"Black Boy"

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how "Black Boy", by Richard Wright, stands today, some sixty years after its initial publication, as still perhaps the most comprehensive and gripping look at racism in the American literary tradition. The paper analyzes how Wright believes that it would be virtually impossible to characterize American society in the absence of racism. The paper examines how the scar of slavery and its associated ideologies has generated a permanent underclass. The culture in which Wright grows up deliberately attempts to stymie his talents out of fear for what they might bring.

From the Paper:

"One of the most initially striking features of Wright's writing is that the title of his book represents one of the main, palpable themes throughout the novel. Black Boy is deliberately titled to indicate that yes, of course, this is the story of Wright's younger years, but also that for him, there can be no separation between being a child, and being identified as a black child. Put differently, Wright's fundamental argument is that at every stage of his young life, the people he encountered and the society he lived in were intrinsically unable to separate his identity from his race."

Sample of Sources Used:

• De Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1975.
• Frankenberg, Ruth. "Growing up White: the Social Geography of Race." From White Women, Race Matters: the social Construction of Whiteness. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998.
• Hakutani, Yoshinobu. "Creation of the Self in Richard Wright's Black Boy." From Richard Wright's Black Boy (American Hunger), edited by William L. Andrews and Douglas Taylor. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
• Lorde, Audre. "Age, Race, Class, and Sex." From Sister Outsider. Berkeley: Crossing Press, 1984.
• Prescott, Orville. "Review in the New York Times, Feb. 28, 1945, p. 21." From Richard Wright: the Critical Reception, edited by John M. Reilly. New York: Burt Franklin, 1978.

More papers on "Black Boy":

• Book Review # 122457 : "Black Boy" and Self-Identity"
• Analytical Essay # 131043 : "Authority as the Cause of Egoism and 'Black Boy'"
• Book Review # 96308 : "Black Boy"--A Review"
• Poem Review # 101089 : "The Little Black Boy"

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