Literature Analysis: "Black Boy"

1) The novel “Black Boy,” by Richard Wright is about a young boy, also the protagonist and author, named Richard Wright. This novel is about his life as an African American growing up in the South. Richard has to overcome many obstacles both personal and universal. Not only does Richard have to grow up surrounded by racism and discrimination, but he also has to deal with the problems rising between his family members. His father abandoned them and since that moment, Richard became use to the feeling of hunger. His grandmother and aunt made his life very difficult as well. Their strict religious beliefs made his education impossible to reach. The older he became, the more the family worried about his questioning of life. Eventually Richard left the house in search for a better life and to achieve his dream. We see Richard become more and more interested in becoming a writer. He manages to get many jobs and begins reading many books and articles. The one thing that we see always running through Richard’s mind is the confusion on racism.
2) The novel presents a large number of themes. I think the main theme is “the mysterious diffusion of power between whites and blacks.”
3) The author’s tone in this novel is melancholy and serious. He talks about all the misfortunes that he has had to face in his life all throughout the novel. Some examples are: “The meaning of life comes only from a –struggle with meaningless pain,” “I knew what was wrong with me, but I could not correct it,” and “Fear drowned out grief and that night we packed clothes and dishes and loaded them into a farmer’s wagon.”
4) Richard Wright’s writing was very appealing to me. It quickly caught my attention because he is straightforward and very detailed. Richard also used a variety of literary techniques. The most helpful ones were foreshadowing, analogy, dialect, diction, and personification. He foreshadows events by describing his goals and he also includes the Great Depression and WWII.
*”They’ll kill you if you go there! Whites folks say they’ll kill all his kinsfolks!”--- Dialect
* “As time separated me from the experience, I could feel no hate for the men who had driven me from the job.”---Personification
*”I was living in a culture and not a civilization and I could learn how that culture worked only by living with it.”---Diction