Black Boy by Richard Wright
"Black Boy" by Richard Wright is an autobiographical work that traces the author's tumultuous childhood and early adulthood in the racially charged environment of the American South during the early 20th century. Wright's narrative begins in Natchez, Mississippi, where he experiences a troubled family life, marked by poverty, a lack of understanding, and physical violence, such as an incident in which he was beaten unconscious by his mother after setting their home on fire. Following a series of relocations, including a brief stay in an orphanage, Wright's family moves to Arkansas, where they encounter both stability and tragedy, as his uncle is murdered by white men.
Wright's journey continues through various hardships, including living with an abusive uncle and grappling with the oppressive religious beliefs of his grandmother. Despite these challenges, Wright excels academically, ultimately graduating as valedictorian from his school in Jackson, Mississippi, and publishing his first work. His quest for freedom leads him to Chicago, where he initially finds community within the Communist Party, only to later reject its constraints on his individuality. Ultimately, "Black Boy" serves as a profound exploration of identity, resilience, and the pursuit of artistic integrity amid societal challenges.
Black Boy by Richard Wright
First published: 1945
Type of work: Autobiography
Principal Characters
Richard Wright , the narratorElla , his motherNathan , his fatherMargaret andRichard Wilson , Richard’s grandparentsAunt Maggie andUncle Hoskins , Ella’s sister and her husbandClark andJody , Richard’s aunt and uncleRoss , a member of the Communist Party
The Story
Richard Wright was a bored and frustrated young boy growing up in Natchez, Mississippi, in a household that he believed neither understood nor appreciated him. At the age of four, he demonstrated his boredom and frustration by setting his house on fire, thus incurring the wrath of his mother, Ella, who beat him into unconsciousness.
When the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee, Richard’s father deserted the family, leaving them in poverty. Richard’s mother was forced to put her two sons in an orphanage, where they remained for six weeks before being reunited with their mother. They then moved to Elaine, Arkansas, to live with Ella’s sister and her husband. En route to Arkansas, they stayed for a brief time in Jackson, Mississippi, with Ella’s parents, Margaret and Richard Wilson. Margaret (called Granny), the matriarchal head of the house, was a stern ruler, intolerant of the love of fiction demonstrated by a schoolteacher who boarded with her. The schoolteacher introduced fiction to Richard. From Granny’s intolerance, Richard learned lessons about familial rigidity and cruelty that he carried with him throughout his youth.
When they arrived in Elaine, Arkansas, to stay with Aunt Maggie and Uncle Hoskins, it appeared that the Wrights’ lives of constant mobility and poverty were over. They finally got the food they needed and the security they had lacked. This sustenance and stability were short-lived, however. Uncle Hoskins was murdered by whites who wanted his saloon, thus compelling the Wright family to leave. They fled to West Helena, a town near Elaine.
The mobility continued when Richard’s mother suffered a stroke. Granny took her and the two boys back to Jackson, Mississippi. Even this move was temporary, because Granny could not afford to provide for the three Wrights. She sent Richard’s brother to stay with their Aunt Maggie, who had moved to Detroit, and she sent Richard to Greenwood, Mississippi, to live with Uncle Clark and Aunt Jody. This sojourn in Richard’s life was a miserable time for him because of his uncle’s brutality. In the early 1920s, Richard returned to Jackson, Mississippi.
During his four years in Jackson, from 1921 to 1925, Wright went to two schools, graduating as valedictorian from Smith-Robinson Public School. Although this was his only formal education, he made the most of this brief schooling and immersed himself in all types of literature. He also published his first work, “The Voodoo of Hell’s Half Acre,” which appeared in the Southern Register in 1924.
Despite the fulfillment he discovered in literature, Richard’s life in Jackson was painful because of the religious fanaticism of his grandmother and his Aunt Addie, who lived with them. When he could no longer tolerate those surroundings, Richard first got a job to earn money for his escape from Jackson, then stole money so that he would have enough support to go to Memphis, where he stayed for two years.
In 1927, Richard followed his dream to Chicago, what he envisioned as the promised land of the North. He arrived there looking for the freedom he had been denied in the South, and he believed he had found that freedom as well as solidarity with others in the John Reed Club, which was a Communist literary organization, and then in the Communist Party itself. This was only a momentary stop on his journey toward self-realization, however, for Richard learned that the Communist Party was not the organization he had thought it was. It wished to rob him of his individuality, his unique gifts as a writer, and his desire to be an individual who used words to create a new world. As he observed what the Communist Party did to people, including a man named Ross who was tried as a traitor to the party, Wright realized that he needed to leave the party. Having learned that his calling was not to be a member of an organized group but to be a solitary individual whose strength was his identity as a wordsmith, he accepted his vocation. He was a writer.
Bibliography
Andrews, William L., and Douglas Taylor, eds. Richard Wright’s Black Boy (American Hunger): A Casebook. New York: Oxford UP, 2003. Print.
Bloom, Harold, ed. Richard Wright’s Black Boy. New York: Chelsea House, 2006. Print.
Butler, Robert. "Seeking Salvarion in a Naturalistic Universe: Richard Wright's Use of His Southern Religious Background in Black Boy (American Hunger)." Southern Quarterly 46.2 (2009): 46–60. Print.
Fabre, Michel. The Unfinished Quest of Richard Wright. Trans. Isabel Barzun. Rev. ed. New York: Morrow, 1973. Print.
Felgar, Robert. Richard Wright. Boston: Twayne, 1980. Print.
Felgar, Robert. Student Companion to Richard Wright. Westport: Greenwood, 2000. Print.
Felgar, Robert. Understanding Richard Wright’s Black Boy: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Westport: Greenwood, 1998. Print.
Mack, Richard, and Frank E. Moorer. Richard Wright: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1984. Print.
Makombe, Rodwell. "Apartheid, Crime, and Interracial Violence in Black Boy." Jour. of Black Studies 44.3 (Apr. 2013): 290–313. Print.
Margolies, Edward. The Art of Richard Wright. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1969. Print.
Mitchell, Hayley, ed. Readings on Black Boy. San Diego: Greenhaven, 2000. Print.
Rambsy, Howard. "Re-presenting Black Boy: The Evolving Packaging History of Richard Wright's Autobiography. Southern Quarterly 46.2 (2009): 71–83. Print.
Sharma, Bhumika. "The Horror and the Glory: A Black Artist's Emotional Experiment to Break the Ice." Labyrinth: An Intl. Refereed Jour. of Postmodern Studies 2.3 (July 2011): 144–49. Print.
Wright, Richard. Conversations with Richard Wright. Eds. Kenneth Kinnamon, and Michel Fabre. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1993. Print.