Richard Wright The Library Card Analysis

In the article “The Library Card,” Richard Wright, a black writer in America, who was born in a plantation in Natchez Mississippi, but loves reading and desires knowledge. Once Richard was reading a newspaper “The American Mercury”, the article is written by H.L.Mencken. In this article, Mencken was being abuse by white man. Richard was shock because he thinks that only black people were hated. The article was a furious denunciation of Mencken. Therefore, Richard becomes more interested about Mencken. He reads books that write by Mencken. However, in that society, blacks was not allowed to read books. Fortunately, an Irish Catholic, Falk, who was also hated by white Southerners, he knows that Richard desires to read, so Falk borrows the library

card to Richard because of sympathy and encouragement. Richard had to promise Falk that he would keep that as a secret.

From that time, Richard starts to borrow books from the library by forging notes. One time, Richard almost gets suspecting by showing the forged note. Nevertheless, Richard wraps the books by newspapers for concealing that he was reading a book. As a result, he finds that himself is different from others black men. The more he had read, the more he could understand the world. He had read the book “Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street,” it even helps Richard feels less distance between the boss and himself. During that time, Richard reads lots of Grammar and novels since he wants to be a writer when he moves to north. However, he finds that reading novels could help him get better sense of the language than from grammars. Because of the hungers for knowledge, Richard forged another note to the white librarian again and again. He gains knowledge from the books and he wants to fight the southern whites with other blacks as his grandfather. But he could never win that way, because he knows that he is the minority in that society in contrast with whites. In short, Richard Wright gains knowledge by reading books. Although he could not complete his hope, finally, he sees a different world through

reading.
Admittedly, reading is very important to people. We could learn by ourselves through reading, we could learn writing techniques, vocabulary and other knowledge as well. We are gaining knowledge from lots of resources. Specifically by reading, every time when I finish reading a book or a novel, I must learn something. However, when I read the same book or the novel by second time, I could understand more than first time I read. Reading is an amazing activity. For instance, in a short time period, I kept reading everyday, I could read faster, absorb easier, intelligence would be better and speaking technique would also improve a lot. In contrast, If I did not read for a long time, my mind would work so slow and becomes no more to say, even people ask me for some suggestion, I could barely give a word. Knowledge equals to power, Richard Wright is a good example: his desire for knowledge helps himself to see a different world. He was not resigned to be a person with limited knowledge. Richard knows that the society is realism and naturalism. Furthermore, knowledge is not only equals to power; it is also equals to treasure. In our society, everybody treats fairly, however, everybody is fight for the future of knowledge. We are gaining and using knowledge every moment. In other words, we absorb knowledge by reading, reading is indispensabl