Struggle for Individuality Essay

The autobiography, Black Boy, follows the intent of Richard W pay off and his experiences as a young African American teenager facing racism in the S divulgeh. Throughout the novel, Wright focuses on the oppression society inflicts upon him. He incurs difficulty in remaining industrious because he does non do black or submissive enough. He is physic tout ensembley and emotionally attacked for macrocosm African American as the absolute majority of the South contains an extremely racist culture. Wright does not even bear his family to swear on for support because they criticize and pound off him as well. Differences within his family on with incidences of reddened attacks and disrespectful language plague Wright and try to deplete his trust and identity.However, Wright simultaneously finds measures within these aspects to get along put up his individuality and happiness. He fights back through violence to uphold his right of walking safely in Memphis he uses all of his a bility to avoid beatings from his family, and he finds joy and superstar of worth when he writes stories. Ultimately, Wright struggles to keep his horse good sense of identity in a society that degrades his persona, that patchages to obtain his individuality in the end.Through violence, Wright begins to take in that society is laying out a persona for him to accept that is not initially his. In the South, he learns he must accept the post as the meek and respectful nigger. Wright experiences violence one day that teaches him how washrags have him to act in the South. Wright recounts, The car stopped and the black-and-blue men piled out and stood over me. Nigger, aint you learned no better sensen that yet? asked the man who hit me. Aint you learned to say sir to a whiteness man yet? (181). Wright is smashed amid the eyes with a glass bottle when he does not dissolver a white man by sir.The repetition of questions from the white man illustrates the authority the white man impressions over Wright. The white man questions Wright as if he is an uneducated child. His word choice of sense portrays that saying sir to a white man should be common sense. After this incident, Wright learns rapidly how to attend white passel, to observe their all(prenominal) move, every fleeting expression, how to interpret what was tell and what left unsaid (181). He treats and studies white people delicately to visit that he does not upset the balance between the highercitizen and cut back citizen, and t presentof does not have to suffer their brutal consequences.As Wright learns he is un sufficient to act naturally, society gradually shapes him into what it thinks he should be. Wright recalls, all the violent expressions of hate and hostility that had seeped into us from our surroundings, came now to the surface to guide our actions (83). Wrights utilization of the h alliteration in hate and hostility emphasizes a heavy h sound to reinforce the thickness and greatn ess of their conflict, that their differences were not just on the surface, but blood deep. The s alliteration in the word, seeped, surroundings, and surface creates a low, rattling s sound to create a sense of savagery in their actions. As Wright grows, he begins to experience the separatism between white and black. He also begins to accept the role of an raging African American that society casts him to play. He learns that he must act as a quiet and obedient nigger as he is incessantly beaten whenever he acts otherwise.Wrights family also takes away his exemption to be himself as they consistently beat him. In one incidence, he tells of the time his Uncle Tom was infuriated with the way he speaks. His uncle says, I never heard a sassier black imp than you in all my life (157). Wright does not understand what he said or what he did premature yet his uncle is persistent in beating him, believing that Wright does not be how to live with people. Wright asks How long was I going t o be beaten for trifles and slight than trifles? (158). Wrights questioning of time illustrates the weariness he feels toward his family. He cannot provide any more beatings over trivial enumerates. Because of his family members, Wright is trapped in his grand gives home. He is unable to speak freely as his family members find him impolite. The one place that Richard Wright should feel comfortable, if nowhere else, is his own home, but he is so alienated by his family that he cannot. Wright feels that the only way he can escape his mental imprisonment is by moving to the North, thus creating the North as a symbol of hope.Language functions as a functionful device that portrays white women attacking Wrights individuality. When Wright searches for jobs and interacts withwhite people for the first time, he experiences a double consciousness how he views himself and how the white women view him. The language that white interviewers use is wound and depicts how unintelligent they grok him. After a few interviews Wright quickly learns the reality- a Negros reality- of the white world (148) as being thought of as dumb witted. The first woman illogically asks Wright if he steals to that white he thinks, simply an idiot would have answered Yes maam. I steal (146). When Wright answers. Lady, if I was a thief, Id never tell anybody, the lady bluntly states, Now, look, we fagt want a sassy nigger around here (145). The first interviewer seems to believe that black people do not have enough sense to lie about stealing, even when they are being interviewed for a job position. She considers a black person with common sense as a sassy nigger.The last interviewer finds it appalling that Wright cannot milk a terrify as she mentions, You mean to stand there, nigger, and tell me that you live in Jackson and dont know how to milk a cow? (149). She places Wright in the emboss that all black boys from Jackson know how to milk a cow. The fact that she demanded an answer i n surprise illustrates the disbelief she feels in finding one black person that cannot milk a cow. The white women stereotype Richard as an uneducated black boy with no aim of intelligence and skill.They insult his knowledge and strip him of his individuality believing that all black boys are the same. The white women demean him causing him to leave every interview. The portrayal of the white women labeling Richard Wright as another(prenominal) dumb nigger illustrates how narrow and similar they are to each other. Within Black Boy, language illustrates the racial resentment that the white women feel towards Wright for the color of his skin. Language acts as a device seizing Richards individuality and personal respect he obtains for himself.Although Richard Wrights relationship with violence, family and language teach him that he was no originator as an individual, Wright rebels and utilizes these same aspects in an effort to seek some sorting of control. Wrights mother is the fir st to offer him exponent through violence. Wright recalls, I was baffled. My mother was telling me to fight, a amour that she had neverdone forwards (17). After Wright fights off a group of boys with a stick and delivers his mothers groceries he says, on my way back I kept my stick poised for instant use, but there was not a single boy in sight. That night I won the right to the streets of Memphis (18). Although violence acts as a method to teach him of his lower fond stance in society, he is able to gain personal power though this same violence. After bearing those boys, he is able to walk freely by himself in peace.In addition, Wright gains power within his family as he refuses to be whipped. After his Aunt Addie whips him in class for walnuts that another boy had left he says, I was sure of one thing I would not be beaten by her again (107). numerous times throughout the novel Richards family relatives endeavor to beat him, but he refuses and with that gains power over them and individuality because he will not let them lay a single hand upon him. Wright recalls, Aunt Addie took her pop hard I was conscious that she had descended to my own emotional level in her effort to rule me, and my respect for her sank (110). After Aunt Addie tried to beat him for a fault he did not commit and fails, he begins to feel that he is on the same level of an adult.Furthermore, Wright is able to obtain power and individuality again through language. When Richard is younger he writes a portrayal about an Indian girl he says, I had never in my life done anything like it I had made something, no matter how bad it was and it was mine (120). Afterwards, Richard shows his written passage to his neighbor and her inability to cop what he had done or was trying to somehow gratified him (121). Being able to write gives Richard a strong sense of individuality since it is his creation. Writing the passage also gives Wright a surge of empowerment, as his neighbor cannot fathom why or how he did it.Throughout Black Boy, Richard Wright is inhibited as a person. He is expected to act as a subservient African American. He is insulted and degraded for merely possessing a different color of skin. Wright is self-effacing by society and learns this oppression when he is violently beaten by white people as well as his family. Wright quickly learns how white people view him as inferior when they insult his intelligence and stereotypehim as a person that will never amount to anything. Richard Wright is constantly belittled as a person, but he uses these same aspects to gain back his power as an individual. He fights a range of people, from a gang of kids trying to take his money to his own family relatives, in hostel to keep his sense of power. He writes short stories that bring him happiness and assertion and respect. Black Boy offers the life story of Richard Wrights battle against violence, family differences, and insulting language to uphold his individualit y and freedom to be himself against all forces.