An Introduction to the Life and Writings of Richard Wright

1. An Introduction to the Life and Writings of Richard Wright

2. Richard Wright 1908- 1960

3. His Early Life • Born on a plantation near Natchez, Mississippi • Parents: Ella, a school teacher and Nathaniel, an illiterate sharecropper • Due to economy, family moved to Memphis • Father went from sharecropper to night porter • Father deserted family • Mother now worked outside of home • Richard and his brother Alan placed in orphanage • Six months later lived with Aunt Maggie in Arkansas

4. Early Life • Life with Aunt Maggie and Uncle Fred provided the family with stability and security • Uncle killed; moved to Jackson back to Arkansas • Mother suffered a paralytic stroke • Richard is not yet twelve years old • These early years were marked by fear and hardships

5. Education • Entered public school in Jackson in 1921 (13) • In 1925, he graduated valedictorian (9th grade) • Published a short story • Acquired a love for reading—learned how to educate himself • After graduation, held a few jobs • Dishwasher • American Optical Company • Fled South permanently in 1927: • …I headed North, full of a hazy notion that life could be lived with dignity, that the personality of others should not be violated, that men should be able to confront to the men without fear and shame, and that if men were lucky in their living on earth they might win some redeeming meaning for their having struggled and suffered here beneath the stars.

6. Mid Life Career • Chicago 1927-1937 • Postal Service; insurance agent • Published poetry • John Reed Club • New York 1937-1947 • Uncle Tom’s Children (1938)—not submissive • Native Son (1940)—protagonist Bigger Thomas • Black Boy (1945)—autobiography of his first 19 years of life

7. Later Life • Visits his father for the first time in 25 years • Last scene in Chapter 1 • Second marriage to Ellen Poplar, a white woman • Two daughters • 1947: Wright chose to exile himself from his native land permanently • Moved to France • Concerned for his family • Produced 8 books • Never saw US again but emotionally never left the United States --“scars, visible and invisible” • Died of a heart attack in Paris 1960 • Wife placed a copy of Black Boy in his hands

8. Black Boy • Original title: American Hunger • An autobiography that shook the fabric of the American Dream • Makes no direct appeal to end racism • Indirectly, analyzes the effects of racism • The original manuscript of the novel was a third longer than the published version as it included experiences in Chicago and New York

9. Themes • Violence • Beatings • Is it something from within or in his environment? • Fear • Dominant emotion among blacks in America • What does the opening reveal about his own fears? • Hunger • Personified in novel • Is hunger the most important thing in his life? • Parent vs. child • Brought about brutal mentality • What is his attitude toward his father?

10. Style and Language • Despite the grim and violent opening in Chapter 1, Wright uses poetic elements to describe his experiences • Personification • Symbol • imagery

11. Personification • Hunger had always been more or less at my elbow when I played, but now I began to wake up at night to find hunger standing at bedside, staring at me gauntly. • My father was a black peasant who had gone to the city seeking life, but who had failed in the city; a black peasant whose life had been hopelessly snarled in the city, and who had at last fled the city—that same city which had lifted me in its burning arms and born me toward alien and undreamed-of shores of knowing. • Each event spoke with a cryptic tongue.

12. Symbols and Imagery • Symbolic • Curtains=segregation; dividing different worlds • knew he had to tear it down but didn’t realize the effect it may have • Streets = a symbolic path of flight • Town to town; South to North • Imagery • “I pictured myself gasping for breath and dying in my sleep” • “The stone buildings and the concrete pavements looked bleak and hostile to me.” • “The absence of green, growing things made thecity seem death.”

13. Black Boy, Chapter 1 • Four years old • White curtains: set house afire • Fog of fear—”my mother had come close to killing me” • Follows anaphora/alliteration • Hunger---associated with father • Restlessness • Lesson learned