My Black Boys are Lighting Up in the English Classroom!
I have read this book five times now, in my efforts to get high school students to walk into the past with this black boy and spend some meaningful time with him. It is me, however, who has been changed the most by Mr. Wright's seminal story, especially after my most recent reading. It made the places in which I reside and work alien; it allowed me to carve out a space and time for tears; it has allowed me to see awakened in my black students a new sense of self and place.
Richard Wright, I only know you through the lens of this book and your novel, Native Son, but if you can hear me somewhere: Thank you. You have been my father, my mentor, my teacher, and my icon. I am forever grateful for you and the legacy you left behind for other kinds of outcasts, like me.
Review #2
Grim, Captivating, and Inspiring
I first read Richard Wright's "Black Boy" as part of the required reading for English my freshman year in high school. Just out of personal interest, I decided to re-read it. It is one of the most enjoyable reads I've had in a while, despite its grim subject matter.
"Black Boy" is semi-autobiographical- the main events really happened, but Wright wrote it in the style of a novel, and probably took some literary license. At any rate, he starts his narrative at age four in Mississippi, and ends at his leaving the Communist Party in New York in his adult life. From the beginning, the reader is captivated by Wright's story-telling- his words and narrative style are engaging, naturalistic, and vivid. Wright tells how he grew up with a mother who was loving but did not hesitate to employ severe corporal punishment, and a father who blatantly abandoned his family and refused to provide any kind of support. The young Richard does not know the difference between "blacks" and "whites", until the culture of white supremacy in the south brutally forces it on him when one of his uncles is murdered by whites for his thriving liquor business. Richard gradually learns that blacks are expected to act in a subservient, deferential manner toward whites, and if they don't they risk violence, possibly leading to murder. Further, because of his family's situation, hunger is a constant and persistent foe- Wright tells of having to fight hunger pangs every day, and had to learn tricks such as oversaturating himself with water to temporarily relieve them. Richard and his family travel across the south, living with different relatives to either escape racism or find new employment.
From the beginning, Richard had an independent streak, and that got him into trouble on many fronts. First with the surrounding white culture- he has to fear violence if he is not respectful enough toward whites- and also with his family. He respects his mother, but he is strong-willed toward every other adult he comes across. At one point, his mother gets sick from stroke paralysis, and he goes to live with his Uncle Clark. One of Richard's cousins dies soon after he arrives, and he refuses to sleep in the bed that his cousin had slept in, for fear of there being a ghost. Richard insists on leaving, even though he knows it will mean more hunger pangs. In addition, when Richard is the valedictorian of his class, he refuses to read the prepared speech the principal gave him. The biggest conflict with his family in the book is with his grandmother and Aunt Addie, strict Seventh-Day Adventists who do their best to mold Richard according to their religious doctrines. They do not succeed, and Richard persists in saying that he cannot feel religion. At one point, he says "the naked will to power always seemed to walk in the wake of a hymn."
Despite all of the problems he faces in growing up, Richard takes a great interest in reading and writing, and eventually aspires to be a writer. Specifically, he is struck be realist and naturalist fiction, (Crane, Dreiser, Zola, etc), since its portrayal of life as it really is, and the ways people struggle and maintain their dignity in the midst of it, resonates powerfully with him. Eventually, after increasingly feeling the hateful white supremacy around him after he reaches young adulthood, Richard, since he cannot figure out how to play the deferential role, he realizes that he will either be killed or will have to leave. After saving up some money, and getting the extra needed through a movie ticket scam in Memphis, he and his family move to Chicago, right on the brink of the Depression. From there, he begins writing for a literary magazine, Left Front, and joins the Communist Party. He initially sees a lot of hope in it, but since the Party condemns books they haven't read, and he perceives them as enforcing dogmatic loyalty, he cannot stay with it. Further, his comrades in the Party are distrustful of him for being an intellectual, and teaching himself how to read, which Richard finds incredible.
The most enjoyable aspect of Black Boy is Wrights's humanism- both literary and philosophical. He expresses solidarity with literature as a way of expressing human aspirations, and Wright's own message is the need for people to come together and reject oppressive institutions- whether religion, state, or social bigotry.
Review #3
Uninspiring and boring, sorry that's how I feel about it
I do not deny that what the author went through was horrible, but this book is not at all interesting. The first part was okay, but later on it just drags on and on and I failed to see the point of the book. At the end it just became a collection of rants and blames. I've read plenty of other books describing people enduring hardships, but those books are actually inspirational instead of whiny.
