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The theme of this novel is very much connected to the theme in our class right now, which is discovery. In the novel Black Boy is about a young boy who grows up into a world of hatred and difficulty. His name is, Richard Wright. This young boy was born into the time of discrimination and un- lawfulness. Richard discovered many things early in life. He discovered he has to make his own decisions but also has to deal with the consequence.
Young children tend to always follow or believe whatever their parents tell them to believe or what their parents do believe themselves. Richard was not like this. He wanted to be a life long learner and not have to deal with the things of what his family believed. He knew who he was and what he wanted to be and he knew not anyone could stop him from doing that. While at church one day he said to his grandmother, "and he knew not anyone could stop him from doing that. While at church one day he said to his grandmother, "You see Granny, if I ever saw an angel like Jacob did, then I'd believe" (117).
He was talking about God and Richard had made up his own mind about what he wanted to believe in, even at an early age. Richard wanted to discover things for himself and didn't want others to tell him what was right or wrong he wanted the experience it for himself. He made a discovery throughout his life. In this novel there were many conflicts.
He fought with children his age and even his family. One that stood out the most was when Richard had moved to be on his own he was working at a factory. The men there tried to get Richard to fight this young man who was his age and was also black. They would tell Richard lies about what the other boy would say about him but when Richard approached him about it the young man said his co-workers were telling him the same thing. One day the young man came up to Richard as said, "They want us to fight four rounds for five dollars apiece" (240). Richard ended up fighting this young man but in this was conflict.
He had no reason to fight this man but for the pleasure of the white man who had instigated this whole thing so see some young boys throw some punches and bleed. He knew that if he didn't fight him that his job would probably be terrible and people would make fun of him or he would ultimately get fired. Richard also had morals and felt this was wrong and wanted to never do anything like this again. He discovered that fighting for him would never be an answer or resolution for him.
It was easy for Richard to know and discover what he wanted to do, but to actually get out there and do it took awhile. He followed through with what he wanted to do in life. He wanted to move away and live on his own and he did it then he wanted to get his mother and did it and so on. He took care of the big things and achieved all he had to do was put his mind to it.
Richard Wright's Grandmother was always mean to Richard and blaming him for all the things that went wrong in their house that they lived in. Richard would work for them and earn money but it was never good enough for his family. Richard could hardly ever make his own choices not even about his religion, his Grandmother never knew when to stop. When things were really going wrong in their house and Richards mother was very sick his grandmother blamed it on him once again. She always would bother him about his prayer and she said, . "Granny intimidated boldly, basing her logic on God's justice, that one sinful person in a household could bring down the wrath of God upon the entire establishment, damning both the innocent and the guilty, and on more than one occasion she interpreted my mothers long illness as the result of my faithlessness" (103). She would try to force him to pray and worship got but in reality he Richard had no desire in believing in God.
He wanted to make his own choices in what he understood. His grandmother's thoughts were that he corrupted the whole house by not believing but I think she knew deep down that wasn't really it. Her action in changing her grandson was the wrong way of approaching what she felt, instead a good idea would have been just praying for him herself and not ragging on him about it constantly. If she truly believed in God she should have known that if he's going to be a part of Gods followers that it will happen and she shouldn't have pushed it. In the book there were many instances of foreshadowing but one that stood out to me was that Richard always wanted to be a writer. Throughout this book Richard writes and writes he constantly writes stories and enjoys it.
One time in particular that you can tell that Richard is good and writing and wants to stick to it was when he had to give a speech. His principal said, "Listen boy, you " re going to speak to both white and colored people that night. What can you alone think of saying to them? You have no experience" (174) The principal wanted him to read a speech that the principal was going to write. Richard knew this wasn't right so he stood up for himself and said, "Professor, I'm going to say my own speech that night" (175). He knew that would be the good and right thing to do because it was a speech from him and he had written it.
He was glad to give his own speech and was proud in himself. Richard didn't like the fact that he couldn't do things well so he always set his mind to things and really was able to achieve them. He became a successful writer because he worked hard at it and never gave up even when he was young. This is what makes him who Richard Wright is today.
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