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Influence of African American literature and importance
Deceased african american literature
Influence of African American literature and importance
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Richard Wright Poet, journalist, essayist, and novelist Richard Wright developed from an uneducated Southerner to one of the most cosmopolitan, politically active writers in American literature. In many of Richard Wright's works, he exemplifies his own life and proves to “white” America that African American literature should be taken seriously. Before Wright, “white” America failed to acknowledge the role African American writing played in shaping American culture. It was shocking in itself that an African American could write at all. Thus, Richard Wright is well known as the father of African American literature mainly because of his ability to challenge the literary stereotypes given to African Americans. Richard Wright was born September 4, 1908 on a plantation just outside Natchez, Mississippi. A grandson of slaves, he was raised solely by his mother after his father left the family when Wright was only five years old. His mother was religious and a schoolteacher, whereas his father was an illiterate sharecropper. The father abandoned the family to become a traveling worker. The family began to drift apart (Taylor). With never enough food in the house and his mother becoming ill in 1915, Wright was sent to a Methodist orphanage where he was beaten severely for various infractions. He later ran away from there and was sent to live with his grandmother. She was a Seventh-Day Adventist who later gave up trying to force Wright to go to church. Starting late because of the lack of nice clothes for him to wear, he was schooled in Jackson, Mississippi, but he never graduated from high school. He was a very strong reader and had a gift with words. His childhood in the rural South, after being abused mentally and physically by racis... ... middle of paper ... ...icant ones was his ability to accurately portray blacks to white readers. Wright was able to destroy the white myth of the “patient, subservient black man” (“Richard Wright: One...”). He intended many of his works to be more than just an interaction between blacks and whites. He saw the writer as a man involved in the affairs of the world (Smith). Wright's bold attack on racism gave the black writers who followed him the courage to express their visions truthfully. Being “the most powerful writer of the 20th century,” not one writer has been able to surpass his diversity of accomplishments or his ability to combine both the art of writing with the social injustices of racism (“Richard Wright: One...”). Thus, Richard Wright is well known as the father of American literature mainly because of his ability to challenge the literary stereotypes given to African Americans.