefitted him because he soon lost his appetite for alcohol. As Richard enters the adult working world in Jackson, he suffers many frightening, often violent encounters with racism. In the most demoralizing of these encounters, two white Southerners, Pease and Reynolds, run Richard off his job at an optical shop, claiming that such skilled work is not meant for blacks. Richard is upset because the white Northerner who runs the company, Mr. Crane, has hired Richard specifically for the purpose of teaching a black man the optical trade, but then does little to actually help defend Richard against his racist employees. This episode reminded him of all the negativity of his passed and he began to lament his situation. Although his supremely confident in his abilities, he sometimes allows his situation to get the better of him. As his despair grows, Richard resolves to leave for the
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