Open Response to Black Boy

Black Boy is an autobiography written by Richard Wright about the early years of his life and years after that.

In his early years, Richard was hungry for attention. Such as when he was little he set the white curtains in his house on fire to see what it would look like, but another reason he did that was to get attention since he was not getting a lot of attention when his grandmother was sick. Another incident was when he would go to a local saloon and stand outside watching people go in and out of the saloon. One day a man carried him into the saloon and everyone started ordering him drinks so he would get drunk. When he was drunk, the men and women would give him a penny of a nickel to go recite vulgar words to another person. He would go to the saloon everyday since no one is at home to pay any attention to him. He goes there not for the drinks but for the attention of the men and women in the saloon.

As he gets older, he started to be hungry for freedom to do what ever he wants. He wanted to write when ever he feels like it, but all his friends and family members discourage him from doing so. He wanted to go get jobs and earn money to buy his own food and clothes, but he was not allow to do this by his Granny because they are not allow to work on Saturdays. However, she does eventually allow him to work on Saturdays since she knows his soul can not be saved. When in his teens, he tried to earn enough money to move North, since in the South the Jim Crow rules does not allow him to do certain things. He does not want to follow the rules of the whites such as to say yes,sir and no,sir to them when being asked a question. Since he could not be a writer in the South, he decided to go North so he can write whatever he wants.

I have not finished this book yet, but I hope to do so soon. So far I find this to be an interesting book and I would recommend that people should read it.