Black Boy by Richard Wright - Book Report/Review Example

Black Boy by Richard Wright The “Black Boy’ is a novel based on the moral, written by Richard Wright. This novel is an autobiography of Richard, the circumstances and tragic of his childhood. After moving to Chicago, Richard developed his writing career and also became the member of Communist Party. The writer has analyzed the story of his life into two sections, one the stage of his childhood (Southern Night) and the second the time period of his young adulthood (the horror and the glory). The novel begins when Richard was four years old, in which he sets his grandmother’s house on fire and faces the world’s bitter reality practically. Richard has been born in a house where religious terms mattered a lot, and the strictness was imposed on the family members. Richard’s father had left the house when he was very young at age, and his mother used to stay sick most of the times. Most of Richard’s time was spent with his grandparents. The separation of his parents and their lack of attention transformed Richard into a complex and wild man. Richard became such a person, difficult to be handled by anyone. Richard’s Uncles and Aunts had put their best efforts to raise him. The time came they had to put Richard into an Orphanage for his betterment. But all of them failed. The men of the house Richard lived in were totally irresponsible regarding their tasks, and the women were violent enough. Being nourished in such an environment, Richard had to absorb the surroundings. Such stiff enforced environment transformed Richard into an irritating and annoying person. At age the age of six, Richard became addicted to the alcohol. As a fact of all this soon he began to disbelief God, by missing going to the Church. He stopped spending play time with the children of his age, by preferring reading. Time passed by and Richard was turning into a grown up and wise person. At the age of eleven, Richard stood up on his own feet. He was in sixth grade at that time, when he started working for white people to earn money. While working for the white people, Richard found out the true meaning and difference of being black or white. It was the time when Richard first began to smell racism. His observation made him sense that something is totally wrong with the people of this world, that’s why racism dilemma has come into existence. Soon Richard made up his mind to move up to north, where racism yet hasn’t conquered the minds of the people. In one aspect Richard found himself insecure and uncomfortable, surrounded by the whites and other black people. He felt that their desires would eat up his intellectual curiosity and potential. We all were fond of fantasies and fairy tales in our childhood, likewise Richard used to be very involved with the tales narrated by his grandparents. This entire fairy tales thing attracted Richard and made him much more interested towards reading and writing. Richard’s aim was very clear in his mind when he was a child. He pre-decided his life path to become a successful writer one day, and also to move up north as soon as possible, away from the racism build. The dream of going to Chicago and becoming a writer, made Richard to do all the bad things which he didn’t will to do. He stole, cheated and lied enough to get money. He somehow needed money for a ticket to Memphis. It required a lot of money to move up Chicago, so Richard set himself okay with Memphis, where he meets with some well and nice people. Richard was very firm with his goal of Chicago. During this entire journey of his life, Richard always found north less polluted with racism than South. The black hearts and minds of the people forced Richard to think about the American race relations. He got engaged with different kinds of jobs with the white people such as; washing floors, domestic servant. Most of the jobs occupied by Richard were the same like the usual jobs being done by other blacks in whole America, from ages. Richard used to read French novels and medical journals along with the job. He used to spend his most of the nights by reading, as per his dreams and ambition. The poor family, ailing mother in association with the violence and taunts by his relatives, made Richard’s life hell. His relatives always had objection on his reading hobby. They always used to link his reading habits with time waste, pointless and out of context.Later, Richard found a job at the post office, where he met number of white men. He used to share his cynical views of the world and the religion with these white men. These men got inspired from Richard’s talking and views and invited him to the John Reed Club, with them. This club is an organization which promotes arts and social change. Soon Richard got engaged with a magazine named, Left Front. Then he slowlysubmerged with Communist Party, which used to organize and promote its artists and writers. After becoming the member of the Communist Party, Richard was very much confident that he would find such friends among blacks, who would be interested in bringing up the change regarding racism. Unaware of the fact that these members are also scared like the men, Richard has left behind in south. Richard has thought this Communists party as great survivals of black race. The communists were very strong and strict with their rules and regulations. If anyone goes against the ideas of the party, then the communists used to fear that member. Richard was very determined with his ideas against the racism and he has always been questioned and speaks his mind, a "counter-revolutionary". The rumors about the party spread stating that, backstabbing and pointing onto the religion, both are the unacceptable factors. And these two filthy factors have made the Communist Party such a scary place to survive in. The trail of another Black Community for counter-revolutionary was conducted by Richard. After the witness of this trial, Richard decided to abandon the Communist Party. The Communist Party always treated Richard harshly, like an enemy. They used to humiliate Richard, by threatening him to stay away from the gatherings and various jobs within the party. But Richard never took any step against them, he never tend to fight back. He believed that these people are just not worthy and brave enough to support his ideas of unity, tolerance and equality. Richard has spent his whole life under poverty, sufferings, and racism. Only little amount of happiness made its way towards him. He tried to conquer the filthiness of racism among Americans, with his practical divine services. But nothing happened the way he thought. Finally, he left the party and made his way towards writing. He chose the path of writing, the aim from his childhood. After closely facing the fears of people to bring change regarding racism, he decided to convey his revolutionary ideas through writing. Richard came onto the conclusion that he doesn’t need the support of any Communism to spread his views. He just needs the support of his pen and some papers, to throw his ideas onto it. As a result of it the book, ‘Black Boy’ came into the face of the world, focusing Richard’s own life. He states in his book that, every person of this world has got some hungers which need to be filled. And my hunger is writing, and conquering the hearts of the people [CITATION Ric45 \l 1033 ] Works Cited CITATION Ric45 \l 1033 : , (Wright), Read More