Summary Of Black Boy And Separate Pasts

In the autobiographies Black Boy and Separate Pasts, the authors illustrated how segregation affected people differently according to age. Black Boy written by Richard Wright depicted how life in the segregated South was for an African-American Boy in the early 1900s. Separate Pasts written by Melton McLaurin illustrated the life of a white American in a small segregated city in Wade, North Carolina in the 1940s and 1950s. While Black Boy demonstrated the hardships an African-American had to go through in order to live in the South, Separate Pasts illustrated the way a white American interacted and viewed African-Americans in his community. Segregation was much more lenient on younger children than adults. Adults were forced to abide

It is not until an incident occurs which Wright then learns a bit more about the way his society functioned. Wright learns that a white man beat a black man and explains, “ It was in this manner that I first stumbled upon the relations between whites and blacks, and what I learned frightened me”(pg.23). Although Wright is now exposed to the way whites and blacks behave, he still does not understand it very well. Wright questions the whole “white” and “black” notion, due to his grandmother looking like any other “white” person, but still not appearing “white” to Wright (pg.23).

Although Wright does not fully understand the way segregation works, he must demonstrate his hatred for the white folk in order to be accepted by his peers. As Wright grows older, he begins to conform to the ideas set by his society, “We were now larger enough for the white boys to fear us and both of us, the white boys and the black boys, began to play our traditional racial roles as though we had been born to them, as though it was in our blood, as though we were being guided by

As a teenager he began to notice girls more. McLaurin would find black girls to be attractive, but would never be with one. His reasoning was simple, “Black girls remained off limits, forever beyond my reach because I accepted the racial system that placed them there”(pg.81). Whites and blacks were not to have any relationship with each other. White males however would be forgiven because they simply couldn't resist the temptations of black women. Black men were not allowed to have any sort of relationship with white