Black Boy

Black Boy was not the book I anticipated it to be. I was expecting an easy-to-read

narrative (like Glass Castle was). Instead, what I found was a memoir that was more like

a book on human psychology, filled with insight on human behavior and containing

rawness the likes I had never come across in a book before. I found this irritating

because I actually had to read carefully and couldn’t skim through it. Yet the same time,

Black Boy was wonderfully engaging. Although his tendency to go off on tangents was

slightly annoying, I enjoyed Wright’s extraordinarily thorough analyzation of his life.

They were very eye-opening, and changed my outlook on people who are different from

me. At first I thought it was going to be simply about African-American story, but in

reality it held truth about the very human nature

It surprised and fascinated me how articulate Wright was in the book. I definitely

didn’t expect such eloquence and syntax, as displayed in his list of metaphors of his

early childhood. (Wright 7) At first I didn’t understand why he included so many random

childhood stories. Then I realized the stories go deeper; each of them made a strong

impact on him and changed Wright’s outlook on life. These stories were important and

had meaning to him. An example of this is the story of his mother locking him out of his

house until he got the groceries. (Wright 18) It represented Wright learning that life is

survival of the fittest, which would impact him later in life. I liked the way Wright told

his stories and analyzed them at the same time. In some of his early stories he seemed

almost too-descriptive for the age he was at. Two instances of this are the stories about

Wright burning down his house when he was six (Wright 1-6) and when he killed the

kitten. The detail in which he described these stories seems almost too detailed; however,

I found them insightful. For example, his reasoning behind killing the kitten when he

was a child:

I resented his shouting and it irked me that I could never make him feel

my resentment. How could I hit back at him? Oh, yes… He said to kill the

kitten and I would kill it! (104)

I was appalled when he killed the kitten; however, unlike some of my friends, it

didn’t ruin the book for me. On the contrary, I appreciated his analyzation of the incident.

It showed how from even the beginning of his life, Wright struggled with his father.

I found myself sympathizing with Wright:

Watching the white people eat would make my empty stomach churn and I

would grow vaguely angry. Why could I not eat when I was hungry? …I

could not understand why some people had enough food and others did

not. (19)

As a starving young child, it must have been very confusing for him to see other

people eat and himself not being able to eat anything. I think a memory like that would

haunt you for the rest of your life.

I also found myself agreeing with Wright. I was even able to elaborate on some

of his ideas. Wright describes his fear of the white people:

When my mother told me that the “white” man was not the father of the

“black” boy, was no kin to him at all, I was puzzled.

“…why did the ‘white’ man whip the ‘black’ boy??” I asked my

mother.

Wright presents the idea that people are not born racist. Rather, it is a learned

trait. I definitely agree with him; racism, like fear, is passed down from generation to

generation. This disgusts me. Do people have nothing better to do then to hate and fear a

whole other race? The question “why, why, why?” haunted me as I read this book.

Black Boy showed me how ugly racism truly is. His first-hand account of the

things that happened to him because he was black appalled me. Normally, people only

think of racism occurring during the 1960’s and often don’t realize that racism

permeated in America during the early 1900’s. Wright’s life story made me appreciate

how far America has come. It would have been fascinating for Richard Wright to have

been able to meet with men like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

During the part where Wright became a Communist absolutely bored me to tears.

Perhaps it was because it was thick material, or maybe I just wanted to be done with the

book. Regardless, I disliked that part of the book. However, I did recognize Wright’s

desperate struggle for change and to rouse the African-American community into action.

The lack of accomplishment, despite his desperate longing for achievement and hard

work, was extremely frustrating.

In conclusion, Black Boy was a very-detailed memoir about the struggles of an

intellectual African-American, desperate for change in a time of racial prejudice and

hate. All things considered I’m glad I read this book, despite the fact that it wasn’t an

easy read.