Richard Wright and Black Boy

Richard Wright and Black Boy

One main point of the United States Constitution was missing from the

Jim Crow South: equality. The Constitution clearly states that "all

men are created equal," but in the Jim Crow era blacks were

continuously persecuted for something that would be acceptable in

today's society. In the early 20th century the South was a place of

racial prejudice, discrimination, and hate; blacks could be punished

for simply looking at a white person in the wrong manner. Punishments

included arrest, beating, even lychings were a common part of the age.

This is how life was while Richard Wright was growing up; but in his

autobiography Black Boy we learn that despite his being a black boy in

the Jim Crow South, born on a Mississippi plantation, he is eventually

able to achieve success. Although independence was a crucial factor

that enabled Richard Wright to succeed, his rebelliousness,

intelligence, and perseverance were also important contributing

factors.

Richard Wright was an independent person by nature. Throughout the

book Richard never seemed to have an extreme emotional attachment to

anyone. It was as if he did not need or want anyone's assistance or

approval, except his own. Ever since Richard was very young he was

forced to be independent. When he mother had her stroke, Richard was

forced to take charge and become the person of the house and he would

accept no one's help. "Though I was a child, I could no longer feel as

a child, could no longer react as a child...When the neighbor's offered

me food, I refused, already ashamed that so often in my life I had to

be fed by strangers."(pg.97) While Richard was living at his Granny's

his independence really started to show through. All Richard ever

thought about was leaving to go to the North; especially after being

ridiculed for writing his story, The Voodoo of Hell's Half-Acre. No

one supported him. He wanted to be able to do what he wanted to, by

himself. "I drea! med of going north and writing books and

novels."(pg.186) Once Richard was on his own he felt free of the

burden, of other people's opinions that had tied him down his entire

life.

Along with independence, his rebelliousness was another beginning point

of Wright's drive to make it in a white man's world. The very first

sign we see of the rebel in Wright is when he is only four years old.

Richard and his brother are playing with a stray cat one day when his