Black Boy

Mar 01, 2009 brian rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

i’m in the minority (minority. heh heh.) in finding this book superior to ellison’s invisible man. it might not be as daring, perhaps, might lack the touch of modernist irony, but sometimes you shove all that aside and recognize a great book for just being a great book -- something i defy all y’all in saying ellison’s book is not!

the other night a friend told me this joke:

a black guy, a jew, and a mexican walk into a bar.
the bartender says, “get the fuck out!”

now it’s all in the delivery, but...more

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Apr 03, 2013 ·Karen· rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: usa

Professor Amy Hungerford points out in her Open Yale lectures:
http://academicearth.org/lectures/ame...
that there is a certain amount of well-founded doubt as to the absolute accuracy of this work as an autobiography. Wright, however, does not claim this as his life, but rather as a Record of Youth and Childhood, the tale of a Black Boy growing up in the Southern States between the two World Wars. Thus a generic life. There can be no doubt whatsoever about its emotional authenticity. I read this...more

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Apr 04, 2008 Kristen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I felt something shift in me as a reader as I neared the end of Wright’s autobiography. Where he began relating his experiences of, and delineating his theoretical disagreements with, the Communist party in Chicago, my experience of reading became less interactive, less organic, and to some degree, less interesting. I think I stopped making personal connections to the material. I was no longer reading to discover what feelings, ideas, or insights his story would incite in me. Instead, I began en...more

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Dec 19, 2007 Kris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: general-fiction

During some sort of standardized test in high school one of our reading comprehension sections included a section of this book. It was the section where young Richard Wright (living in Alabama?) wanted to read libraby books, but couldn't check books out of the library because he was black. Wright went to the one person in the office where he worked as a janitor who might be sympathetic--because the man was Catholic and also suffered from slights from the other white Southerners. Wright had to as...more

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Jan 27, 2008 Emily Loeb rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Black Boy is the book that made me fall in love with reading. I was in Italy with my family on spring break and I was required to read Black Boy for my english class. This book pulled me in. I remember walking around Italy with my nose in the book, barely looking up. I made my step-dad stop in a bookstore so I could buy more books by Richard Wright. I read Native Son next. As Black Boy is Wright's autobiography, I was enthralled with Richard Wright's life and how he was able to escape the hardsh...more

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Oct 30, 2012 Jim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels, yale-291, read-in-2012, auto-and-biography, lrp-going-further, author-north-american

I hovered back and forth between 3 and 4 stars for a few minutes and chose 4 so I would not look like I was a racially-biased reader, and it occurred to me that much of what Wright explores in this autobiography must still be in play.

The events of the book cover Wright's life from about age four in 1912 Mississippi through the mid-1930's in Chicago. Throughout, Wright recounts his endless failures to truly understand people - black and white - and his inability to be understood in return. His d...more

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May 08, 2009 Michelle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Richard Wright grew up in the woods of Mississippi amid poverty, hunger, fear, and hatred. He lied, stole, and raged at those around him; at six he was a "drunkard," hanging about in taverns. Surly, brutal, cold, suspicious, and self-pitying, he was surrounded on one side by whites who were either indifferent to him, pitying, or cruel, and on the other by blacks who resented anyone trying to rise above the common lot.

Black Boy is Richard Wright's powerful account of his journey from innocence t...more

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Nov 06, 2008 Samantha Lazar rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: informational, multicultural-literature

This book is an autobiography about Richard Wright's life. He grew up in the Jim Crow South in terrible living conditions. He was separated from his mother many times because she could not afford to provide for Richard and his brother, he was physically beaten, and verbally abused because of his race. Some parts of the book move rather slow, but for the most part, I really enjoyed reading it. It is so sad to see how people were treated because of their skin color. Ignorant people need to learn c...more

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Mar 26, 2009 Maureen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biographical-memoir, classic-lit, non-fiction

Every so often I will personally discover a story (not just "know" about it), written before my time, that opens up a world of enlightenment and gives answers to questions I didn't realize I had. Black Boy, the autobiographical memoir of author Richard Wright, is one of those novels. Originally, Black Boy was published as two separate novels (Black Boy and American Hunger). The first dealing with his childhood through late adolescents in the south. The second begins with Wright realizing his dre...more Every so often I will personally discover a story (not just "know" about it), written before my time, that opens up a world of enlightenment and gives answers to questions I didn't realize I had. Black Boy, the autobiographical memoir of author Richard Wright, is one of those novels. Originally, Black Boy was published as two separate novels (Black Boy and American Hunger). The first dealing with his childhood through late adolescents in the south. The second begins with Wright realizing his dream of moving north and his experiences in Chicago right before and during the Great Depression era rise of Communism.

Black Boy is one of those "quotable" books, where almost every chapter contains words and phrases that touch your heart and mind. Wright shares experiences and insights that are so brutally and shamelessly honest, they delve into the most sacred and sensitive places of the human experience, and almost any reader can identify with timelessness of his intense struggles and small, infrequent joys.

While reading/listening to Wright's memories, I learned more than I ever wanted to know about the horror of the early 20th century south. During this time all Southern blacks lived in fear of the "White Terror." While reading this memoir I realized that to fully understand modern social policies and the impact and meaning these policies have on the African American community, it is necessary to look closely and far into the past of our racist history, prior to the familiar events of the Civil Rights Movement. By holding nothing back, by being open despite the pain and suffering he endured, Wright helps us to understand the true criminality of the Jim Crow laws of the early 1900's. It wasn't just about having to sit in the back of the bus. It was about being treated less than human on a daily basis. It was about being born into a profound hopelessness that could not be fought. It was about a people who were denied the experiences and education necessary to even be able to articulate this hopelessness. Where oppression was accepted as a fact of life.

Before I read Black Boy, I had never considered the lure of Communism to the African American citizens in cities during the Great Depression. The Communist Party's doctrine of equal rights, regardless of age, race, or gender must have been an irresistible hope to the Blacks who lived in such a dehumanizing time. Wright tells us through his writing how economically poor Blacks and Whites alike where first seduced, then disillusioned, by the Red movement in the North. While the social doctrine was more humane, the economic and political policies, often enforced through fear and alienation, had meant that individuals were expected trade their personal identities, dreams, and aspirations, for the hope of more safe and "equal" community. Wright realized through his experiences in the "Party" that he was trading one form of bondage was for another.

The beauty of Black Boy, is that Wright, a long deceased southern black man, who was the grandson of slaves, can artfully narrate his coming of age discoveries, raw emotions, and questioning spirit in a way that can connect with the experiences and thoughts of a 21st century, white, thirty-something woman.

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Feb 04, 2009 Mario added it · review of another edition

The book i have finished reading is called Black boy by Richard Wright. This book is an auto biography and is about a boy named Richard Wright who grows up in a poor black family.when he was growing up his father leaves his family and never comes back. Richard had no father growing up in negative neighborhoods which turned him into a violent child.

Richard Wright grows up in the time of racism and struggless threw impedimenta to reach his American dream. In life he has went threw different phas...more

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Jan 09, 2009 Erick rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The book I’m reviewing is Black Boy by Richard Wright. It’s nonfiction story based on Richard Wright's life. Wright’s main theme is the hunger. The story takes place in Natchez, Mississippi and around year 1921. Richard starts off as a young kid, who was bored at the time. He decides to burn the curtains and the blaze burns down the house. Richard struggles due to problems with his family, and the fact that they can't seem to get along. It all begins with his father. After Richard’s family has f...more

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Dec 13, 2008 M.C. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008-2009

There is an eerily familiar aura about Black Boy that makes it relevant to a reader of any era. Though the issues Wright writes about are to a number of optimists in this age bygone acts of barbarism--corruption, racism, sexism--the idea of the human psyche as a bilateral entity composed of both the elements that perpetuates and those that ends the yearning for humanity remains disputed.

It is interesting to think about why Wright chooses to not thirst but hunger to represent the desire to be hu...more

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Jun 06, 2013 Chance Jimenez added it · review of another edition

This book is about Richard Wright's life. He didn't have much growing up as a kid.The story takes place in Mississippi around the 1900's. In the beginning of the book he was a young boy always bored with not much to do but let time go by. He decides to set the curtains of his home on fire wich he ends up burning down his whole house until its just ashes. down of his house his entire house. Him and his family couldn't get along and never did either. His family had financial problems and it reflec...more

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Jun 03, 2013 Felicia Caro rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Richard Wright's novel Black Boy, written in 1944, is a nonfiction story about the chaotic ruined patchwork of personal history. The life of the main character and author of the book, Richard Wright, is filtered by a cyclical survivalism tied to the overarching theme of the oppressed. The entirety of Black Boy is probably about the inescapable stagnancy of being forever in a placeless psychological geography, while Wright is moved by his own character's will for self in the city of Chicago.

Black...more Richard Wright's novel Black Boy, written in 1944, is a nonfiction story about the chaotic ruined patchwork of personal history. The life of the main character and author of the book, Richard Wright, is filtered by a cyclical survivalism tied to the overarching theme of the oppressed. The entirety of Black Boy is probably about the inescapable stagnancy of being forever in a placeless psychological geography, while Wright is moved by his own character's will for self in the city of Chicago.

Black Boy writes cleverly, and honestly, about his undirected naivety. I couldn't help but feel somewhat numb in trying to comprehend the books' politics, of which, if read with any subjective sympathies, there is none. There are few sensual moments in the book (short, intense encounters with lovers, a couple ladies on two separate occasions, if I remember correctly), reminding the reader what it might mean to be intimate in a completely civil world). Richard also brings a smooth intellectualism to the story, by describing the horrifyingly ridiculous events of familial life, past and present, as a depiction of the backdrop for the long periods of hellish labour to follow, finally ending in his adult affiliations with the Communist Party. It is a truly sad book, especially with the weight it bears on the negative symptoms humanity sometimes offers. It's saving facet is a push toward, perhaps, the betterment of an ignorant mankind.

Richard Wright is making the reader 'sink' into the mud of a frenetic childhood and come up against the unwilling approach to socialism through writing. He brings the reader into the unbreakable reality of what it means to work for one's life amidst crowds and individuals that may not belong to our particular notion of family, stating: "My environment contained nothing more alien than writing or the desire to express one's self in writing" at the end of Chapter 4.

The novel is almost asking us to answer the questions that Richard cannot answer himself. However, the writing makes clear the story is indeed a presentation of the odds and ends of religion and politics during one of the most paradoxically unendurable phases that might be called "coming of age" if not for the author's dedication to the ethical as a universal tenant.

One could easily become immersed in the continuum. Richard's story begins with his angry youth in which he sets his house on fire. What remains a mode of progression throughout is Richard's habit, sometimes along with family, of searching for a grounded escape, perhaps disguised as necessity - food, money, job searching. It can be reacted to simply. In the first person, this happened, then this happened, which made me do this, shows the basic work-logic of the novel. Progress is either hidden or nonexistent. It is easy, maybe for the minority, to sympathize with the coolness of Wright in the face of a present encapsulated by the inability to dream from one's shrinking past, especially in this particular instance: Chicago undergoing modernity and industrialization. In other words, Wright's history as an individual here quite clearly repeats itself, if only to illuminate an emotional texture.

In Chapter 13 Richard willingly picks up a newspaper while waiting in the lobby at work and something negative written on the newspaper triggers his curiosity. "MENCKEN IS A FOOL." Richard Wright becomes fascinated by the article for the simple fact of someone being showcased so awfully. Richard's intrigue is stimulated when he wonders what happened to cause the publication. He goes to the library after borrowing the identification card of a ranked official, and begins to actually research and read. We can only assume how Richard Wright learns to read, as he begins to meet fellow men in search of what it is to be a Negro in America. What is worldly is the novel's underlying question. Why intellectual is the unanswered statement. And by the end, he becomes the writer he's always had to be.

All of Richard's memories are pushed forward chronologically by his ability to comprehend his oppression only through a dialogue of violence as well as his talent for presenting a calm antagonism through his writing. He dwells for years throughout the city of Chicago, leaving occasionally to live with members of his extended family, but always meeting practically anyone offering hope back home. The book is tragically separated from entertainment, and might be read as a narrative sped up, tired, and un-relentless. If there is any innocent laughter found, it is inherently connected to Richard Wright's down and out expose of his childhood into maturity, living in an un-pretty atmosphere. What else would it be connected to? And because of its own power, corrupt or not, should we want anything more? (less)

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Apr 07, 2013 Carole rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2013

Richard Wright's autobiography had the same stunning impact on me as it did when I first read it 40 years ago. His account of his childhood in the South is gripping in its portrayal of poverty, ignorance, and hopelessness.

How Wright managed to educate himself through extensive reading despite the very negative attitude toward reading in his family was an unbelievable accomplishment for which I feel great admiration. How he became a successful writer ("Black Boy" was chosen as a Book-of-the-Mont...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Luis added it · review of another edition

Can you imagine the horror of burning down your family's home at four?
Richard Wright as a child accidentally set fire to the curtains while playing with fire, which burned the whole house down. Wright allows for you to see this in your mind vividly. I could imagine this fear by experience of accidentally setting a chair on fire. Richard would soon see his fate with the turmoil his family was already in.

In "Black Boy" by Richard Wright he present his own autobiography as a African American man an...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Jake Sanderson added it · review of another edition

Richard Wright's Black Boy is based on his life. The story takes place in Mississippi around 1927. At the time he was a young boy always bored with not much to do but let time go by. He decides to set the curtains of his home on fire which led to the burn down of his house his entire house was reduced to ashes. His actions reflect the problems he is having with his family. They simply just can not get along with each other. His family has major financial problems he notices the food for him star...more

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Mar 05, 2013 Brentbased rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After taking a glimpse at Native Son I was became avidly eager to read another book written by Richard Wright. In black boy Richard Wright gives an autobiography on him a young lad progressing onward. He grew up in poverty, living day by day learning new things about other people along with himself.
With no surprise in the very first several pages i became engulfed into the book just as his house did. I mean you don't hear about a 4 year old boy setting their house on fire everyday. His life was...more

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Jan 24, 2013 Tiana Demers rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Black Boy by Richard Wright is an autobiography that covers his life in the south, from Memphis, Tennessee to Missisippi where he had migrated from. Richard Wright grew up in poverty, hunger, fear, and hatred. Wright felt the need to steal, and lash out other around him. He killed and tortured animals because he was angry at the world. When he was six he hung around bars and always got drunk. Wright was a boy in the Jim Crow american south. This system treated blacks as second-class citizen. Wr...more Black Boy by Richard Wright is an autobiography that covers his life in the south, from Memphis, Tennessee to Missisippi where he had migrated from. Richard Wright grew up in poverty, hunger, fear, and hatred. Wright felt the need to steal, and lash out other around him. He killed and tortured animals because he was angry at the world. When he was six he hung around bars and always got drunk. Wright was a boy in the Jim Crow american south. This system treated blacks as second-class citizen. Wright was a very defiant child, when he was little he nearly burned his families house down because he liked to play with fire. He was nearly beaten to death by his mother because of that incident. In this novel wright shares painful, and hurtful memories.

When Wright was young he was surrouned by many whites who teased, cruel, and indifferent towards him. Wright didn't understand why they acted that way towards him because he was still too young to understand. In the novel Wright explains how he felt he had many responcibilites when he was a child, he felt like he was treated as an adult, so he had to react like an adult. ""though i was a child, i could no longer feel as a child, could no longer react as a child." This is one of the saying Wright says. It explains that he felt overweighed by responsbilites. The violence Wright went throught left him crippled socially. He was a very lonley child, he didn't feel the need to talk to anyone. Most of the struggles he went throught was facing the whites, but thats what made him stronger in the end of the novel.

I don't recommand this Novel, I found it boring, it's not really my type of a book. I found myself dozing off through most parts of the book. I think people who like to read about slavery, and racism would really enjoy this novel because Wright talks about what he went through as a child, and how he had to face the whites every day of his life. He had to face all their criticism. But in my opinion that just made him stronger. I do have a lot of respect for RIchard Wright though, he went throgh alot as a child, teenger, and adult. But I wouldn't recommand this novel for people who like exciting books because this isn't very exciting. I think this book is for older people, or people who love history.(less)

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Jan 07, 2013 Wally Beddoe rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Richard Wright's Black Boy is an autobiographical story of a black boy growing up in the "Jim Crow" South in the early 1900's. Jim Crow Law supported segregation of the races and created obstacles to keep blacks from voting. Black Boy is a realistic look into what it was like from the perspective of young Richard who develops a driving intellectual hunger in the midst of a very tough, scary, and lonely childhood.

Physical hunger plagues young Richard and his family after Richard's father leaves...more Richard Wright's Black Boy is an autobiographical story of a black boy growing up in the "Jim Crow" South in the early 1900's. Jim Crow Law supported segregation of the races and created obstacles to keep blacks from voting. Black Boy is a realistic look into what it was like from the perspective of young Richard who develops a driving intellectual hunger in the midst of a very tough, scary, and lonely childhood.

Physical hunger plagues young Richard and his family after Richard's father leaves and abandons them in poverty. Richard observes white kids having all the food they need and wonders to himself why he is always hungry while others always have food. He is too naive to understand how skin color plays into privilege. At times, Richard's mother punishes him by denying him food and Richard suffers through hunger as a result of his 'bad manners'.

Wright uses hunger in the book to symbolize a thirst for knowledge, a need to understand his environment and to learn what it means to improve his life and opportunities. His Granny, a strict Seventh Day Adventist prohibits Richard from working on the Sabbath thus limiting Richard from making enough money to buy clothes, books, and lunch. Although excelling in grade school, Richard finds himself again hungry and lacking in comparison to his schoolmates. Richard takes many side jobs in an effort to increase his income. Richard finds a good job selling insurance to illiterate blacks living on plantations where Richard is shocked at the ignorance of the black families he meets with. Richard loses his job however when the insurance agent who hired him suddenly dies. Starting the seventh grade, Richard is again very hungry.

By eighth grade, Richard develops a great understanding of who he is and how he fits into the world. Richard wrote "At the age of twelve, before I had had one full year of formal schooling, I had a conception of life that no experience would ever erase, a predilection for what was real that no argument could ever gainsay, a sense of the world that was mine and mine alone, a notion as to what life meant that no education could ever alter, a conviction that the meaning of living came only when one was struggling to wring a meaning out of meaningless suffering." (100). While in eighth grade, Richard writes "The Voodoo of Hell's Half-Acre," a story that "stemmed from pure feeling." (165) but receives only negative feedback from family and from the black community. The short story created a kind of isolation of Richard from Society and people began to think he was strange. This really bothered Richard but his desire to write strengthened. By reading, Richard educates himself and continues to satisfy his hunger; he learns much more by reading than he does attending school.

After moving to Chicago, Richard gets a job in a medical institute where he sees white men receiving an education but when Richard tries to have his questions answered by the doctors, one tells him that his "brains might explode" should he know too much. "Color hate defined the place of black life as below that of white life," he explains. (266). Richard wonders if a black man will "ever live like a halfway decent human being in this goddamn country." (349)

Richard Wright's American Dream was fulfilled by his hunger of literature and knowledge and his undying efforts to make sense of the world he lived in. Richard best summed it up when he wrote "I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of the hunger of life that gnaws in us all, to keep alive in our hearts a sense of the inexpressibly human." (384). “It had been only through books- at best, no more than vicarious cultural transfusions—that I had managed to keep myself alive in a negatively vital way. Whenever my environment had failed to support or nourish me, I had clutched at books; consequently, my belief in books had risen more out of a sense of desperation than from any abiding conviction of their ultimate value. In a peculiar sense, life had trapped me in a realm of emotional rejection; I had not embraced insurgency through open choice. Existing emotionally on the sheer, thin margin of southern culture, I had felt that nothing short of life itself hung upon each of my actions and decisions; and I had grown used to change, to movement, to making adjustments.” (413)

Ever so often we see individuals who have such an inner-strength that they can catalyze a shift in thinking which eventually improves society as a whole. Like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., and Harriet Tubman, Richard Wright had a hunger, a vision of a better life experience for himself and others. He did not conform to the status quo but instead he adopted a lifestyle of educating himself to satisfy his hunger and burning desire to live life according to his American dream. (less)

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Dec 03, 2012 Wolfie Mac rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Black Boy by Richard Wright was an interesting, memorable autobiography, in my opinion, until it got to the thankfully shorter second part, which was full of very long paragraphs that were completely in parenthesis. (Honestly, I skimmed those parts as they seemed unrelated; just reflections from Wright when he wrote the book.)
Black Boy was very real: there was not too much suffering, but life was not totally great for Richard and his family. Wright did not start a pity party on how terrible his...more

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Dec 03, 2012 Grace rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think Black Boy, by Richard Wright is a well written memoir. Neil Genzlinger says that a memoir must "artfully reconstruct" memories and events of their life. When Richard is beaten he uses an anaphora to display the emotional and physical feelings he experienced. Hs repeated use of the phrase "I was.." shows the hysterical delusion consuming him. In Zinsser's opinion a memoir should have a "larger truth" to it. Although Richard writes about events in his childhood, he writes in great detail a...more

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Nov 30, 2012 Jesse LP rated it 2 of 5 stars

According to Zinsser’s and Genslinger’s review on what a good memoir is, I think that the book Black Boy by Richard Wright is okay memoir but generally not a very good memoir because his life is an mediocre life for most black Americans during that period of time. This memoir does not create meaning by imposing order on events as Zinsser states for a good memoir, yet he only talks about his life and calls for the reader’s and wants them to pity him. Richard Wright does not write something in whi...more According to Zinsser’s and Genslinger’s review on what a good memoir is, I think that the book Black Boy by Richard Wright is okay memoir but generally not a very good memoir because his life is an mediocre life for most black Americans during that period of time. This memoir does not create meaning by imposing order on events as Zinsser states for a good memoir, yet he only talks about his life and calls for the reader’s and wants them to pity him. Richard Wright does not write something in which we could learn or something that is not really ordinary, instead, he writes about how his family is poor and doesn’t have enough food for him to eat during the time when blacks and whites were still in segregation. That is an ordinary life of a black person, it’s not as if he was the only black person who experiences this and we could learn something from this. It’s nothing noteworthy or an unusual experience that we never heard of before. All of the black people during that time all experience segregation, poor, hunger. An example from the book that even shows that Richard Wright is not the only person who is experiencing all of these tragedies or feelings is when he talks about the kids at the orphan homes. The orphan homes are poor, the some of the orphans living in the orphan homes do not have enough to eat, and furthermore, they don’t even have a family or an actual thing to care for in life. Richard’s Black Boy book doesn’t really tell what is so significant about being this poor or hungry, he doesn’t tell us readers what is so important about his life that we should all know of, in other words, learn of and take that knowledge and be able to understand more about the people of his race, ethnicity, or families and people who are similar like him. His memoir also doesn’t really show the other side of life and perspective; he doesn’t show how the poorer people or the orphans in the orphanage may see his life. He only constantly talks about the bad and tragic things that happened in his life, the things that he doesn’t have that he needs, yet he doesn’t talk about how the orphans in the orphanage may see that his life is luxurious, being able to at least have some food, some safe and trustable environment to sleep in, and some family to at least live with and know that they will care for you. In Richard’s memoir, he mostly writes about the sad events, he doesn’t portray to the readers what he sees on the good side of life. According to Genzlinger’s review on writing a good memoir though, a good memoir consists of perspective and perceptiveness about life. The only things from Richard Wright’s Black Boy that makes a good memoir according to Genslinger’s review is that you can say that he is a brilliant writer for he is able to use strong rhetorical appeals (ethos and pathos). He was also a good writer in the communist party; he also grew up to be a writer writing many books including this one. Looking at a big picture overall, this memoir may be a memoir that is useless, a waste of time according to Zinsser and Genzlinger. If I were to rate this book on if the book was a good memoir on a scale of five, I would give this book a rating of 2, due to its lack of things that is needed for a good memoir, but it was still a great story and we were able to feel as if we were part of Richard Wright’s life all throughout the whole story.(less)

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Nov 30, 2012 Vivian Coria rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Richard Wrights , The Black Boy , Broadened my interest to his main character and the struggles he had to overcome while growing up in the Jim Crow south .

The theme of the story is Racism and how many never knew the struggles of a typical african american growing up during these tuff times . the thing that hooked me on this book was how the author wrote about the struggles he had in life . also the troubles his mother went through in trying to find a stable home and keeping food on , and keepin...more

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Nov 29, 2012 Hannah Mcewen rated it 1 of 5 stars

Hannah McEwen
November 29,2012
8th Period/HH English
Ms. Fritz
Black Boy Book Review

Black Boy: An “Eh” Memoir

Black Boy, a book about Richard Wright, an “writer” who struggles with problems of finding work, eating, and unusual scenarios. While the book sounds very interesting, I couldn’t keep an intrest at all. I usually like any type of books talking about or speaking on the subject of the American Struggle, especially when it is from a personal point of view. Richard Wright wrote the book as if he...more

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Nov 29, 2012 Nicole P rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Review of Black Boy
Overall I would say Richard’s life was way interesting and he wrote a good memoir. In “The Act of Craft of Memoir”, Zinsser said, “…beating back the past with grace and humor and with the power of language” (4). This has a rate on Richard’s memoir because Richard had many bad things happen to him and had gone through times many children didn’t. Richard never really went back to the past but took on his days day by day. Which actually could’ve helped him emotionally with solvi...more

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Nov 29, 2012 Leahking323 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In Richard Wrights Black Boy, there are good and bad aspects of memoir writing.

In William Zinsser, “The Art and Craft of Memoir”, he says, “..the new memoir at its best, it’s because they were written with love. They elevate the pain of the past with forgiveness”. In Richard’s book, he does elevate his pain of the past but not really with forgiveness. In chapter 8, Richard is now 17 years old and graduating 8th grade. When he leaves he thinks, “I did not want to see any of them again...The hell...more

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Nov 29, 2012 Selena Mei rated it 3 of 5 stars

The author, Richard Wright, wrote a memoir about his life called Black Boy. There was 2 other authors, William Zinsser and Nail Genzlinger, who wrote that they thought a good memoir should have and should not have. One thing they both agree on that a good memoir should not have is feelings of self-pity; a good memoir should not have anything that would have feelings that makes a reader want to pity Richard. But in Black Boy, Richard wrote some events that made it seem like he wrote it for pity t...more The author, Richard Wright, wrote a memoir about his life called Black Boy. There was 2 other authors, William Zinsser and Nail Genzlinger, who wrote that they thought a good memoir should have and should not have. One thing they both agree on that a good memoir should not have is feelings of self-pity; a good memoir should not have anything that would have feelings that makes a reader want to pity Richard. But in Black Boy, Richard wrote some events that made it seem like he wrote it for pity towards himself. On page 16, Richard wrote about how his father had left the family behind for another woman. He also wrote how his father was the one who supported the family, and provided them with food. But because the father left, the mother had to support Richard, Richard’s brother, and herself. To me, this seemed pitiful because Richard didn’t have his dad when he was a child. To make things even more pitiful, Richard included an event where his mother tried to make the father pay for child support (page 27). The family had no money, and because the mother couldn’t earn enough money to support the whole family, she sued the father to try to make the father give them some money. But sadly, she lost the case. To me, this is pitiful, because the mom tries her best to support Richard and Richard’s brother, but she just couldn't earn enough money. The father was heartless, and gave no money to help them out. Because Richard’s mother could not earn enough money to support the family, they were always hungry; they didn't have enough to eat (27-28). Worst of all, because Richard’s mom kept working, yet making very less money, she eventually grew ill and was paralyzed. Because the mom was sick all the time, Richard had to work to support the family, and he was a young child back then. Richard had to get money to buy medicine for his mom, but he could even barely afford to buy for them to eat. So, Richard and Richard’s brother had to stay at the orphan home until they got enough money to travel to his grandma’s house (28). Richard did not have a father to support him throughout his whole life. He didn't even receive enough to eat everyday; he would starve. His family had no money for food, and didn't have any money to pay for the rent, therefore, Richard had to live in the orphan home. To make things worst, his mother was ill most of the time when he was a child; he had to support the family. All these events to me are pitiful, and I think that Richard Wright, writing these events goes against what William Zinsser and Neil Genzlinger’s definition of what a good memoir should be; to contain no feelings of self-pity. But I still enjoyed the book even though some parts were difficult to understand.(less)

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Nov 29, 2012 Judy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Black Boy is a story about the childhood of the author Richard Wright during the 1900s. The book starts off showing Richard was a very curious child such as when he wondered how fire would look under a curtain, or the boat his mother had said they would go on. All his questions weren’t as complex as when he grew older. When he grew older, his questions were more on racism which is an obstacle because whites were trying to crush his intelligence. In his daily life, Richard struggles with his diff...more Black Boy is a story about the childhood of the author Richard Wright during the 1900s. The book starts off showing Richard was a very curious child such as when he wondered how fire would look under a curtain, or the boat his mother had said they would go on. All his questions weren’t as complex as when he grew older. When he grew older, his questions were more on racism which is an obstacle because whites were trying to crush his intelligence. In his daily life, Richard struggles with his differences from everyone else he is surrounded by. He tries to fit in, only realizing he is an individual and can’t fit in.

I thought this memoir would be better like the book Bad Boy by Walter Dean Myers or A Piece of Cake by Cupcake Brown. According to Neil Genzlinger, memoirs need something new and original. In Richard Wright’s book, an original, interesting part was when he burned the house and brought death to a kitten. Like Genzlinger, William Zinsser said that good memoirs show no sign of wanting revenge. I thought when Richard Wright had not wanted revenge on anyone because of his past. His memoir wasn’t a ‘therapy’ and didn’t show any desire for revenge, but it was written with love. Richard Wright elevates pain with forgiveness and doesn’t pass judgment on his family. Although he did have great experiences with his family, he didn’t go on and ramble on and on about how unsupported they were. Through their unsupportiveness, he discovers he is different and can only use words to reach the world, which shows that Richard Wright met Genzlinger and Zinsser’s good memoir requirement.

In Black Boy, there are two parts in the book, part one and part two. I would say part one was interesting even though he focused on himself a little bit too much, his experiences were original. His life was interesting. But when I got to part two, I felt that his Communism chapters were dragging on. Even though in part two Richard Wright spends more time talking about the topic of Communism than himself, I thought his life story was considered a C or a D grade going by Genzlinger’s scale. Richard Wright could have summed up about 100 pages into 60 pages.

Overall, I thought Richard Wright’s book was good, but not the best. I recommend this book to people who like memoir books and can handle dragged on stories. I don’t recommend this book to people who don’t care for the topics of racial differences and religion. (less)

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Nov 15, 2012 Ryanspeilman rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Black Boy" is a splendid book to read it is very straight forward giving the audience Richard Wrights perspective of the Jim Crow era, but there is a limit when getting too personal. In his Book "Black Boy" Richard Wright seems to be letting his emotions out on the white society & can get too harsh in details when coming to Caucasians. Therefore leading me to my second criticism of "Black Boy" which would be the cover, I know many may not take this seriously but in my beliefs, isn't that pu...more "Black Boy" is a splendid book to read it is very straight forward giving the audience Richard Wrights perspective of the Jim Crow era, but there is a limit when getting too personal. In his Book "Black Boy" Richard Wright seems to be letting his emotions out on the white society & can get too harsh in details when coming to Caucasians. Therefore leading me to my second criticism of "Black Boy" which would be the cover, I know many may not take this seriously but in my beliefs, isn't that putting too much into the cover page by putting a black man on the front ?

What if a white person were to pick up the book ? wouldn't they be obligated to think to themselves,

"Just because there is a black man on the cover, it gives him the right to be prejudice towards Caucasians."

therefore intimidating them to even bother to read the book, I make this statement because I felt as though Richard Wright was making a mockery of whites, this feeling made me feel as though he was looking down on the white society.

In the expression of "Dont judge a book by its cover" readers will do so in order to make their mind up of whether or not to read the book, can we not say that when a white person & even a black person will look at the front cover of "Black Boy" & judge it from that ?

When taking a first look of the cover for "Black Boy" one can say,

"Its just another story about a black man."

Is this not what will go through the readers mind at first ? then if this happens wouldnt it lead to people actually getting offended by the fact that there is a black man on the cover leading them to believe that they themselves are lowered by the impressions of that any Black person can be a better writer than a white man or another race.

I state my view of "Black Boy" for both its frontal cover & literal terms in writing of being prejudice towards Caucasians. Richard Wright may have grew up in a racial society but through his writing should not make the impression that those of white color skin are racist towards blacks because by doing so he is lowering our self esteem as a white race.
(less)

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What age level for this book?	8	59	Jun 10, 2012 08:47am

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