Black Boy

Richard Wright's autobiography, Black Boy (written in 1937), is not a happy book. It is the story of a young black boy growing up in the South during the first quarter of the twentieth century. This Richard's father deserts him and his family when the boy is only four or five years old. By the age of six, Richard has become a drunkard that hangs out in local bars begging for drinks. As he ages, Richard moves from one bad situation to another. He is forced to survive horrible circumstances that are a result of bad decisions (both his own and other people's), health problems, and the social norms of the South during that era. Wright uses a variety of traditional and modern styles and themes to convey the story of his childhood.
One technique that Wright uses is various montage scenes. These really help to describe the passage of time, while still providing the reader with important details of Wright's childhood. These details help the reader to paint a picture of what life was like in the South, but does not force the reader to become bored. This is a technique that we haven't really seen in any of the more traditional readings that we have done so far. These writers would usually choose to use a single scene to describe nonessential details instead of using multiple quickly described scenes.
Wright uses many of the same themes that we have read in other books and stories. He focusses on the common themes of religion, lack of a father figure, the relationship between blacks and whites, and hunger/physical pain. However, Wright sometimes approaches these themes for completely different vantage points that what we are used to. For example, in many of our readings religion is seen as a source of security and inspiration. However, for Wright religion was a source of danger and insecurity in his life and his family. Also Wright describes the hunger and physical discomfort that he experiences due to his extreme poverty. However, Wright's own family is often responsible for the pain that he experiences (his mother, literally, almost beats him to death). Other narratives that we have read usually only focus on the violence that whites have done to blacks. The hunger that Wright describes does not only represent his physical needs, but it also symbolizes his desires to be accepted and loved by the people around him. Often Wright's family and associates either ignore him or do not accept him. Throughout the descriptions of these experiences, Wright reminds us of the hunger (both physical and emotional) that he feels.
The majority of the experiences that Wright describes are very unpleasant and negative. Considering this it is a little surprising that Wright choose to end his narrative with him "escaping" to the safety of the North. It makes the reading hope that his future will be better, but Wright says little to encourage this optimism.