Hello there! It’s been a while I rarely post something on my blog. Here I have my analysis about ‘Black Boy’ Novel by Richard Wright in terms of theme. I was asked by my lecturer to find theme ‘Hunger’ in this novel. Hunger here isn’t only associated with something to eat, but also power, acceptance, as well as knowledge.
This novel has the background on the principle of American Dream and the condition of different race in the Northern and Southern USA.
Hunger for food
1. “Hunger stole upon me so slowly that at first I was not aware of what hunger really meant. The hunger I…had made me beg constantly for bread, and when I ate a crust or two I was satisfied. (page 16)
It means that Richard starts to know the feeling of hunger itself, but he thinks it is normal hunger so that he only needs bread.
2. “Whenever I beg for food now my mother would pour me a cup of tea…, but a little later I would feel hungry” (page 16),
Richard’s mom doesn’t have anything to eat. Therefore, she can only give tea to her children.
3. “I always loved to stand in the white folks’ kitchen when my mother cooked, for it meant that I got occasional scraps of bread and meat; but many times I regretted having come…” (page 22)
This expresses that Richard hopes he can eat some meals while his mother is cooking, but the fact is that he and his brother still keep being hungry as they are forbidden to eat.
4. “I was happy, not because the preacher was coming, but because of the chicken” (page 30)
Richard shows that he eats tasty food once in a blue moon, he rarely has fried chicken for dinner.
5. “Can I eat all I want?”….. I ate until my stomach hurt, but even then I didn’t want to get up from the table” (page 58)
This sentence shows that Richard is being greedy as he wants to eat all the food in Uncle Hoskins’ house. Greedy is a sign that Richard always feels hungry, and he will be happy just as he sees food.
6. Even after I had got used to seeing the table loaded with food at each meal, I still stole bread and put it into my pockets” (page 59)
This explains that Richard doesn’t want to be hungry any more, he takes a preventive action in case the food is run out.
7. “I know hunger, biting hunger, hunger that made my body aimlessly restless,…, hunger that created in me odd cravings”
It describes what Richard feels when he is hungry as if he starves to death.
8. “Hunger was with us always. Sometimes the neighbor would feed us or a dollar bill would come in the mail from my grandmother” (page 32)
It shows the severe condition of Richard and family till they are helped by others for a living.
9.“No pork or veal was ever eaten at Granny’s house, and rarely was there meat of any kind. We seldom ate fish..”
It shows that his family is poor and can’t afford to buy delicious food, meat or fish.
10. “you can’t sit in school all day and not eat” he said
“What am I going to eat?” I asked
“Why don’t you do like me?”
“What do you do?”
“I sell papers” (page 149)
From these dialogues we can learn that Richard must work to get food, he have to sell newspapers to get money for food.
Hunger for Knowledge
1. “Don’t you know how to count?”
“No, sir,” I said
“In about an hour’s time I had learned to count to a hundred and I was overjoyed” (page 26)
It conveys that Richard seeks for knowledge on how to count, to know numbers, and he is happy to get it.
2. “But I want to know”, “When you grow up, you’ll read the books and know what’s in them” (page 45)
In these dialogues, Richards is curious about the book read by Ella, a schoolteacher he meets at Granny’s house.
3. “.. if something was being sold next door, then I certainly wanted to know about it” (page 73)
This sentence convinces the reader that Richard is a curious boy, he wants to know all the things which attract him.
4. “I would read the newspaper with my mother guiding me and spelling out the words. I soon became a nuisance by asking far too many questions of everybody” (page 26).
Here Richard tells himself that he likes reading and learning. Hence, he keeps questioning his mom about many things he wanna know.
5. “.. and I vowed that as soon as I was old enough I would buy all the novels there were and read them to feed that thirst..” (page 46)
Richard promises to himself that he plans to buy all books he wants to get knowledge that he is interested in.
6. “I hungered for books, new ways of looking and seeing…by something that made the look of the world different” (page 294)
I think this sentence tells the curiosity of Richard to read many books as these open the whole new world for him.
7. “During that noon hour I learned four letter words describing physiological and sex function…”(page 28) means that Richard gets to know something new although he doesn’t know what these words mean, he just tries to learn vocabulary.
8. “I dreamed of going north and writing books, novels. The north symbolized to me all that I had not felt and seen.” (page 199)
From this evidence we learn that the north is better than the south, Richard thinks that he may be able to write books and novels if he is in the north. All kinds of people get the same right over there.
9. “Reading was like a drug, a dope. The novels create mood in which I lived for days” (page 295)
“I felt that I was getting a better sense of the language from novels…” (page 296)
It shows that reading has become Richard’s activity, reading grows into his passion. Even he likes reading novels as they also contain moral value and make him forget about his problems for a while.
10. I had gone to the library several times to get books for white man on the job. Which of them would now help me to get books? ( page 288)
“Dear Madam, will you please let this nigger boy have some books by H.L. Mencken” (page 291)
Richards wants to know more about Mencken, so he needs to go to library to borrow some books. Mencken is a writer of American Mercury, he also tells about the life of Negroes in the south.
Hunger for power
1.“Watching the white people eat would make my stomach chum and I would grow vaguely angry. Why could I not eat when I was hungry…I couldn’t understand why some people had enough food and others did not” (page 22)
Here, Richards thinks that he has no power to eat the same food as what the white people do. Therefore, he wonders why there is gap between white people and colored people. It shows that he seeks for power the same as white folks.
2.“Why had we not fought back? I asked my mother, and the fear that was in her made her slap me into silence” (page 64)
This statement shows that he has been longing for powerfulness to fight the white people as they killed his Uncle.
3. “Then, why don’t all the black men fight all the white men out there? There are more black man than white man over there..” (page 68)
Richard portrays the condition of black people that are powerless, so he thinks why they don’t fight the white man, why these black people aren’t brave enough to attack.
4. “When I reached the corner, a gang of boys grabbed me, knocked me down, snatched the basket, took the money, and sent me running home”
“I am going to teach you this night to stand up and fight for yourself” (page 18-19)
These evidences show that Richard is fear with the boys and can’t do anything to defend himself, so her mother tells him to fight them by giving stick.
5. “Do you know what the Ku Kluxers do to colored people?”
“They kill us. They keep us from voting and getting good jobs” (page 154)
These dialogues show that the black people have no power to fight the white folks, even they are killed. Black people have no right in any aspects as they are underestimated.
6. “I knew that I lived in a country in which the aspirations of black people were limited, marked-off. Yet I felt that I had to go somewhere and do something to redeem my being alive” (page 199)
Here Richard wants to flee from his suffer in the place he stays. He seeks for power as well as acceptance. He wants to go to the place where the colored people are respected and get the same right.
7. “I was happy when she expressed the hope that someday soon we might have a home of our own” (page 177)
This shows that Richard wants to be rich so that he can buy his own house. Therefore, Richard believes that someone who is rich has more power and more influence. It is the concept of American Dream.
Hunger for acceptance
1. “At noon recess I went into the school grounds and a group of boys sauntered up to me, looked at me from my head to my feet … to conceal my uneasiness” (page 106)
It shows that Richard is looked down on by others, he is just wondering why they do it and why they can’t see him normally.
2. “Can’t I sleep somewhere else?” (page 110)
“There’s nowhere else for you to sleep”
These dialogues show that Richard isn’t respected, someone sees him as a dumbass.
3. Hell, I ain’t gonna stand near you, niggger! (page 92)
This is a statement from Richard’s friend who is white people, somebody looks down on him in school; he gets mockery. He isn’t accepted by his friends as well.
4. “They kill us. They keep us from voting and getting good jobs” (page 154)
It is the statement coming from Richard, he said that black people don’t get the same treatment such as they can’t vote and get better job, black people are always far behind the white.
5. “You’ll never be a writer,” she said. “Who on earth put such ideas into your nigger head?” (page 173)
It clearly shows that the woman underestimates Richard, she doesn’t think that nigger could be a writer, it is impossible. Hence, the point of inequality is shown when Richard wants to be a writer but the woman puts aside his ambition.
6. “I knew that I lived in a country in which the aspirations of black people were limited, marked-off. Yet I felt that I had to go somewhere and do something to redeem my being alive” (page 199)
Here Richard wants to flee from his suffer in the place he stays. He seeks for power as well as acceptance. He has to go somewhere that the colored people are respected and get the same right as well as the white.
7. There was a huge library near the riverfront, but I knew that Negroes were not allowed to patronize its shelves any more than they were the parks and playground of the city. (page 288)
This evidence convinces the inequality between white and colored people as the black people are limited to get access into public facilities such as library.
8. “I longed to be among them, yet when with them I looked at them as if they were a million miles away. I had been kept out of their world too long to ever be able to become a real part of it”
Richard is never able to really fit in socially even though he desires to do so. His interaction with his friends always comes to trouble, and he doesn’t understand why they always ignore him.
9. “What was it that made the hate of whites for black so steady, seemingly so woven into the texture of things? What kind of life was possible under that hate? How had this hate come to be?”
Richard asks the adults about the racial inequalities he sees and why they have come to be, but he is not able to get the answer. Even he is punished for asking about it. It is also a sign that Richard is still unable to accept the treatment he receives.
Clevaster 