Morals In Richard Wright's Black Boy

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In the novel Black Boy by Richard Wright, the moment where his mother and Richard were at the railroad station at the beginning of the novel shaped the development of Richard's morals. For instance, it says “I looked at the people who came out of the store; yes, they were white, but I had not noticed it… [Griggs then said] ‘When you’re in front of white people, think before you act, think before you speak’”(Wright 184). This demonstrates that Richard is still very naive, even after the age of 18. Relating this back to the railroad station at age 4, he asked his mother what the difference between blacks and whites. She reacted harshly and abused him (Wright 46-48). This tells me that his mother did not inform him about the way society works, so he did not fit into society's standards. When his mother reacted irrationally, it made him fearful to question how society works as he got older and that’s why he was so naive at 18. Therefore, he is unable to fit into society with ease and he will not be curious about how races were viewed to different people, which are two morals he lacks.…show more content…
Crane approached him with “‘Nigger, you think you’re white, don’t you?’ [Richard replies] ‘No, sir.’ ‘You’re acting mighty like it,’ he said”(Wright 188). Richard was doing an everyday action to him. The white men thought Wright was trying to act superior because of how he carried himself. This comes back to the moment his mother refused to teach him about race, which made him develop his own knowledge. This knowledge is a internal believe and when a person believes in an internal they are more confident in themselves and that is why the white men viewed that he acted “superior”. He has an internal belief, the prospect of that is that he is confident and people devalue him for showing that yet he still stays strong because his mother did not teach anything about race in
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