How Does Richard Wright Use Weapons Against Man

Having grown up in a racist environment, Richard is rarely able to make decisions for himself. He feels his situation unjustified but, unlike most young blacks, he never submits to white authority. Richard reveals his desire for independence when he states, “‘Ought one to surrender to authority even if one believed that that authority was wrong? If the answer was yes, then I knew that I would always be wrong, because I could never do it. Then how could one live in a world in which one 's mind and perceptions meant nothing and authority and tradition meant everything?’”

Richard has always felt the unjust of race, and has felt how segregation made it hard for him to have a future. But when he gets a chance to get revenge on the whites, he refuses when he thinks ”Who wanted to look them straight in the face, who wanted to walk and act like a man.(200)” Stealing went against his morals of the right way to succeed and would not help the community appearance to the whites. The community as a whole is very religous but Richard does not share these beliefs, even with the persistence of his friends and family he says ”Mama, I don't feel a thing.(155)” This caused his friends to beg him, but in face of rejection they leave him alone.

One day Richard sees his boss and the son are beating a black woman because of her loan. His boss and the son see him at the near store. They hand in a cigarette to show their ‘gesture of kindness’ and worn Richard to ‘keep his mouth shut’ (180). This shows Richard’s ability to analyze the hidden meaning behind something and able to react appropriately in the south. Richard is tired of being a ‘non-man’, so he decides to go to the north.

“I was learning rapidly how to watch white people, to observe their every move, every fleeting expression, how to interpret what we said and what we left unsaid” (Wright 181). Richard uses his observation of whites to guide himself on how to act and react around white people. For example he must agree with the whites even if he truly disagrees. For example he must agree with the whites even if he truly disagrees. “I answered with false heartiness, falling quickly into that nigger-being-a-good-natured-boy-in-the- presence-of-a-white-man pattern, a pattern into which I could now slide easily” (Wright 234).

The world is very crucial and it is best to avoid the obstacles in our path and move on. To begin, Richard Wright’s Black Boy portrays society and class in numerous subjects. Violence, racism, and discrimination are some of the many ways society and class was demonstrated in the novel. When he was little, Richard has faced terrors a young child should never interfere with.

The novel Black Boy by Richard Wright exhibits the theme of race and violence. Wright goes beyond his life and digs deep in the existence of his very human being. Over the course of the vast drama of hatred, fear, and oppression, he experiences great fear of hunger and poverty. He reveals how he felt and acted in his eyes of a Negro in a white society. Throughout the work, Richard observes the deleterious effects of racism not only as it affects relations between whites and blacks, but also relations among blacks themselves.

Growing up in the American education system, Richard views life and education very differently than his parents. This leads to numerous disagreements with the values his parents have. One argument with his mom that really that was critical was when

That’s gone… The chief and Roger, they hate you, Ralph. They’re going to do you. They’re going to hunt you tomorrow… They’ve sharpened a stick at both ends.”

Early in his life, Richard Wright learned from his mother that in order to survive, he must, at all cost, avoid conflict the white males who had control in his future. This lesson was reiterated several times throughout his educational experiences and social situations. Richard Wright learned to play a dual role which he thought every Negro must play if he wanted to eat and live, to act subservient while at the same time work the system to his benefit. Richard used this method when he wanted to read library books while living in a social environment that concluded that minimally educated Negroes had no need for books. Richard mustered all of his courage and requested the help of a Catholic white man, who also experienced discrimination by

Richard Wright’s father (Nathan Wright) has impacted and shaped Richard by making Richard’s young life full of anger, sorrow, and sadness and his grown life full of skepticism, regret, and emptiness. This is shown when Richard briefly writes about his father. Wright recalls and describes what his father looks like to him as well as how their relationship was, “He was the lawgiver in our family and I never laughed in his presence. I used to lurk timidly in the kitchen doorway and watch his huge body sitting slumped at the table….He was quite fat and his bloated stomach always lapped over his belt. He was always a stranger to me, always somehow alien and remote”

Since they do not earn a decent wage, they don’t have the minimum amount of luxury in their lives. They are deprived of homes, food and other essential necessities. The effect of racial discrimination discloses on Wright in the guise of starvation. As a child, Richard could not grasp the concept of racism. But when he grows up, he acknowledges why he and his sibling need to feast upon the leftover sustenance of the white individuals.

Brother Hinton was attacked with nightsticks. His scalp was split open…” (X 238). The police, who had been breaking up a fight between two black people, attacked Hinton merely because he did not run away as ordered. The police’s use of violence suggests that he believed it was acceptable for him to start violence, but not other

It shows that his dad does not care for him. Similarly, Johnny’s parents ignore him most of the time, but when they do acknowledge him they are beating him. Johnny even says, “‘ I think I like it better when the old man is hittin’ me.” Johnny sighed. “At least I know he knows who I am”’ (51).

In the essay “Fighting Back,” author Stanton L. Wormley Jr. explains that developing the instinct to fight back diminishes the ability to forgive. He supports this explanation by first establishing credibility with his personal experiences, then captivates the audience by presenting a powerful question, “Was I less of a man for not having beaten my attacker to a bloody pulp?” (Wormley 1). Wormley’s purpose is to illustrate the unnecessity of violence in order to also make a political statement to our country’s government. He builds a formal tone for an audience of minorities and majorities.

In the first chapter of Beverly Tatum’s, “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”, And Other Conversations About Race, the author immediately clarifies that racism is not a thing of the past. People in today’s society are merely raised with racial concepts at such a young age that they do not realize the injustice going on around them. She reinforces her statement by showing an example of a group of preschoolers who were told to draw a picture of a Native American. Most of the children didn’t even know what a Native American was, but after being told to draw an Indian, complied. Recurring elements in all of their drawings were feathers, along with a violent weapon, such as a knife.