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Racial Injustice In Richard Wright's Black Boy

540 Words3 Pages

Throughout the history of America we have had times disturbing to think about. The time of racial injustice is definitely one of those times. The book, Black Boy by Richard Wright is an autobiography that takes readers back in time to the life of a young, ordinary, colored boy from the south just living a normal colored life. As a “Negro” from the south many families were extremely poor. Richard was no stranger to poverty, “Hunger was with us always. Sometimes the neighbors would feed us or a dollar bill would come in the mail from my grandmother.” (Wright, page 28) Poverty caused many people to go without food, sometimes for days. Jobs were hard to find and if you did get a job it had long hours and almost no pay. Wright spent many long, agonizing nights without eating dinner. This was reality for many. Richard goes through a large transformation throughout the book. He hit many rough patches throughout his life but always kept a good mind-set as he trudged through the swamp of life. “They lived on the surface of their days; their smiles were surface smiles, and their tears were surface tears. Negroes lived a truer and deeper life than they,” (Wright, page 271) Here he reveals to the reader not only that …show more content…

As the reader I felt as though I was Richard as he took the kitten and hung it, I could see and feel all that he did throughout the novel which was a real seller for me. If I could have changed anything throughout the novel I would have put more dates into the book so that the reader was eligible to not only feel and see but also to have the knowledge of date. I for one like to know what the date is. America has had struggles with Vietnam, Gaining Independence, and many other scenarios but we are never to forget the struggle of all the colored people during a very dark time when racial injustice loomed over the place we call

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