& # 8242 ; S ( Black Boy ) Essay, Research Paper

The Oppression In The 1900 & # 8217 ; s

Everybody, one time or more times in his or her life has been oppressed by others or themselves. Such is the instance of Richard Wright in Black Boy, his autobiography. He was born in 1918 at the clip of segregation and favoritism. The scene of this novel is in the deep South of Jackson, Mississippi where inkinesss are abused by Whites. The clip is 1912, two old ages before World War I. The temper of the novel is dramatic. Richard Wright is the supporter. The adversaries are the people who oppress him. Some of them are his ain household members. The minor characters are the people he meets when he moves to Memphis. Through other people he realizes the unfairness of Jim Crow Torahs. The struggle happens Richard battle against subjugations from others. The flood tide of the novel takes topographic point when he wants to larn and additions more cognition by reading more books, but he is afraid that the white people will happen out about it. As a consequence, he hides the books under the newspapers when he goes to work so people will non see it. The declaration occurs when he decides to state his foreman that he will travel to Chicago. Richard Wright & # 8217 ; s character is affected in early childhood by the effects of social subjugation every bit good as internalized subjugation, but he became a great American writer despite these negative factors in his life.

The first clip that Richard faces social subjugation is when he and his female parent visit Granny in Arkansas. This is how he describes it. & # 8221 ; for the first clip I noticed that there were two lines of people at the ticket window, a & # 8216 ; white & # 8217 ; line and a & # 8216 ; black & # 8217 ; line. During my visit at Granny & # 8217 ; s a sense of the two races had been born in me with a crisp concreteness that would ne’er decease until I died I was cognizant that we Negroes were in one portion of the train and that the Whites were in another & # 8221 ; ( 55 ) . This transition shows how he feels about the segregation for the first clip he sees it. Even though his female parent has ne’er told him about the ill will between inkinesss and Whites, he finds out through the older male childs in the pack. During a conversation with them, he heard one of the male childs says,

& # 8221 ; & # 8216 ; they send you to war, make you cream them Germans, learn you how to contend and when you come back they scared of you, want to kill you & # 8217 ; & # 8221 ; ( 90 ) . This is precisely how inkinesss feel toward the Whites. Black people are sent to Europe to decease for their state. When they come back, the Whites do non even change their attitude toward inkinesss. Alternatively they set up an organisation called the Ku Klux Klan. In the school twelvemonth of 6th class, Richard takes a occupation that sells newspapers, but a adult male in his vicinity points out to him that the newspaper & # 8217 ; s publishing houses are the Ku Kluxers. Because in the newspaper, there are images shows that inkinesss are the people who will seek to destruct their society. So they say all Whites should form and destruct inkinesss. They think the white race is the superior race. They treat inkinesss like animate beings. For illustration, when a Canis familiaris of a foreman at the brickfield bites Richard. That foreman does non even care about the lesion. He says that a Canis familiaris can non truly ache a & # 8220 ; nigger & # 8221 ; . These illustrations supra illustrate how inkinesss have to cover with social subjugation in the South of the state.

Ever since Richard is small, people around him and particularly his ain household has beaten him for things he did non make. He is internally oppressed by them. They make him believe that it is right to crush him. One clip, when Richard is traveling to be beaten for throwing walnuts on the floor in the schoolroom even though he did non, he thinks to himself, & # 8220 ; I had frequently been distressingly beaten, but about ever I had felt that the whippings we

rhenium someway right and reasonable, that I was in the wrong” ( 118 ) . At that minute, Richard thinks that he deserves to be beaten. Another clip when Richard’s Grandpa passed off, his Granny tells him to give the intelligence to Uncle Tom who lives two stat mis off from their house. Uncle Tom instantly yells at Richard for deliberately flooring Uncle Tom with the bad intelligence. “I walked place easy, inquiring myself what on Earth was the affair with me, why it was I ne’er seemed to make things as people expected them to be done. Every word and gesture I made seemed to arouse hostility” ( 158 ) . In this transition Richard blames himself for non making what other people wanted even though it is non his mistake. ” no affair what [ he ] did [ he ] would be incorrect ” ( 158 ) . Richard begins to believe like what other people think. His self-esteem starts to decline down. He is believing that no affair what he does, people will state that it is incorrect. Then why should he worry about it? He is affected by other people’s credence of their subjugation. An illustration of this is when Richard offers to assist Bess in school, but she replies, ” ‘You think you can? ’ she asked, doubting” ( 234 ) . Right off, Bess thinks that a black individual can non make good in school, but she does non cognize that Richard is far more intelligent than she thinks he is.

Through social and internalized subjugation, Richard & # 8217 ; s personalities allow him to get the better of them. His features are alone and different, and in a manner, he is rebellious. At one clip, Richard fights back at Uncle Tom who is traveling to crush him for the manner he says the clip. & # 8221 ; & # 8216 ; I & # 8217 ; ve got a razor in each manus If you touch me, I & # 8217 ; ll cut you! & # 8217 ; & # 8221 ; ( 175 ) . This transition shows that Richard is rebellious and he is able to stand up for himself. He knows that he did nil wrong, so he should non be beaten for it. Besides being rebellious, Richard Wright has ever wanted to read and compose since he was a child. He has a sense of desiring to cognize and deriving cognition. For illustration, when Ella, a coloured instructor, was reading books Richard asks her to state him the narrative even though his grandma does non allow him read it. & # 8221 ; & # 8216 ; I don & # 8217 ; t care I want to cognize & # 8217 ; & # 8221 ; ( 46 ) . In this transition, it shows that he stands up for himself and for his ain rational wonder. Not merely that, he is willing to analyze. & # 8220 ; I studied dark and twenty-four hours and within two hebdomads I was promoted to the 6th class & # 8221 ; ( 138 ) . It foreshadows that he is a difficult worker and is autonomy. He does non allow anybody to state him to make it, but he does it all by himself. Before he moves to Chicago with his Aunt Maggie, he thinks about life in the South, the yesteryear, and the hereafter. In one of those ideas, he thinks about Shorty, an lift operator who sells himself daily for a few coins. He knows that he will ne’er make that. & # 8220 ; Neither could I of all time volitionally present myself to be kicked as Shorty had done. I would instead hold died than make that & # 8221 ; ( 276 ) . He has a batch of pride in himself. He will non take down himself before anybody. Through these character traits, they enable Richard to get the better of his subjugation and go what he wants to be.

In malice of all the subjugations that Richard Wright received over the old ages, he still can be a successful author. One of the subjects in this fresh Richard Wright tries to turn out is the rhythm of subjugation. Peoples oppress others because they have been internalized oppressed by another individual. Because they have been oppressed, they want to make the same thing to others. In the same manner, whites deliver the same hatred to inkinesss that they themselves receive from society. To Richard, this is a consequence of naturalism, which means that everybody & # 8217 ; s behaviour is shaped by the society around him or her. It is non their mistake, but the environment they grow up in.