Black Boy Character Analysis

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To understand how development of character is one of the motifs in Black Boy, one can read the first two chapters because Richard and his family faced many changes in their lives. Arguably, two of the most significant changes were that his father abandoned them and that he was constantly starving (two things that a four year old should never experience). Left with no choice, Richard’s mother is forced to take the position of the father, shown in page 30 when she tells him “You just stay right where you are,” she said in a deadly tone. “I’m going to teach you this right to stand up and fight for yourself...I was baffled. My mother was telling me to fight, a thing that she has never done before.” In this situation, Richard’s mother is teaching

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