Black Boy Prose Prompt
English 2 Honors
Jon Weiss
We all expect something of each other. As we go through life we set up these
expectations of other people’s personalities and beliefs. Often times we are wrong, but
we continue to judge people nonetheless. In Black Boy, Richard Wright’s autobiography,
Richard is subject to this very same judgmental view of the “black” population that we
“white” men set up. In writing the novel, Richard uses sets of paradoxical ironies in his
own past to define his position in life, a rebellious “black” unwilling to conform, and why
he was that way, because of the impact religion had on him.
Religion? How is it that religion is the reason for Richard’s rebellious soul? Well,
it was Granny. “Granny bore the standard for God, but she was always fighting” (Wright,
pg. 136). Granny had been Richard’s first real connection to religion, so now Granny
“became” religion. So when Richard’s mother got sick and Granny took over, it was no
longer his guardian who beat him for doing bad things, it was religion that beat him. To
Richard, it was as if God himself was the one dealing the blows. Ironically, this idea
comes to us as a paradox. Would God, according to common belief, strike a blow to
someone like Richard for the simple wrongs he had committed? No he wouldn’t, but if
you think about it, it makes perfect sense. If God only “appeared” to be the one striking
the blows, but really was not, then it begins to make sense. It’s a paradox, impossible
until you think about it.
That falls in with the other things Richard says as well. In Black Boy Richard
connects the ability to beat someone up, with power. If you beat someone up, you are
more powerful than them, simple as that. Therefore, in Granny’s constant assaults on
Richard, he begins to connect religion to beatings, and then, to power. “Wherever I found
religion in my life I found strife, the attempt of one individual or group to rule another in
the name of God” (Wright, pg 136). Did Granny try to rule Richard? Of course, she was a
frail old thing who believed fear was her only shot at getting power over Richard. Ironic,
isn’t it? The old women who fiercely believes in the power of God, believing she had to
beat Richard to get any sort of power over him.
However, it is important to notice that Richard uses the word “strife”, that means
a fight or disagreement between two peoples. Richard could have used a word like “pain”
or “violence” to convey the fact that he was beaten almost regularly by the woman he
viewed as the symbol of religion. But he didn’t, he used strife, which means there was
fighting involved, and that the competitors each had a chance, however small, at victory.
Richard’s rebellious soul stemmed from this, because Richard fought back. “I, too,
fought; but I fought because I felt I had to keep from being crushed, to fend off
continuous attack” (Wright, pg 136). It’s ironic, because the only reason he rebelled was
because he had “to keep from being crushed” by continuous attacks. So the defender
turns into an advocate for himself, a scene paradoxical in nature, for who would expect
one who squirms at every blow to begin to stand up and take the fight to others? Yet
that’s what happened to good old Richard.
So is that Richard’s position in life? A rebellious “black” boy, made that way
because of poor religious influence? There’s more to it, but that about sums it up. You
see, it’s the way Richard has presented us with this information that is most important
here. As has been mentioned, a set of paradoxical ironies are what Richard uses in an
effort to explain his position in life as a “black” boy. However, if one looks closely
enough, many, many lines begin to appear that intertwine and interconnect everything
Richard has said, culminating at one point that explains it all. That on some subconscious
level, Richard’s rebellious nature sees Granny, the symbol of religion, and sees weakness
in the woman who beat Richard so terribly, because she had to beat him to gain power.
So, naturally, since Granny is the symbol of religion, Richard saw the very same
weakness he saw in Granny in religion as well. So Richard defends himself, to the point
that he stands up and takes the fight to Granny. Thus we see Richard’s position in life
defined as someone who stands alone, not allowing any weakness to settle in him. Here
we find our final paradoxical irony, for Richard’s position in life is exactly the opposite
of what he was expected to be as a “black” boy, and we see that irony in the fact that
Richard was a “black” boy who acted like a “white” man.