1. What are the advantages (both personal and political) of autobiography as a literary form? 2. What are the implications of the title of Black Boy? 3. What does Richard’s father come to represent in Richard’s life? 4. How does a pre-individualistic society reveal itself in Granny’s household? 5. Discuss […]
Read more Study Help Essay QuestionsCritical Essays Perspectives on Black Boy
Therefore, when Richard leaves the South in Black Boy, it marks a turning point not only in his own life, but in the history of black literature. Much of the theme of his autobiography is summed up in his essay, “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow,” in which he describes […]
Read more Critical Essays Perspectives on Black BoyCritical Essays Autobiography and Social Protest
Sartre, in his essay “For Whom Does One Write,” shows what is exceptional in Richard Wright’s work. He says, “each work of Wright contains what Baudelaire would have called ‘a double, simultaneous postulation’” that is, Wright is addressing himself to two different audiences when he writes. He is addressing both […]
Read more Critical Essays Autobiography and Social ProtestRichard Wright Biography
He arrived in Chicago during the Great Depression, worked at odd jobs, and drifted until his association with the American Communist party gave him roots of a kind. Since the age of twelve, Richard Wright had not only dreamed of writing, but had written. He was particularly attracted to the […]
Read more Richard Wright BiographyCharacter Analysis Granny
With her white face and black hair, her repressive religiosity and hot temper, Granny comes to represent everything that Richard must struggle to escape from. He and she are locked in warfare. It seems to be an irrational conflict at first, but soon it becomes clear that a clash of […]
Read more Character Analysis GrannyCharacter Analysis Nathaniel Wright
Richard’s father is only very briefly presented in the book, but the effect of his personality is strong. Richard never feels close to him; he is only frightened by him. At first, in Memphis, his sleeping habits interfere with the boys’ games and his temper is irrational. Later on, when […]
Read more Character Analysis Nathaniel WrightCharacter Analysis Ella Wright
It is difficult to get a clear impression of Richard’s mother. This is one of the difficulties in writing about people close to one; one is unable to see them as types. It is often simpler to treat such people only in subjective terms; that is, how does she affect […]
Read more Character Analysis Ella WrightCharacter Analysis Richard Wright
Because Richard is growing throughout the book, his character is always changing. The small child we see at the beginning is a far cry from the seventeen-year-old at the end; yet there is a fundamental core which remains the same. He is a rebel and, as such, an outsider, from […]
Read more Character Analysis Richard WrightSummary and Analysis Chapter 14
It is now only a matter of money and opportunity before Richard will go North. These problems are resolved because he has learned how to play the role which his family and white people expect of him. He can play it in spite of the tension and deception it involves, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 14Summary and Analysis Chapter 13
It has been said by Frank O’Connor, the Irish writer, that most writers have one thing in common: they both love and hate the place of their origins. Richard Wright certainly fits into this category; but it is only toward the end of his autobiography that the conflict in his […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 13