Essay On Michael Oher

What if one could travel in time to the future to see how society has changed? Richard Wright created a bleak image of African Americans trying to survive in the South, specifically in the cities of Jackson and Memphis, in his semi-autobiographical novel Black Boy. A problem that Wright highlighted in his novel was that Whites seemed to try hard to prevent Blacks from gaining success. Approximately sixty years later, writers John Lee Hancock and Michael Lewis bring the story of Michael Oher, a young homeless Black man who achieves success through the help of his adopted White family, to the big screen in a movie called The Blind Side. If Richard Wright was able to travel to Oher’s time period he would be pleased with his story because of where Oher came from, how Oher was able to achieve success, and the reactions from those in Oher’s time period to his story.

Richard Wright would feel content with Oher’s story because of where Oher came from. In the movie, Michael Oher spent most of his childhood living in the projects of Memphis, Tennessee in the South. In Black Boy, Richard Wright moved to Memphis when he was four years old, as well as other cities in the South. The neighborhood in Memphis that Wright lived in was also a bad area, seeing that some neighborhood boys jumped him twice and stole his money. Because Oher and Wright both lived in the same area, Wright would be able to relate to Oher more and understand his situation. In The Blind Side, Michael did not grow up with his father. When Michael was told that his father died and asked when the last time he saw him was, he said he did not know. Richard Wright’s father did not play a major part of his life as well. His father abandoned him and his family when Richard ...

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...d to see that there were White people that were reacting positively to Oher’s story and success, and they wanted him to do well in college, too.

Because of Oher’s background and its similarity to Wright’s, how Oher was able to excel in football and achieve the GPA needed for a football scholarship, and how White people surrounding Oher cheered him on because of his success, Wright would feel pleased that society changed positively over sixty years. For Wright to fully approve, however, the racism would need to end. Even though there were people who loved Michael and his story, there were still racists in the South. The player on the opponent team was cruel to Michael in his racist talk on the field. People should change and not judge other by their complexion. Racism may not be brought to an end, but it can surely be brought to a minimum if everyone cooperated.