ClassicNotes: Black Boy Full Summary and Analysis

                 Chapter One Summary:

 

              Black Boy, the autobiographical account of Richard Wright, begins
with his childhood in Natchez, Mississippi. Richard is four years
old, living with his younger brother, his parents, and his
grandmother who is bed-ridden. In a fit of mischief and
spontaneity, Richard sets fire to some white curtains. The fire
escalates, burning down half of the house. Trying to escape
punishment, Richard hides underneath the house. When his father
finds him, Richard is beaten almost to death and falls into a
delirious sickness.
The family moves to Memphis, Tennessee where they live in a
tenement. With his father working as a night porter, Richard and
his brother are not allowed to make any noise during the day. One
day when a stray kitten begins to make noise, his father yells to:
"Kill that damn thing!" Richard, wanting to anger his father,
kills the kitten by strangling it even though he realizes that his
father's words were not meant to be taken literally. But Richard's
mother crushes him with "the moral horror involved in taking a
life." During the evening, she orders him to bury and pray for the
cat. Richard, disgusted and afraid, is able to bury the cat but
runs away when his mother forces him to ask for the Lord's
forgiveness.
Hunger haunts Richard and his family, living in poverty and
without much to eat. His father abandons the family, and Richard
begins to associate his pangs of hunger with his father's image.
His mother takes a job as a cook for white families. One evening,
she tells Richard that he must do the grocery shopping for the
household, giving him a list and some money. When he goes past the
corner, a gang of boys grabs him, snatch his basket, and take the
money. His mother gives him more money, which is again stolen by
the same boys. When Richard returns, his mother hand him more
money and a large stick, kicking him out of the house until he
learns to fight back. Richard blindly beats the gang of boys using
the stick as a weapon, finally bringing the groceries home.
While his mother is at work, Richard gets into mischief with other
neglected black children, spying on people in the public
outhouses. To keep her children out of mischief, Richard's mother
sometimes brought the two boys to work. Richard wonders why the
white people have food and he was left hungry.
While his mother was at work, he also frequented the local saloon,
begging for money, peering under the door, and talking to
drunkards. One day, a man drags him into the saloon and orders
Richard to drink a whiskey. Soon, Richard is drunk, and for a few
drinks and some money, provides entertainment to the bar by
shouting obscenities that the men tell him to shout. Everyday,
Richard returns to the saloon until he craves alcohol. Not being
bale to stand it, his mother finally places him in the care of an
old black woman to watch over the boys.
When schoolchildren would leave their books on the sidewalk to go
and play, Richard taught himself how to read various words. One
day, his mother asks him to wait for the coal deliveryman while
she and his younger brother were at work. Upon learning that
Richard is unable to count, the deliveryman sit him down and
teaches Richard to count to 100. When his mother sees that he can
count, she encourages him to read and soon, he is able to read the
newspaper. He learns to ask too many questions, and this way,
learns about the relationship between blacks and whites. He does
not understand how the distinction is made because his grandmother
was very white and "never looked ÂŒwhite'" to him. When a white man
beat the black boy in the neighborhood, Richard becomes bewildered
with confusion.
Richard begins school at the Howard Institute and on his first
day, is very reluctant to go. Scared and unable to speak from
being so nervous, he sits and listens to the other students. At
recess, he hangs around a group of older boys and learns new
expletives and profanity. When he returns home for the day, he
shows off his newfound vocabulary by writing the words he learned
in soap on neighborhood windows. When his mother learns of his
activities, she forces him to go outside and wash every single
word off with water.
Richard's mother becomes very religious, and sometimes drags him
to Sunday school. One Sunday evening, the preacher is invited over
to their house for dinner: fried chicken. But before he may eat
the chicken, Richard's mother tells him that he must finish his
soup. The preacher, already finished with his soup, has finished
several pieces of chicken. When Richard finally finishes what
seems to be his bottomless bowl of soup, he cries: "That
preacher's going to eat all the chicken!" Hunger again subsumes
him when his mother denies him dinner for his bad manners.
Hunger is with Richard at all times. His mother tries to sue his
father for child support, but the judge rules against her favor.
When there is no longer enough money to pay the rent, Richard and
his brother are put in and orphanage run by Miss Simon. Miss Simon
disallows visits from their mother, claiming that she spoils them
with attention. She also tries to win Richard's confidence by
making him her personal helper. But Richard is unable to do the
small task she asks of him, instead standing still and crying. He
then runs away from the orphanage, and is brought back by some
white policemen.
On his mother's next visit, Richard is given the choice of staying
in the orphanage or asking his father for money. He and his mother
confront his father for a second time, outside of court. His
father has brought another woman with him, who thinks Richard is
"cute." Richard leaves that day with the feeling of "something
unclean." He describes a meeting with his father twenty-five years
later, at a plantation in Mississippi. Older, Richard pities and
forgives his father. He sees his father as "a black peasant whose
life had been hopelessly snarled in the city," the same city that
provides Richard with success and knowledge later in life.
Chapter One Analysis:

 

              Black Boy is written in retrospect, from the viewpoint of grown
and matured Richard Wright. The style of Wright's first-person
narratives brings two important factors into the story. The first
is that the reader is allowed into the insights of the author on
his own childhood. Wright is able to make a very powerful
commentary regarding the era in which he documents in Black Boy.
Second, we must realize that although the accounts are taken as
autobiographical, Wright's narrative allows him the freedom to
invent rather than recording only the events and facts of his
childhood. Wright does, in fact, generalize his own experiences to
draw conclusions about the manner in which society functions.
From the accounts of his childhood, we can sense that Richard
feels alienated from his family. He is fearful of his mother's
intense beatings, careful to avoid his father, and deathly afraid
of his grandmother's white image. This theme of alienation is one
that continues, both in relation to Richard's family, the black
community, as well as the white community. This sense of isolation
comes out in rebellion, evidenced by his burning the house down
and killing the kitten. Richard kills the kitten out of resentment
towards his father and his unwillingness to obey authority.
Richard's parents and relatives play a wavering role between
subordinators who try to suppress him and authority figures that
try to raise with him under strict moral rule. The theme of
alienation is well developed later in the novel, when he is
introduced into the "white world."
The role of violence in Black Boy is also important in the novel.
At a young age, Richard is still unaware of the incredibly
violence he is capable of. When he kills the cat, he does so out
of anger and fails to realize the moral reprehensibility of his
act until looking back in retrospect. The cat can be seen as a
symbol of the repressed: innocent, unknowing, and unaware. When
Richard ties a makeshift noose, he mimics the hanging of black
men, an image prevalent during an era dominated by the Klu Klux
Klan and Jim Crow segregation laws. Similarly, Richard is able to
earn his way to walk on the street when he learns to fight the
gang of boys who had previously assaulted him on his way to the
grocery store. This violence is again repeated in the harsh
beatings that he receives from his elders. In this way, Wright is
able to portray violence as a way to oppress, a tool of the
control.
In juxtaposition to the violent imagery, Wright is able to portray
a kind of innocence in his childhood years. Richard possesses a
mischievous spirit and is not sure of how "the world" works.
Asking his mother "why did the ÂŒwhite' man whip the ÂŒblack' boy,"
Richard is still unaware of the social relationship between blacks
and whites. "To me [whites] were merely people like other people,"
he says. Similarly, when Richard traipses around the saloon, he
has no idea of the grossness of the words he repeats for the
entertainment of the adults.
Throughout chapter one, as well as the rest of the novel, Wright
places a special emphasis on the theme of hunger. Growing up in
poverty, Richard is always hungry, yearning for food and left with
a feeling of emptiness. This image of hunger is also used by
Wright to display Richard's thirst for knowledge: he is hungry to
learn about the world, to devour knowledge. This hunger for
knowledge reflects the growth ­ or want of ­ of Richard as an
intellectual and artist.
Another device that that Wright employs in Black Boy is dualism,
specifically between black and white. There is a constant play of
words off the notion of "black and white:" Richard's white-looking
grandmother, the white man who beats the black boy, the darkness
of night, the white boat he dreams of, the black-and-white horses
he spots. This dualism in imagery is a reflection of the dualism
that Richard experiences in society, between the black community
and the white community.
Chapter Two Summary:

 

              Richard, his brother, and mother leave town to live with his aunt
in Elaine Arkansas, and en route, they stop to visit Granny in
Jackson, Mississippi. Granny's house is two-stories, with long
hallways and white plastered walls. To support the household,
Wright's grandmother boarded a black schoolteacher with whom
Richard was half afraid and half infatuated with. One day, Richard
asks what Ella is reading and she proceeds to tell him the fairly
tale of Bluebeard from 1001 Arabian Nights. When Granny walks in
on them, she stops Ella, claiming that the story is "the Devil's
work." Never hearing the end of the tale, Richard is filled with a
sense of emptiness and hunger.
One day, Granny watches the two boys to make sure they wash
themselves properly. When Richard fools around in the bathwater,
Granny orders him to bend over and begins to scrub his behind.
Without thinking, Richard tells her to "kiss back there" when she
is through. Still not realizing the perverseness of his comment,
he does not know why he is being punished with severe beatings.
Thinking that Ella has taught him "foul practices," Granny forces
Ella to move out of the house.
On the train ride to Elaine, Richard realizes that at his
grandmother's house he has gained a sharp and lasting impression
of the relationship between whites and blacks. During his stay
with Aunt Maggie and Uncle Hoskins, Richard is always surprised to
see so much food on the table; Uncle Hoskins owned a saloon that
catered to blacks who worked in the sawmills and experienced a
great deal of economic success. Still in disbelief, Richard often
steals dinner rolls from the table and hides them in his pockets
and around the house. One day Uncle Hoskins takes Richard on a
buggy ride. Claiming that he is going to drive the buggy into the
middle of the river so that the horse can drink water, Uncle
Hoskins drives the buggy into the river until the water level is
very high. Frightened, Richard attempts to jump out. Back on land,
Richard refuses to listen or speak to him.
Uncle Hoskins always left for work in the evenings to tend to the
saloon. One morning, he fails to return. At dinnertime, the family
learns that white men who coveted his successful business have
shot Uncle Hoskins. Quickly, the family packs their clothes and
dishes into a farmer's wagon and, without a funeral, leave for
Granny's house.
At Granny's house, Richard sees a line of soldiers as well as a
chain gang, mistaking the black men for elephants. After a period
of time, his mother moves the family back to West Helena, tired of
Granny's strict religious routine. Back in West Helena, Richard
and his brother stay at home while Aunt Maggie and his mother
works as cooks during the daytime. The neighborhood children often
sang racist songs about the Jewish proprietor of the corner
grocery store. Wright claims that the distrust and antagonism
towards the Jewish was bred in his cultural heritage.
One Saturday afternoon, a young girl mentions to Richard that
something is being sold in the flat next door. Curious, Richard
stand on a chair and peers through the window, spying on what he
does not realize is prostitution. He falls of his chair, startling
the landlady's "customers." When his mother returns, the landlady
requests that either his mother beat him for spying or the entire
family moves out. Indignant, Richard's mother refuses to beat him
and the family moves to another house on the same street.
Meanwhile, Aunt Maggie begins having secret visits at night from a
man who is introduced to Richard and his brother as "Professor
Matthews." The boys are forbidden to tell anybody about Prof.
Matthews, who is going to be their new uncle. One night, Aunt
Maggie and "uncle" move out in the middle of the night. From the
bits of conversation the Richard is able to gather, he realizes
that his "uncle" has killed somebody and must flee. Richard's
mother warns him never to mention what he has seen and heard;
otherwise "the white people would kill [him]."
With Aunt Maggie gone, the household income was reduced
significantly and Richard was always hungry. Panning to sell his
poodle, Betsy, for a dollar, he washes her and takes her around to
the houses in a white neighborhood. On woman tells Richard she
does not have a dollar, but can give him 97 cents for the dog and
pay him three cents later that evening. Getting nervous and
wanting his dog back, he refuses to sell Betsy for less than a
dollar. A week later, Betsy is run over by a truck.
Richard spends his days engrossed in his own world of fantasy and
superstition. When his mother finally obtains a higher paying job,
she sends him to school. Though he is capable of reading and
writing, Richard is paralyzed by fright and cannot even write his
won name. One day, class is let out early. Whistles and bells
pollute the air, and Richard learns the war is over. For the first
time, he looks up and sees a plane, mistaking it for a bird.
Christmas comes, and Richard does not go out and play with the
other children; given only one orange, he "nurses" it all day, and
finally savors eating it just before going to bed.
Chapter Two Analysis:

 

              At the start of the chapter, Wright criticizes the black community
for their lack of cultural unity and tradition. This belief seems
to stem from Wright's own experiences of alienation from the black
community as well as his own family. Wright was always quick to
point out that despite the oppressive society created by white men
and the Southern tradition, blame was to be held over the black
community for allowing themselves to be subordinated. He claims
that black life in America was essentially bleak, and that the
emotional strength of the community was simply born out of
"negative confusions." In chapter two, this portrayal of flight,
fear, and confusion is reflected in Richard's own constant moving.
Moving from orphanage, to his grandmother's, to his Aunt Maggie's
and back to West Helena. Wright also depicts the image of feeling
versus fighting when "uncle" and Aunt Maggie leave town to avoid
the law.
This constant need to "flee" is manifested in Richard's feelings
of alienation with his schoolmates. Before attending school in
West Helena, Richard was absorbed in the activities of the other
neglected children who roam the street playing pranks. In school,
Richard describes himself using the metaphor "as still as stone"
because his feeling of isolation almost paralyzes him. Among the
other black children there is no sense of friendship or unity.
Instead, Richard is mistrusting of the others, hating them as well
as himself.
It is this mistrust that characterizes a large portion of
Richard's childhood. In chapter two, we see this evidenced in his
unwillingness to trust Uncle Hoskins after he drives the buggy
into the water. In chapter one, the same paralysis that occurs in
school seems to occur with Miss Simon, who attempts to win over
Richard's confidence. This distrust is also seen in Richard's
aversion to religion. Unlike his extremely religious grandmother,
Richard fails to place his faith in any kind of God. In the
previous chapter, we see his annoyance with the preacher who eats
all the chicken as well his reluctance to say a prayer for the
dead cat. In chapter two, Richard describes his obsession with
"magic possibilities:" his own made-up superstitions. These
superstitions can be construed as a kind of backlash against
conventional organized religion. Wright explains these
superstitions as the result of believing he "had no power to make
things happen outside of [himself] in the objective world." In
other words, Richard's own distrust of society, family, and
religion causes him to internalize everything: his emotions,
thoughts, actions, and beliefs.
In this chapter, we see that Richard begins to understand more
about the social relations between blacks and whites. But unlike
his mother, his hatred for the white community stems much deeper
than racial injustice. Part of Richard's internalization of
emotion causes him to place the anger he has built toward his
parents and others into his anger towards whites. He describes how
upon hearing rumors about racial beatings and murders he began to
imagine men against whom he was powerless, giving "meaning to
confused defensive feelings that had long been sleeping." White
people begin to become symbolic of he general oppressor,
representing every fear and authority figure that had once
intimated Richard despite the fact that he, himself, had never
been abused by whites.
In chapter two, the theme of dualism is emphasized not only in his
discussion of blacks versus whites, but also in Wright's use of
the war as a background. World War I seems an appropriate setting
for the chapter because the war in the background is a macrocosm
of the emotional war inside Richard. It also seems to be an
important image because of Wright's later involvement with the
Communist Party and their agenda for unity.
It is ironic that Wright describes the antagonism displayed by the
black community toward Jews as part of their "cultural heritage."
For the same reasons that the whites persecute the blacks, the
black children persecute the Jews with their tawdry songs and
chants: ignorance. There was no reason for their beliefs other
than the fact that it was taught to them in home and in Sunday
school.
Two important symbols that are introduced at the end of the
chapter are the image of the airplane and the orange Richard is
given on Christmas Day. The plane, which Richard is not familiar
with, can be taken as a symbol of hope. He sees it during a
celebration for the end of the war, perhaps making the plane a
representation of peace. To Richard, who thinks it is a bird, the
idea of man flying is unbelievable. After building a world of
possibility and unbelievable superstitions, it seems to bring hope
to Richard that something so incredulous could happen. An orange
often times symbolize luxury, but for Richard, it seems to mean
the exact opposite. It is a meager supplement for his hunger and
also promotes his isolation. He watches and guards over it,
staying away from the other children. The orange appears to
symbolize Richard's reality and the fantasy that is forbidden to
him.
Chapter 3 Summary:

 

              Richard is now older, associating with a gang of older Black Boys
who share what he describes as his "learned" hostility toward
white people and the "degrees of values" assigned to race. He
analyzes a typical afternoon with his gang: their conversation,
their attitudes, and their ideologies. According to Wright, the
gang's dialogue is how "the culture of one black household was
thus transmitted to another black household." With the gang,
Richard also participates in fights against white boys, throwing
rocks and bottles, sometimes needing medical attention afterwards.

              One day, Richard and Leon find their mother in a comatose state.
After calling the neighbors and a doctor, they find that she has
had a stroke and that her entire left side is paralyzed. When his
grandmother arrives, they move Ella to Jackson, Mississippi where
all of her relatives have gathered. Meanwhile, Richard has stopped
eating and sleepwalks. His relatives decide that Richard and his
brother will be separated to live with different families. Leon,
it has been decided, will move to Detroit with Aunt Maggie to
finish his schooling. Richard, however, is given a choice of which
he would like to live with. Although jealous of his brother who is
moving to the North, Richard chooses to live Uncle Clark in
Greenwood, the closest location to Jackson.
After moving, Uncle Clark and Aunt Jody decide to enroll Richard
in school immediately. At school, Richard is accepted by his peers
after standing his ground during a fight. On his way home, he
finds a ring in the street. Taking out the stone and leaving the
ring's prongs standing up, the ring becomes a makeshift weapon.
The next day at school, no one challenges him to fight after
seeing his weapon and Richard knows that he has truly been
accepted.
Mr. Burton, the owner and former occupant of Uncle Clark's house
stops by one evening. He tells Richard about how his own dead son
had once lived in Richard's room and slept in Richard's bed.
Frightened by the prospect of ghosts, Richard cannot fall asleep
in his won bed, but his uncle and aunt disallow him to sleep
elsewhere. He suffers from insomnia and nightmares, and his
studies at school are hurt by his lack of sleep.
One evening, Richard takes the water pail to fill outside and
drops it in his sleepiness. Wet and tired, he lets out a string of
swear words. Aunt Jody hears his foul language and later that
night, Uncle Clark whips Richard. Afterwards, Richard tells his
uncle that her wishes to return to Jackson. He leaves by train the
very next Saturday.
Richard does not return to school in Jackson. Instead, he stays at
home and watches his mother grow increasingly sick. After being
taken away for an operation in Clarksdale, Richard knows that his
mother has gone out of his life. He ceases to react to her: "My
feelings were frozen." Wright explains that these experiences with
his mother - and all his suffering - acted as motivation for his
interest in intellectual activity, the only thing that made him
feel alive.
Chapter 3 Analysis:

 

              Wright is often praised for his ability to write profound,
psychologically intense novels. Here, we see one method he uses
effectively portray his characters and their environments:
dialogue. The chapter opens with Richard analyzing line-by-line a
typical conversation between himself and the gang. This dissection
of conversation is important in understanding Richard's mentality
growing up because it analyzes his interaction with his peers. In
reading their dialogue, we sense that the conversation skims the
surface of an issue that runs deeper. The gang's words and actions
revolve around their racial insecurities, confusion, and hatred
without really discussing racism. This portrayal of the gang
relates to Wright's own criticism of the black community for
allowing themselves to be subservient to whites.
In chapter 3, the theme of isolation comes into play. Richard as a
Black Boy is isolated from the world of the "white people," but
this isolation is felt within his own race as well. Within he
black community, he is never able to find a confidant and does not
allow himself to reveal his feelings to anyone. When he enters
into the gang, he seems to find comrades among his fellow gang
members, but their relationship is superficial - based on their
similar racial prejudices rather than friendship. The racial
tension between blacks and whites is the only common factor that
Richard seems to share with those he befriends, which come into
play later on in his autobiographical account. In a way, these
tensions consume Richard and his attitude; his seemingly violent
nature belies the anger and hatred that he stores emotionally.
Similarly, when Richard must make friends at the new school in
Greenwood, he must fight to gain trust and respect.
His feeling of isolation is not limited to his peers. His
hostility toward Uncle Clark and Aunt Maggie is one that is
repeated toward his other relatives in later chapters. For
Richard, Uncle Clark and Aunt Maggie provide routine and restraint
that he is unused to. From the start, we see that Richard is
different because of his strong will and insight. In some ways,
refusing to sleep in his own bed can be interpreted as a
manifestation of his unwillingness to obey authority or to
conform.
One source for Richard's isolation is revealed when he claims that
after his mother's operation, she becomes dead to him. Constantly
sick and in pain, his mother becomes a symbol of the suffering
Richard has encountered and will encounter throughout the rest of
his life. By disallowing himself any emotional reaction to her
pain and sickness, he creates a facade for himself. We see that
Richard deals with his pain essentially by building an emotional
wall around him.
Chapter 4 Summary:

 

              Now twelve, Richard lives with his grandparents, mother, and Aunt
Addie in Jackson. An ardent member of the Seventh-Day Adventist
Church, Richard's grandmother forces him into an environment
surrounded by religion and prayer. Because of her religious
beliefs, Granny rarely serves meat of any kind. Instead, Richard
lives off of lard and gravy, again feeling hunger.
Granny believes that one sinful person in a household can bring
down the entire family, and tries to persuade Richard to "confess
to her God." Richard is thus enrolled in the religious school,
where Aunt Addie is the only teacher. Her first experience
teaching, animosity instantly springs between her and Richard.
Wright describes her as "determined that every student should
know... that [he] was a sinner of whom she did not approve."
Richard views his fellow pupils as "willess," devoid of emotion.
One afternoon, Aunt Addie reproaches Richard for eating in school,
pointing at walnut crumbs on the floor under his desk. Knowing
that it was the boy in front of him who had been eating walnuts,
Richard denies the accusation. In doing so, he accidentally calls
her "Aunt Addie" instead of "Miss Wilson." Richard does not want
to "tattle," and withstands Aunt Addie's lashings, realizing that
her anger storms more from her own insecurity rather than his
wrongdoing. At home, Aunt Addie tries to beat Richard again, but
he fights back and grabs a kitchen knife to use for defense.
Richard continues at the religious school, but stops studying.
Spending his time paying with the boys, he finds that the only
games they know are "brutal ones." Aunt Addie's orders them to
play "pop-the-whip," where the boys line up to form a human whip.
The only time Richard sees Aunt Addie laugh is when he is "popped"
off the end of the line, his head bruised and bleeding.
At home, "granny maintain[s] a hard religious regime," forcing
Richard to pray and withstand all-night ritualistic prayer
meetings. Wright writes that had his personality not already been
shaped and formed by the conditions of his life, he may have found
God. Instead, he remains unaffected. Richard is growing and he
begins to feel his hormones surge. In church, the only thing he
can do is lust for the elder's wife. He even finds that he is
sexually stimulated by the "sweet sonorous hymn."
When a religious revival is announced, Richard feels pressure to
be "brought to God." One of the neighborhood boys is sent over to
"befriend" Richard. Even Granny tries to convince Richard to see
God. During one evening sermon, Richard attempts to allay his
grandmother's pressures by telling her that if he saw an angel
like Jacob, he would believe in God. But she mishears him and
thinking that Richard has actually seen an angel, proceeds to tell
the entire congregation. The incident causes Granny a great
embarrassment and, out of guilt, Richard promises to pray for an
hour each day.
During his daily hour, Richard finds new ways of wasting time. One
day, he decides to write a story about an Indian girl who commits
suicide by drowning herself. After reading the story to a young
woman next door, Richard experiences a strange feeling of
gratification.
Chapter 4 Analysis:

Under his grandmother's religious supervision, Richard once again
feels hunger, both physically and intellectually. For Richard,
religion is more of a hindrance than a path to salvation. It is
his grandmother's religious beliefs that not only prevent him from
being adequately fed, but also stunt his intellectual growth. His
education at the religious school is almost a joke and any
literature other than the Bible is considered "the Devil's work"
by Granny and Aunt Addie. Religion is another obstacle set down by
authority to make him conform.
Interacting with his peers at the religious school, he comes to
the conclusion that he does not need religion to be strong.
Richard sees that the other boys are "willess." When he is beaten
for eating in school, he realizes that there is no solidarity
among these children, and that the students have no moral or
brotherly obligation toward each other. The neighborhood boys sent
to convince Richard to join in the revival disgusts Richard
because of his own ignorance. Rather than open his heart toward
religion, Richard is probably inclined to become more isolated and
independent.
It is this sense of isolation and independence that, in the end,
drives Richard toward writing. In this chapter, we still see that
Richard is young and naive. He does not realize that power that
words have (a power he will discover later in life). Instead, his
writing brings him satisfaction only because his words confuse
others. The reaction of the young lady will be echoed later in the
novel when others read Richard's writing and question him.
Chapter 5 Summary:

 

              Granny and Aunt Addie, giving up on Richard as lost, force him to
do his own chores. Richard enters Jim Hill public school with only
one year of unbroken study. On the first day of school, he is
challenged to fight with two of the school bullies. Worried that
he will not be accepted, he takes the challenge and is reprimanded
by the teacher. Nevertheless, Richard excels school, and is
promoted from the fifth to the sixth grade in two weeks. Most of
his schoolmates work mornings, evenings, and Saturdays to earn
enough money for clothes, books, and lunch. But Granny does not
allow Richard to work on the Sabbath due to her Seventh Day
Adventist beliefs. Unable to work, Richard goes hungry during
school while all his schoolmates buy lunch. Hunger plagues
Richard, making him weak.
In class, another rebellious Black Boy asks Richard why he doesn't
buy lunch. Learning that Richard needs a job, the boy tells
Richard about a job selling papers. The papers are published in
Chicago and the boy tells Richard the job's benefit: he can make
money as well as read the magazine/comic strip that comes with the
paper. With Granny's approval, Richard sells the papers in the
"Negro area" for a dime each. reading only the magazine
supplement. One day, a family friend who regularly buys the papers
asks Richard if he knows what he is selling. The man sits Richard
down, showing him the racist propaganda and the Ku Klux Klan
articles in the paper. Disgusted with his own ignorance, Richard
throws his paper away and never sells them again.
Meanwhile, Richard excels at his studies, burning through volumes
of books and outside reading. When summer came, Richard is still
not allowed to work during Sabbath. One summer night, Richard
tries to interject in one of Granny and Aunt Addie's religious
debates. To punish him for opening his mouth, Granny reaches to
slap him but Richard ducks in time to avoid her blow. Instead,
Granny' momentum sends her down the porch steps, leaving her
barely conscious and bed-ridden for six weeks. Aunt Addie
confronts Richard, saying: "you are evil. You bring nothin' but
trouble!" Addie threatens to beat Richard, and for a month,
Richard carries a kitchen knife to bed with him for protection.
Towards the end of summer, Richard obtains a job as an assistant
to an insurance agent named Brother Mance. He fills out forms for
illiterate blacks on plantations who wish to buy insurance. On his
trips to the plantations, Richard is astonished at the ignorance
and naivete of the plantation families he meets. The money Richard
is able to earn disappears quickly and Brother Mance dies, leaving
Richard jobless once again. Richard begins the seventh grade and
feels his old hunger once again.
One morning, Richard leans that his grandfather is seriously ill.
Grandpa has been wounded in the Civil War and never received his
disability pension, something he took with bitterness. For
decades, Grandpa would write to the War Department to claim his
pension, with no luck. During the days of Grandpa's sickness, the
family wrote letters, drew affidavits, and held conferences in an
attempt to claim his pension - to no avail. After coming home from
school one day, Richard is told to go upstairs and say good-bye to
Grandpa. Richard is sent to tell Uncle Tom the news. When he
arrives with the news, Uncle Tom shows nothing but anger and
Richard realizes that he always seems to provoke hostility in
others.
Richard becomes ashamed of his shabby clothing, comparing himself
to other boys who begin to wear long-pants suits. Finally
desperate to work, he argues with granny until she allows him to
work on the Sabbath (with the stipulation that he is going to
Hell). Granny and Aunt Addie consider Richard spiritually dead,
but his mother approves of his defiance.
Chapter 5 Analysis:

 

              All his life, Richard has been programmed to react with hostility
and violence. At school, he finds that he can only gain acceptance
among his peers if he is able to fight the other boys. At home, he
can defend himself against beatings only by showing the same
brutality toward his authority figures. When Uncle Tom is angered
by Richard's words, Richard realizes that he does nothing but
provoke hostility in others. He has been trained emotionally to
regard everyone as his opponent. His violent nature perhaps stems
from the lack of compassion shown to him by those who are expected
to nurture him: his mother, his relatives, his teachers, and his
elders.
In this chapter, Richard experiences for the first time the
decision he must make between the value of money versus the value
of his moral and social beliefs. The same papers that allow him to
buy lunch, to read, and to make money also promote the racist
values that Richard is humbled by. Later in Richard's experiences,
this tradeoff between social subservience and making money comes
into play.
The son of a sharecropper, Richard's job as an assistant to
Brother Mance brings him back to "his roots" on the Southern
plantations. He feels no ties or kinship to the plantation workers
he meets. Their naivete, stupidity, and gullibility strike him as
astonishing. His feelings play into his criticisms of the black
community. He points out that his race's social subservience stems
from their own ignorance. There is no solidarity among blacks,
proof given by their willingness to cheat each other just as
Brother Mance sells life insurance to plantation workers who are
likely never to see a dime of it. Similarly, he holds the
plantation workers accountable for their own lack of education.
Chapter 6 Summary:

 

              At school, Richard hears of an available job as a chore boy for a
white woman. When she interview him for the job, the woman asks
Richard if he steals, which he replies unwittingly with what the
woman considers a "sassy" answer. The next morning after his work,
the woman leaves Richard breakfast on the table: stale bread and
moldy molasses. When he tells the woman he wants to be a writer,
she asks: "Who on earth put such ideas into your nigger head?"
Richard does not return to the job but instead takes a job with
another white family, running errands and serving food.
Tired after work, Richard is unable to keep up his studies. But at
midday recess, he is able to buy his own lunch and show off his
new clothes. His mother begins to recover and is well enough to
attend a Methodist Church, tot he disapproval of Granny. Richard
accompanies his mother to church not to gain religion, but to
socialize with his classmates. When the church holds a revival,
Richard feels pressure to be accepted by the community by "finding
God." On the last day of the revival, the congregation sings hymn
and the deacon begs mothers to go to their sons and beg for their
conversion. Finding religion became a matter of public pride for
Richard and his mother, and he consents to baptism.
When summer comes near, Ella suffers another stroke of paralysis.
Needing money, Granny and Aunt Addie decide to rent the upstairs
to Uncle Tom's family. One day, Uncle Tom asks Richard for the
time. When Richard's tone of voice displeases his uncle, Tom
threatens to give Richard the whipping of his life. Defiant and
horrified, Richard takes two razor blades and threatens to cut his
uncle. After an emotional confrontation, Uncle Tom walks away from
Richard.
Chapter 6 Analysis:

 

              An integral part of Richard's maturation is learning how to
interact with others, including white people. Before his job,
Richard has never really been informed about the relationship
between whites and blacks. In his childhood, the value placed on
one's race was learned second-hand, from his relatives, peers, and
elders. When he takes his first job in the home of the white
woman, Richard experiences first-hand the prejudices he has only
heard or dreamed about. He is treated without respect and without
human decency; Richard realizes that because he is black, he is
not expected to set goals for himself, to achieve, or to succeed.
It may seem that the white woman simply echoes what Richard's
relatives have some to believe, but her words are ten times worse
because it is an opinion based on speculation and assumption.
Perhaps worst of all, Richard realizes that to survive in the
white world, he must be broken of his will. Before his job,
Richard had been shielded within the black community. After being
scolded and deprecated by the white woman, he learns that whites
expect him to be subservient and stupid. Anything else would be
considered "sassy." Richard refuses to return to his first job -
where the woman served him stale and moldy food - out of pride.
But he must learn that he cannot run away from prejudice. The
racism he encountered at his first job is prevalent everywhere in
the South and Richard must learn to react.
His desire to not conform is tested within the black community as
well, with his mother's pressures to be baptized. Wright recalls
that his baptism was not a matter of religious belief, but of
social pressure and acceptance. The church, he claimed, exploited
every relationship: mother-to-son, brother-to-brother, and
friend-to-friend. In the end, Richard consents to baptism. But
along with the other baptized boys, Richard feels no different
than before. It is ironic that his baptism - what is considered a
"rebirth" in the eyes of God - leads to Richard's eventual
rejection of religion.
Chapter 7 Summary:

 

              The year is 1924 and Richard obtains a job in a brickyard bringing
pails of water to the thirsty black laborers. One day, Richard is
bit in the thigh by the white boss's dog. Afraid of infection,
Richard reports the bite to the supervisor but receives no medical
attentions. "A dog bite can't hurt a nigger," replies a white man.
Luckily, the swelling passes and he escapes infection.
School opens and Richard's hunger grows. Out of idleness, he
composes a short story called "The Voodoo of Hell's Half-Acre."
Although he receives no pay, the story is published in a local
black newspaper. When his fellow students read the story, they
don't understand Richard's motivation for writing and Richard
grows more isolated. His relatives are highly critical, believing
the story to be the Devil's work. But Richard's dream of writing
continues to grow, despite the educational system in the South and
the stifling Jim Crow laws.
Chapter 7 Analysis:

 

              Little by little with his increasing interaction with white
people, Richard learns more about their dismissive attitude
towards black people. He is treated inhumanely when he is not
given medical attention for the dog bite. Whites carry the
attitude that black laborers are unsusceptible to anything.
When "The Voodoo of Hell's Half-Acre" is published, nobody can
comprehend Richard's accomplishment. He receives only negative
feedback. It is ironic that one of Richard's most meaningful
achievements serves only to isolate him more from his environment.
Instead of praise, Richard is seen as different. Wright reflects
upon the fact that racism and prejudice are products not only of
the attitude of whites in the South, but are products of the
educational system. Black children are taught in ignorance, given
no goals or motivation grow as intellectuals. To Wright, the
educational system he grew up in with was corrupted, geared to
teach subservience.
Chapter 8 Summary:

 

              It is summer again and Richard inquires of Mrs. Bibbs - his
employer - whether her husband has a job opening at the sawmill.
The next day, Richard is warned by a black saw mill worker about
the dangers of the business, revealing his own hand with three
fingers missing. Richard leaves and does not return.
One afternoon, Richard sees Ned Greenley, his classmate, sitting
on his porch. He learns that Ned's brother, Bob, has been murdered
by some white men. Bob had been a hotel porter and the men had not
approved of his activities with a white prostitute. Richard
becomes more conscious about the brutality and conduct of the
racially oppressed South.
One day after Richard has been talking to his cousin Maggie, he
overhears Uncle Tom scolding Maggie for conversing with him. He
warns Maggie that Richard is a "dangerous fool" and expects her
"to keep away." Richard grows more aware of the isolation between
himself and his own family. When Richard's brother, Leon, returns
home, he is aware that the family seems to love and approve of
Leon more than they do of him.
At the end of the school term, Richard is selected as
valedictorian of his class and is asked to present a speech at
graduation. When the principal summons him into his office and
hands him an already prepared speech, Richard is stunned. He
refuses to give the principal's speech, despite pressure from his
family and peers. Even Griggs, another boy in school, has decided
to recite on of the principal's speeches. But on the day of
graduation, Richard does not care. He delivers his speech, dressed
in a new suit, and immediately leaves the platform afterwards.
Chapter 8 Analysis:

 

              The murder of Bob Greenley is elevated to myth-like status in the
mind of Richard Wright. Because he has never witnessed the racial
brutality and misconduct of Southern whites, his fears are
elevated the way a small child is afraid of the Boogie Man. But
for Richard, the situation is real: he must learn to behave
"correctly" for his the sake of his own life. Richard, however, is
still strong-willed, evidenced by his refusal to recite the
principal's speech.
In this chapter, we also see that Richard's isolation from his
family becomes more apparent to him when he accidentally overhears
Uncle Tom scolding Maggie. Although his relatives are a constant
source of negative feedback, his isolation from his own family can
be seen as a source of Richard's strength. At his young age, he
has learned out of necessity to be independent and willing to
fight.
Chapter 9 Summary:

 

              Anxious to earn money, Richard works as a porter in a clothing
store catered toward "Negroes on credit." One morning, he
witnesses the boss and his son drag a black woman into the back of
the store to rape her. In another incident, Richard is beaten with
a whiskey bottle and fists by some white boys whom he forgets to
address as "sir." Each day, hatred builds in Richard for the white
people. The boss's son even fires Richard for not laughing and
talking "like the other niggers."
On day, Richard runs into his old classmate, Griggs, who
criticizes him for not learning to get around "white folks."
Griggs warns him to think before he speaks, to think before he
acts. Griggs reveals that underneath his innocent demeanor, he too
hates white people. He also obtains Richard a position as an
intern in an optical shop.
The boss of the optical shop, Mr. Crane, is a Yankee and hires
Richard immediately. Reynolds and Pease are two white men who work
in the shop and cause nothing but trouble for Richard, who truly
wishes to learn the trade. Both make degrading racial comments in
front of Richard and threaten to kill him for failing to call
Pease by "Mister Pease" (even when Richard had not forgotten).
Richard leaves the job out of fear. Richard cries on his walk home
from work.
Chapter 9 Analysis:

 

              Richard experiences racial violence firsthand when he begins to
work in town. Inexperienced in his new environment, Richard finds
it difficult to act "properly" the way Griggs acts. Growing up
with broken schooling and in the black community, Richard has
learned to be self-sufficient and defiant. Even when he tries to
conform, he is not subservient enough. Racism is bred by
ignorance, and Wright portrays that to survey, a black man must
act as ignorant as his white counterpart. A black man must laugh
and talk, and act grateful towards a white man; it is not enough
to simply be subordinate. Richard must learn to mask his hatred
and true feelings to be able to survive.
In the optical shop, we see that Richard's hunger - his yearning
of intellect and knowledge - still runs strong. This is why he has
the audacity to approach Pease and Reynolds regarding his job.
Wright compares Richard to a blind man. The metaphor not only
describes the flood of tears that blinds Richard, but how Richard
himself is still blind to the Southern oppression. Richard, in
spite of his environment, still wishes to learn and set goals for
himself.
Chapter 10 Summary:

 

              Richard's next job is that of a helper in a drugstore. But without
knowing the right words to say to his white boss, he loses his job
soon enough. He grows more conscious of the roles that other Black
Boys assume in their jobs. Soon, Richard takes a job as a hall boy
at the same hotel where Bob Greenley had worked. At his job,
Richard socializes with the other black workers. One night, when
walking one of the maids home, the white watchman slaps her on the
behind. To avoid confrontation, Richard must obey the watchman and
ignore the slap.
Determined to make more money, Richard decides to sacrifice his
morals to save more money. He begins to bootleg liquor to sell to
white prostitutes in the hotel. Soon, Richard quits his job at the
hotel to take a job at the theater in town, where he is involved
in a ring for scamming tickets. Richard is a ticket collector, and
he saves the tickets to re-sell them at the front counter.
Quickly, he amasses enough move money to move out on his own. He
does so, promising to send for his mother when he earns enough
money.
Chapter 10 Analysis:

 

              Chapter 10 represents a pivotal moment in Richard's life because
he realizes that in order to survive the South, he must obey
rather than challenge those who suppress him. It is then that he
realizes in order to accomplish his goals, he must leave for the
North.
Richard comes to realize the social cycle in the relationship
between whites and blacks. The black workers that Richard observes
fall into stealing and cheating because they feel justified by the
poor treatment they receive from their white bosses. In turn, the
white bosses feel justified in their racist attitude by black
workers who cheat and steal.
Chapter 11 Summary:

 

              In November of 1925, Richard arrives in Memphis, Tennessee ready
to live on his own. He walks down Beale Street - a street
notorious for its bad reputation - until he sees a large house
with a sign that says: "ROOMS." Not knowing whether it is a
boarding house or a whorehouse, he is hesitant to enter until a
large "mulatto" woman beckons him to come inside. The woman, named
Mrs. Moss, lives with her daughter, Bess, in the house and Richard
describes the two as the nicest, simplest people he has ever met.
They rent the upstairs room to Richard and invite him to eat meals
with them. Richard refuses to eat with them, however, because he
is uncomfortable with the loving attitude Mrs. Moss shows toward
him. She hopes that Richard will marry Bess, and continuously
praises everything he does. Bess instantly declares that she loves
Richard, fawning over him and combing his hair. Richard is
unimpressed by what he calls her "peasant mentality," but he is
tempted to take advantage of her. When he tells Bess that he
wishes to be friends, she decides that she hates him.
Meanwhile, Richard has found a dishwashing job at a cafe in
Memphis. One day on his way to work, Richard encounters another
young black man looking for a friend. The two wander down toward
the rivers edge and find a bottle of bootlegged liquor. The two
sell it to a white man nearby, agreeing to split the five-dollar
profit. But when the other boy does not return with the money,
Richard realizes that he has been scammed. The chapter ends with
the passage: "Last night I had found a nave girl. This morning I
had been a naive boy."
Chapter 11 Analysis:

              Although Mrs. Moss and Bess express compassion and love toward
Richard, he regards them with a kind of contempt. Similar to the
plantation slaves that Richard had encountered in his previous job
as an insurance agent's assistant, Mrs. Moss and Bess are simple
and uneducated, almost to the point of ignorance. Do they realize
what is happening in the world around them? From Richard's point
of view, the mother and daughter pair seems to be in a world of
their own. With a house of their own, they can afford to live
comfortably. Wright never portrays Mrs. Moss or Bess as afraid -
or even aware - of the racial bias of the South.
In comparing Bess and Richard, we see juxtaposition between
innocence and cynicism. Where Bess has grown under the loving
guidance of her mother, Richard has been raised in what he
portrays as isolation and distrust. Yet Bess, despite the centered
home in which she has been raised, does not appear to be any more
individualistic or "free" than other Black Boys and girls that
Richard encounters.
Chapter 12 Summary:

 

              Remembering his failed attempt at becoming skilled in the optical
trade, Richard decides that he will try to break into the trade in
Memphis, thinking that Memphis is not a small town like Jackson.
While running errands and washing eyeglasses, he learns how to
contain the tension he felt in his relations with whites. "The
people of Memphis had an air of relative urbanity that took some
of the sharpness off the attitude of whites toward Negroes," but
there was tension nonetheless. Richard is afraid that Bess has
told her mother about their fight. Mrs. Moss questions Richard why
he does not like Bess, saying that she only wishes that her
daughter would marry somebody like him. Fed up with her pressures,
Richard threatens to move out of the house but both Mrs. Moss and
Bess beg him to stay.
With more than he ever had before, Richard is able to buy
magazines and books from secondhand bookstores. At his job, he
would observe the other Black Boys who work around him. This
included Shorty, the fat pale-faced, Chinese-looking boy who
operated the elevator. He would entertain the white men by
allowing them to kick his behind for a quarter. Other men who
worked in the building were: an old man named Edison; his son,
John; Dave, the night janitor. They discuss the rules of the
whites with a sense of hatred, but accepted their boundaries
because they realize the importance of money.
While delivering a pair of glasses to a department store, the
counter clerk - a Yankee - asks Richard if he is hungry.
Uncomfortable and paranoid, Richard refuses to talk to him,
answering the man's questions with lies. Richard even refuses to
take the dollar that the man hands to him. What bothers him is
that the man knew how he really felt, how hungry he was; Richard
feels that the safety of his own life depends upon how well he is
able conceal his true feelings from all whites.
One day, Richards foreman - a young white man named Mr. Olin -
informs him that another Black Boy named Harrison is going to kill
Richard for calling him a dirty name. Harrison worked across the
street for a rival optical house, but Richard had only known him
casually and never had trouble with him before. When Harrison and
Richard confront each other, they find that Mr. Olin is playing a
dirty trick by telling each boy that the other is planning to kill
him. The stories escalate each day, and Mr. Olin encourages
Richard to use a knife to defend himself against Harrison. For a
week, the white men egg the two Black Boys to fight each other.
Finally, they ask the boys to have a boxing match for five dollars
each. Harrison convinces Richard to fight four rounds. In the
ring, the two fight harder and harder, despite feeling ashamed and
trapper against their will. In fighting Harrison, Richard feels he
has done something unclean and wrong.
Chapter 12 Analysis:

 

              To Richard, Shorty's behavior is disgusting. In this chapter, we
see Richard examining the roles and actions of those around him.
But rather than following the lead of others, Richard is appalled
at how other are willing to degrade themselves and their dignities
to make money. When the white men try to organize a fight between
Harrison and Richard, they treat the boys more like dogs than
people. This relates back to the incident where Richard is bitten
by a dog and receives no medical attention: the black workers are
treated as savages rather than human beings.
In his experience with white men, Richard has become conditioned
to shield himself from any white person with whom he comes into
contact with. When the stranger offers him a dollar, he is more
shocked than grateful because he realizes that the man sees beyond
the superficial facade Richard usually dons in his interaction
with other whites. We see that Richard is truly isolated -
emotionally and intellectually - from those around him, and
isolation is what comforts him. The fact that another person can
see his true feelings is a sign of weakness to Richard.
Chapter 13 Summary:

 

              Reading the paper one morning, Richard reads an editorial
denouncing H.L. Mencken. Curious as to what Mencken wrote to
deserve the "scorn of the South," he goes to an Irish-Catholic man
named Mr. Falk. Falk lend Richard his library card, and Richard is
able to check out any book that he wishes to read. After reading
Mencken's A Book of Prefaces, Richard yearns to know more about
the authors he alludes to: Conrad, Lewis, Dostoyevski, Flaubert,
and more. Richard sits up in his room, eating out of cans while
reading great literary works and feeding his hunger.
That winter, Richards mother and brother move down to live with
him. His brother obtains a job and the two decide to start saving
to move North. Richard tells none of the white men on his job of
his plans to move, knowing it would put him in danger. Richard
tries to think of a way to live and refuses to stay in the south,
to submit and be a slave, to forget what he had read. But his
reading makes him conscious of himself and his environment and he
wonders how much longer he will have to stay in the South.
Chapter 13 Analysis:

 

              A turning point in Richard's growth and maturation is when he
discovers the power of words - a discovery that changes his entire
outlook on his own life and those around him. Whereas his hunger
had previously consumed him, Richard finally begins to satiate his
thirst for knowledge through his reading. What is shocking,
however, is that this knowledge would have been denied Richard
because of his color. Wright may consider education an integral
part of freeing oneself, but only those with privileges are
offered the opportunity to actually receive an education.
Richard learns from his reading more than any of his years in
formal schooling had ever taught him. Although his reading
isolates even more from those around him and the black community,
he develops a profound understanding of himself and his
environment.
Chapter 14 Summary:

 

              Aunt Maggie's husband has deserted her and she visits the family
in Memphis. He visit formed a practical basis for Richards plan to
move north. It was decided that Aunt Maggie and Richard would go
North first, and Richard told his boss and white co-workers that
he was being forced to take his paralyzed mother to Chicago. The
white men warn him not to change, that the north is no place for a
black man. Shorty tells Richard that he is lucky, recounting his
won fate of staying in the South forever until he dies or the
whites kill him. Wright recalls: "This was the culture from which
I sprang. This was the terror from which I fled."
In a northbound train, Richard tries to reflect on the various
forces that led him up to that point. He recalls his isolation
from the Southern environment, saying that the only thing that had
managed to keep him alive were the books he read. But he realizes
that he can never leave the South behind emotionally because the
South had raised him. The novel ends with Richard heading North:
"With ever watchful eyes and bearing scars, I headed North, full
of a hazy notion that life could be lived with dignity, and that
the personalities of others should not be violated, that men
should be able to confront other men without fear or shame, and
that if men were lucky in their living on earth they might win
some redeeming meaning for their having struggled and suffered
here beneath the stars."
Chapter 14 Analysis:

 

              There is an interesting comparison between Shorty and Richard. On
one hand, Shorty is the white man's clown. He has adapted his own
personality and behavior to feed off the perceptions of the
average black man: stupid, ignorant, and foolish. Richard has
always been defiant, perhaps because he is too hot-tempered or
perhaps because he knows his own self-worth. Shorty knows that he
will die or be killed in the South, that he can never escape the
South. Richard attempts to flee to the North and escape the
prejudice he has encountered. But in some ways, Shorty and Richard
are the same: they have grown up knowing what it means to suffer.
And where both of the boys have been surrounded in the same
environment, only one - Richard - has the strength to overcome his
obstacles.
In the end of Part I, we see that Richard has struggled to survive
on his own. He does not follow in the footsteps of those before by
becoming a slave, subservient, or learning to deal with the
Southern attitudes. Rather, he flees to discover for himself a
world beyond what he already knows. Part I ends with Richard's
move from the South because, as we have seen throughout the novel,
the South is where Wright was shaped as a writer and a man. In
some ways, the ending of Part I of Black Boy is more like a
beginning of a new life for Richard and the end of the life that
Wright had previously known.
Chapter 15 Summary:

 

              On first arriving in Chicago with Aunt Maggie, Richard is taken
about by the city-life and its new social codes. On the streetcar,
a white man sits down next to him without thinking about Richard's
color. The next day, Richard finds a job as a porter in a
delicatessen owned by a Jewish couples: Mr. and Mrs. Hoffman.
After working for short time, Richard hears of a job opening for a
postal clerk. The job required him to take an examination on the
following Monday, and Richard is unsure of how to approach his
bosses to ask for a day off. Instead, he simply skips a day of
work and lies to the Hoffman, claiming that his mother had died in
Memphis. The Hoffmans know he is lying and are aware that Richard
is used to living in the South. But Richard eventually leaves his
job with them because he cannot stand their pity.
After a week, Richard obtains a job as a dishwasher in a North
Side café ´hat had just opened, where several white waitresses
worked. One day of the white girls accidentally bumps against
Richard and in another incident, he is asked to tie another
waitress's apron for her. He realizes that these girls are not
conscious of black and white.
Richard observes that even in Chicago, his actions are tuned by
the social lessons he has learned in the South. After reading a
magazine called American Mercury, the boss lady enters the kitchen
and asks him where he found it and if he understood it. Richard
lies, saying he "found" it instead of saying that he had purchased
it. Thereafter, he keeps his books and magazines wrapped in
newspaper so that no one would question him.
One day, when walking buy the kitchen stove in the caf鬠Richard
notices that Tillie ­ the Finnish cook ­ had spit into a pot of
boiling soup. Afraid that the boss will not believe him, he
instead tells another black girl who works at the café®?At first
the girl is in disbelief, but she spies on the cook herself. Both
are afraid that the boss lady will not believe them. At first, the
boss tells the girl that she is crazy. But after she spies on
Tillie, who proceeds to spit in the food, she fires the cook.
In June, Richard is called in for temporary duty in the post
office. But in order to have a permanent appointment, he must pass
a physical examination where the weight requirement is 125 lbs. No
matter how much he eats, he is unable to gain weight. Richard is
forced to look for another job. Meanwhile, his mother and brother
come to live in Aunt Maggie's apartment. Aunt Maggie constantly
criticizes Richard's reading and studying, and after he loses his
postal job, she regards him as a failure. So Richard decides to
invite his Aunt Cleo to share an apartment with himself, his
mother, and his brother. At night, he reads books and tries to
satisfy his hunger for insight on his won life and the lives
around him.
Chapter 15 Analysis:

 

              Part II begins with Richard's arrival in Chicago. Wright separates
Black Boy into two parts particularly to emphasize a transition in
lifestyle and age. First, dividing the autobiographical novel
reflects the theme of duality between the North and the South.
Throughout his childhood, Richard has been exposed to what he
describes as the brutal environment created by the South. The
title of Part I Southern Night insinuates the violent and dark
tone of Richard's childhood. The North, however, has represented
opportunity and freedom for Richard. Second, Part II represents a
change in the narrative style of Black Boy. Rather than simply
recalling events, Wright appears more analytical. Part II is
comprised of may instances where Wright will make use of
parentheses to inject a personal sidenote or analysis of the event
being described. Similarly, Wright will present interesting
juxtapositions between events that happen in Chicago with events
from his childhood in the South.
In Chicago, Richard must learn to adapt to a new environment,
where "color hate" is less prominent and racial boundaries do not
control him. When he takes a job under the Hoffmans, he lies to
them and leaves his job because he still feels he must abide by
Southern social rules that are applied to blacks. Richard says
that he lies to cover his own insecurity; his insecurity stems
from his inability to comprehend any social interaction with
whites beyond the brutal and hateful relationships he has
witnessed in the South.
The title of Part II ­ The Horror and the Glory ­ can be
interpreted as a reflection of the environment of the North.
Whereas Richard is finally able to see instances where people are
not blinded by race, he is presented with other problems. In the
chapter to some, Richard must learn that prejudices are easily
adopted. He is subject to mistreatment because of his education,
his intellect, his socioeconomic background, as well as his
political stance. Again, the juxtaposition of the North and the
South brings out the question on which is worse, according to
Wright: the open brutality of the South or the hidden and
horrifying prejudices of the North.
Chapter 16 Summary:

 

              Richard is finally able to obtain a night job as a postal clerk
after forcing himself to eat; the increased pay allowed them to
move into a larger apartment and buy better food. During the day,
he experiments with stream-of-conscious writing and attempts to
understand the "many modes of Negro behavior" through his writing.
Richard also befriends an Irish young man with whom he has a lot
in common with, sharing their cynicism and beliefs.
Richard also begins to examine several black groups. He meets a
black literary group on Chicago's South Side and finds them almost
bohemian and too absorbed with sex. Richard also meets a group
called the "Garveyites," an organization of black men and women
who seek to return to Africa. Richard observes their passionate
"rejection of America," an emotion that he shares. But despite
their similar emotional dynamic, Richard pities them because they
are unable to see that Africa is really not their home. He views
the Garveyites as na�for not realizing that Africa is under
European imperialism, and that they have already merged too much
with the West to return to native Africa.
Meanwhile, Richard also begins to hear of the Communist Party's
activities, but pays no heed. When the 1929 stock crash occurs,
his pay decreases and there are no positions open for a regular
clerk. He loses his job at the post office, but is rehired the
following summer for temporary work. Aunt Cleo suffers from a
cardiac condition, his mother becomes ill, and his brother
develops stomach ulcers. A distant cousin offers Richard a job
selling insurance, which he accepts. During the year, Richard
works for burial and insurance societies catered toward blacks.
His job allows him, for the first time, to explore the lives of
black people in Chicago. Most policyholders were illiterate and
poor; like many other salesmen, Richard also accepts sexual favors
from women who are unable to make regular insurance payments. He
has a long affair with a young woman obsessed with seeing the
circus. The only relationships she had were sexual and Richard
observes that her intelligence is simple and limited. Not only did
the insurance agents view women as property, but they participated
in swindles that would cheat illiterate policy owners out of money
by switching policy deeds. Wright writes: "I was in and out of
many Negro homes each day and I knew that the Negroes were lost,
ignorant, sick in mind and body."
Richard begins to visit the Washington Park after collecting his
premiums in the afternoon, where many unemployed black people
gather to listen to Communist speakers. He is baffled and angered
by the black Communist movement, noticing that in appearance,
speech, and mannerisms they attempt to copy from white Communists.
Richard criticizes the fact that the speakers adopt from the
styles of black preachers and tend to over-dramatize the militancy
of the masses. Wright questions the understanding of the
Communists as well as the abilities of black men and women to
solve their social problems.
When election time came around, Richard takes a small job rounding
votes for a black Republican precinct captain. On election day, he
stands in the polling booth and realizes the corruption of the
entire political process. On the face of his ballots, he
scribbles: "I Protest This Fraud." Meanwhile, the depression grows
worse and Richard is forced to move his family into a small dingy
rented apartment. One morning, his mother tells him there is no
food for breakfast, and he must go to the Cook County Bureau of
Public Welfare to beg for bread.
Chapter 16 Analysis:

 

              In Part II, we see that Richard begins to assess his social
isolation rather than simply accept it. We see that his isolation
follows him into manhood; just as he found no comradery among
other black children as a boy, Richard is unable to fit in to any
black political or social group. He considers himself more similar
to his Irish postal worker friend than to the members of the
Garveyites or the Negro literary group. This isolation from these
black political communities falls into Wright's criticism of his
own race. Throughout Black Boy, Wright questions whether the black
community is educated enough and strong enough to unify themselves
and overcome racial barriers and oppression. Here, he conveys a
tone of disappointment because he doubts whether the majority of
the black community possesses enough insight regarding their
social situation. To him, the Garveyites are na�in their wish to
return to Africa. To him, the Negro literary group are passionless
and twisted, and he even refers to them as "boys and girls" as if
to emphasize their immaturity. But when Wright writes that he
"caught a glimpse of the potential strength of the American
Negro," he shows that he has not lost all hope yet.
But Richard seems to be constantly discouraged by the black
culture that exists in his environment. As in his childhood, he
acts as an insurance agent selling policies to illiterate black
families, men, and women. Like the plantation families of the
South, he regards the people he encounters in Chicago as
simpletons. The young woman obsessed with the circus is portrayed
as childish and almost stupid. It is ironic that Wright puts
special meaning in her want to see the "animals" in the circus,
for he treats the black community almost like a circus. He
observes them like animals that exhibit only the basic emotions.
For instance, he portrays the young black girl with whom he has an
affair as simple, stupid, and only capable of sexual relations ­
similar to the way in which animals eat, sleep, and procreate.
Richard's first impression of the Communist movement is one that
will characterize his later relationship with the party. He views
their propaganda and tactics as embellished lies and impossible
promises. His comparison between the Communist speaker and the
black preacher is important particularly because throughout Black
Boy, Wright seems to denounce any kind of religion. This
comparison suggests that, like the church, Communism is nothing
but blind faith. He blatantly questions the success of the
Communist Party, asking if "the NegroŠ could possibly cast off his
fear and corruption and rise to the task." By the word "task,"
Wright means overcoming racial oppression and achieving unity.
Richard's gesture, writing "I Protest This Fraud" on his voting
ballot, reflects his undaunting will. But it is ironic that his
gesture of protest is so small. He even says that his action was
"futile" and nothing but a "determined scrawl" across his ballot.
So, despite Richard's desire to rise and overcome, the reader
should question whether Richard is as strong-willed as he thinks
he is.
Chapter 17 Summary:

 

              At the welfare station, Richard is embarrassed at first, but
becomes aware of the bonding experience that is happening around
him: individuals sharing their experiences, unifying themselves.
He leaves the relief station with a new kind of hope: the
possibility that a new understanding of life could be given to
those he had met at the relief station. Richard sheds some of his
cynicism with a want to understand the common black man.
Christmas comes and Richard works at the post office temporarily,
where he again talks to his Irish friend about current events.
When his postal job ends, he seeks employment in a medical
research institute at one of the largest and wealthiest hospitals
in Chicago. He is immediately aware of the racial division set by
the hospital authorities. Along with three other black men,
Richard is restricted to the basement corridors (as to not mingle
with the white workers) and cleans operating rooms and the animal
cages. A boy Richard's age, named Bill, worked with him at the
hospital and was usually sleepy or drunk. Richard is amazed and
shocked by Bill's extremely simple and brutalized mind. The two
other black workers were older and had been employed at the
institute for a longer period of time: Brand and Cooke. Unlike the
others, Richard takes an interest in what the doctors are doing.
One day, one of the doctors leaves a bottle of Nembutal ­ an
anesthetic ­ out. Curious, Richard opens the bottle and smells it.
Brand pretends that the Nembutal is poisonous and scares Richard
by telling him to run or he'll fall dead. Once, the authorities
send a young Jewish boy to time Richard as he cleans a room. After
timing him, the boys calculates how long it will take Richard to
clean all the rooms and five flights of steps. From then on,
Richard feels like a slave, trying to work against time.
At the hospital, Brand and Cooke do nothing but feud with each
other. One day, the two begin to argue over what year the last
coldest day in Chicago was. Cooke pulls a long knife from his
pocket and Brand seizes an ice pick to defend himself. The two
ensure in a physical battle and although no one is hurt, the
animal cages topple over, letting dogs, mice, guinea pigs and rats
run loose everywhere. The four black workers spend the rest of
their lunch break trying to sort the animals out, randomly placing
mice and rats in their cages, not knowing whether they were the
cancerous rats or the ones injected with tuberculosis. None of the
doctors notice that anything is wrong and neither of the workers
tells the director about the disaster. Richard notes that because
of the way in which the black workers are treated, they learn to
form their own code of ethics, values, and loyalty.
Chapter 17 Analysis:

 

              Again in Chapter 17, we see that Richard and his family are still
plagued by hunger. With the depression in full swing, we also see
that hunger plagues the entire community. But for Richard, the
hunger again manifests itself in a hunger for knowledge, not just
food. In the medical institute, Richard longs for the education
that he sees other white young men receiving. Instead, his
questions are ignored and the doctor even replies that Richard's
"brains might explode" should he "know too much." Even in Chicago,
he is still being denied access to education.
Richard also begins to sense that he is not alone in his plight
and poverty. At the relief station, he begins to see that there is
an entire society that has been rejected by society itself or as
Richard puts it, he is "not alone in [his] loneliness." There is a
strength in numbers that Richard begins to realize. This comes
into play when the black workers are trying to fix the mess they
make in the medial institute; Richard realizes that within the
black community ­ among his fellow workers ­ there existed a
separate moral code.
Chapter 18 Summary:

 

              One Thursday night, Richard is invited to join a group of white
boys whom he met at the post office to talk about politics, argue,
eat and drink. Many of the boys have joined the Communist Party,
and one day a boy named Sol announces that one of his short
stories is going to be published in a Communist journal. Sol, a
member of the John Reed Club ­ a Communist literary organization ­
tries to convince Richard to attend one of their meetings. Richard
is doubtful whether the Community Party has any sincere interest
in the black community, but finally attends one of the Chicago
John Reed Club meetings out of boredom. He is given a handful of
Communist magazines and is encouraged to participate in Left
Front, one of their journals. Richard decides that he will try to
humanize Communism to the common man through his writing, and
composes a few verses that are accepted by some of the Communist
publications.
Richard begins to attend more of the meetings, and he realizes
that the club has factional disputes, or fights between club
members. The disputes are between the writers (those who are
mainly in charge of Left Front) and the painters. Richard is
elected as executive secretary to satisfy both of the groups. He
tries to satisfy everybody on top of trying to keep Left Front
published, though the Communist Party members think that the
publication is useless.
One day, a young Jewish man who introduces himself as Comrade
Young attends one of the Chicago meetings, stating that he has
just moved from Detroit. Without money, Young asks Richard if he
can use the John Reed Club headquarters for lodging. Thinking that
Young is sincere and loyal, Richard agrees. Young impresses the
best painters in the club with his artwork and becomes admired by
all. Richard tries to contact the Detroit chapter to ask for
information of Young, but he gets no reply. At one meeting, Young
accuses Swann  one of the club's best young artists  of being a
traitor to the workers. Chaos and verbal battles ensue within the
club until Comrade Young disappears mysteriously. One afternoon,
Richard and Comrade Grimm search the luggage that Young left
behind at the club. They find a Detroit address, to which Richard
writes and asks for news about Young. A few days later, he
receives a reply from a mental institution saying that Young had
previously escaped but was apprehended and back in custody. All
charges against Swann were dropped and Richard, along with some
other trusted members of the club, keeps the information about
Young a secret from the others.
Chapter 18 Analysis:

 

              In the previous chapter, we see that Richard loses some of his
cynicism and gains a little hope that the black community can
unite to overcome their obstacles. His hope becomes manifested in
his involvement with the Communist Party. Although the ideals of
the Communist Party appeal to Richard, he is somewhat nay when he
places his faith in a political institution. Richard believes that
he can single-handedly unify the political and cultural needs of
black society through his words. But he seems to be underqualified
to act as an executive secretary.
The incident with Comrade Young shows that Richard is still scared
to speak his mind, one reason why he fails to question Young about
his past in Detroit. In fact, Young's own hinting that he is
involved with the Central Committee is enough to cause most of the
club members to not question his presence. We see that even within
the organization, there exists paranoia, anxiety, and factional
disputes. How does an organization that is inherently unstable
strive to unify society at large?
Chapter 19 Summary:

 

              Now a full-fledged member of the Communist Party, Richard attends
a secret unit the party's basic form of organization meeting
and proposes his idea to write a book of biographical sketches of
black Communists. The members, despite Richard's background, label
him an "intellectual" because of hi proper speech and dress.
Richard also learns that the unit does not approve of him reading
materials outside of Party literature, claiming that other
literature is bourgeois, or not for the masses. Richard begins to
fear their militant ignorance.
Richard begins to interview Ross, a communist who had been charged
with "inciting to riot," for his biographical book. But he begins
to receive threats from party leaders with messages such as:
"Intellectuals don't fit well into the party, Wright." One morning
in Ross's home, a black Communist named Ed Green arrives and
begins to question Richard. Green is a member of the Party's
Central Committee a man with power and is suspicious of
Richard's work. As days pass, Ross begins to speak less and less
to Richard. Soon afterward, Ross is charged with anti-leadership
tendencies. Richard drops his idea of making a book of
biographical sketches and instead, uses his material from Ross to
write short stories.
Thereafter, the Party leaders decide to disband all clubs and
assign writers to composing party pamphlets and other propaganda.
Richard begins to tear himself away from the party. Buddy Nealson,
a member of the Communist International, is sent to Chicago to
take over the black Communist movement. Nealson launches a
campaign to rid the party of all "Negro Trotskyite elements," in
other words, to rid the club of traitors to the party. In 1935,
Richard attends a party conference in New York. In New York, the
conference organizers are unable to find Richard a room to stay in
because he is black. Dejected, Richard is defeated in the vote to
maintain clubs and the John Reed Clubs are officially dissolved.
Free of party relations, Richard turns to his writing. He becomes
aware that Buddy Nealson has accused him of being a party
degenerate and a traitor. One day, Ed Green stops by to tell
Richard that Buddy Nealson wishes to speak to him. When Richard
goes to a meeting with Nealson, Nealson tries to recruit Richard
back into the party to win the fight against Fascists. He orders
Richard to organize a committee against the high cost of living.
Though he wants to, Richard cannot bring himself to quit. He
accepts the task.
One day, he is called to another meeting with Nealson and one of
his friends, named Smith. Smith wishes to send Richard on a task
in Switzerland, but Richard refuses to go. At the next unit
meeting, Richard officially resigns from the party. The party
shuns Richard and he is accused of being involved in a Trotskyite
group. He is transferred from his work at the South Side Boys'
Club to work in the Federal Negro Theatre as a publicity agent.
Working with a talented Jewish director named Charles DeSheim,
Richard sees that the theater's talents are going to waste and
sets himself on producing a series of one-act plays about Negro
life. But the actors picket, forcing DeSheim and Richard to accept
their papers and leave the theater.
Transferred to white experimentalist theater as a publicity agent,
Richard vows to keep his mouth shut, steer clear of black theater,
and avoid and party members. One evening, a group of black
communists invite Richard to attend a Sunday meeting, where Ross
will be on trial for being a traitor. Richard attends the trial
out of curiosity. After being charged with the crimes, Ross breaks
down and says he is guilty while asking the party for forgiveness.
Richard finds his submission amazing and feels that the entire
party has become blind by corruption. He leaves the trial.
Afterwards, only one party member named Harold has the courage to
speak to Richard.
Chapter 19 Analysis:

 

              Richard is fully entrenched in the Communist Party, fastened by
the idea that he will be able to humanize the goals of the
Communist movement by injecting their cause with black culture.
However, it is ironic that the other party members consider
Richard an intellectual and shun him because of his status.
Richard joins the party because they are blind to race, but he
does not consider that they are biased toward other socioeconomic
factors, such as education. To Wright, this is astounding that
they can label someone who has grown up in poverty as bourgeois.
Their ignorance toward Richard's background serves to isolate him
from the party and the Communist vision.
Even within the Communist Party, though, racism still exists. When
Richard is unable to find a room at the conference in New York, he
realizes it is because he is black. At that point, even Richard's
notion that the Communist party has achieved his goal of racial
unity is broken.
In Chapter 19, Wright juxtaposes himself with Ross, the party
member accused of anti-leadership behavior and inciting to riot.
Both Ross and Wright are accused of being traitors to the party,
but Ross is placed on trial and is somehow "broken" in spirit. We
see that Richard is able to maintain his strong will, despite his
inability to stand his ground within the party. Why does Ross
break down? One reason is Richard's already growing isolation from
the party and the black community. Whereas Ross is dependent on
his peers for social and emotional support, Richard is able to
survive on his own and in loneliness the way he has done for
almost his entire life.
Chapter 20 Summary:

 

              Richard was transferred from the Federal Experimental Theater to
the Federal Writers' Project, writing guidebooks. Many of his
co-workers are Communist members, but they are not allowed to
speak to him because he has been deemed a traitor. One day the
project administrator calls Richard into the office and informs
him that several of his co-workers are trying to drive Richard
away from his job. Richard learns that his dismissal from the
theater project was also related to his relations with the party.
His boss refuses to dismiss Richard based on politics. Meanwhile,
Richard's co-workers call him profane names.
Richard decides to end everything by making an appointment with
the head of the local Communist Party. But instead, he is only
able to make an appointment with the secretary's secretary, a girl
named Alma Zetkin. Zetkin says almost nothing to Richard and he
leaves without accomplishing anything.
On May Day of 1936, the union votes that everybody should march in
the procession. Following printed instructions of where to meet
his correct group for the parade, Richard learns that he is 15
minutes late and is instructed to fall in anywhere. Richard is
invited by a black communist an old party friend  to march with
the South Side Communist Section. When he is seen by Cy Perry  a
white Communist  he is instructed to fall out of their ranks and
leave the parade. Asking his black friend to speak up, Richard
receives no support and is physically thrown out of the parade.
From that day forth, Richard decides to fight back using words,
fight back through his writing.
Chapter 20 Analysis:

 

              Richard finally realizes the limitations of the Communist Party
and their ignorance toward his own motivations. His final
interaction with the Communist members of the South Side section
pushes him over the edge because it not only combines their
political ignorance but racial ignorance. Richard feels that
Communism has distorted the racial issue facing the black
community, and when his friend fails to speak back to Cy Perry, he
sees it as akin to the racism he encountered in the South. Again,
Richard's isolation is brought out. The May Day parade is a final
turning point where Richard realizes that he may always be alone
in his ideas and beliefs.
The novel ends when Richard finally realizes the incredible power
that his words will eventually have. He decides that he will use
his words as weapons, appealing to the humanistic and emotional
qualities in man and society.
Despite the violent and depressing images presented in Black Boy,
we see that Wright himself has shed his cynicism, ending with a
note of hope. The song he quotes ("Arise, you wretched of the
earth a better world's in birth") expresses his new profound
belief that eventually, society will rise above its ills and
prejudices. Wright even shows his optimism by shedding the images
of childhood and of the brutal South: "The days of my youth, were
receding from me like a rolling tide, leaving me alone upon high,

              dry ground, leaving me with a quieter and deeper consciousness."