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RICHARD Wright is one of the foremost Black American novelists whose books explore the condition of the black man under white America and how adversities can sometime sharpen one’s character and destiny. Just like Native Son (1940), the condition of the black man and how perseverance and tenacity of mind have carried through them to triumph is explored in Black Boy. In both texts, particularly in Black Boy, Wright recreates his childhood with such powerful avidity including minute details of his deprivation to construct a compelling narrative calling for an overhaul of the oppressive system.
Black Boy (1946) is written in the form of an autobiography retracing the life of a young boy since the age of four when he sets fire to his home in a moment of boredom: at five his father deserted the family, by six Richard was temporarily an alcoholic.
The young Richard had no permanent place he could call his home as he moved from brick tenement to an orphanage, a grandmother house in Jackson, and an aunt in Arkansas. At the age of 12 he had only had one formal year of education and it was in saloons, railroad yards and streets that he grasped the facts about life under white subjugation, about fear, hunger and hatred.
His mother’s long illness taught the young boy about suffering toughening his inner spirit and imparting him unique attributes of alertness, an independent spirit that ultimately made him a ‘bad boy’ of the family and a victim of endless beatings and admonitions cost him numerous jobs.
Eventually, Richards learns how to survive in a world of white hostility, secretly nourishing his craving for books and knowledge until the time came when he could follow is dream of justice and opportunity in the north.
Black Boy is thus a story about hunger both metaphorically and literally. The story is a tale of life-long struggle with hunger. The young Richard suffers from hunger not only from food but also for acceptance, love and an understanding of the world around him but most importantly Richard possesses an insatiable hunger for knowledge.
Richard’s struggle with hunger starts within the family, which was never able to provide everything that a family was supposed to provide like love, security and acceptance. He seems to be some kind of an outcast in his own family where adult members oftentimes argue with him and want as little contact with him.
His struggle with his family is epitomised by his interactions with Aunt Addie who is also his schoolteacher who makes life difficult for him like when she accuses him of leaving shells all over the floor in school. Richard is punished at school and also wants to punish her at home even when she realises that it’s not him who had left the shelves.
It is after this incident that aunt Addie decides not to speak to Richard, to which he responds: “I was conscious that she had descended to my emotional level in order to rule me, and my respect for her sank” (page 110). His relation with Aunt Addie makes him feel like an outsider and on occasions when the family tries to embrace him, he is highly suspicious of their motives.
However, despite the apparent emotional distance that he feels towards his family and despite the antagonistic and demoralising experience in the home, Richard is able to maintain his hunger for a better life and one that he could better understand.
The protagonist is not even able to satisfy his hunger for acceptance among his peers. The other black boys that he interacts with are unable to understand Richard’s attitude and he also fails to comprehend theirs. As a result, Richard fails to fit in both at home and outside the home mainly because of his inability to concede to their point of view.
“I longed to be among them, yet when with them I looked at them as if they were a million miles away. I had been kept out of their world for too long to ever to be able to become a real part of it” (Page 151).
His hunger for acceptance agitates his hunger for understanding, since it exaggerates his inability for understanding why he is unable to fit in anywhere.
The major reason why Richard fails to fit in the wider realm of the American society is caused by his inability to understand the racial divide between blacks and whites in the South.
Online Reporter