Black Boy
The World Through His Eyes
Things are always nicer in thought than in reality; with some this is not a big deal, but with others it’s a deal breaker. In Richard Wright’s case, this is a major “deal breaker”. This is all in Richard Wright’s autobiography titled Black Boy. Richard, as a young boy, is constantly beaten and rebuked wrongly by his family. As a young man, he discovers money and thrives for knowledge and writing skill. Finally, as a mature adult he goes through stressful issues with his Communist friends. As he is growing up he is beaten, told off, and frightened; but above all else, he is constantly being disappointed by his imagination always being worse than his reality; this is what made him the man he is today. Being disappointed is one of the worst feelings one can have; feeling it all the time would be unbearable. Richard is told he will go on a huge beautiful boat on his journey to a new home from his old burned down home; “For days I had dreamed about a huge white boat floating on a vast body of water, but when my mother took me down to the levee on the day of leaving, I saw a tiny, dirty boat that was not at all like the boat I had imagined. I was disappointed and when the time came to go on board I cried and my mother thought that I did not want to go with her to Memphis, and I could not tell her what the trouble was” (pg. 9). Having all this excitement and joy taken right out of your head all at once is a catastrophe. This adds constant dullness to life and surprises which ensures his sadness and therefore, making him want to change. After more of these disappointments, Richard builds an opinion of his imagination; “My imaginings, of course, had no objective value whatever” (pg. 74). Having the opinion that your own thought is of no value is depressing. Depression can lead to a desire to fix things in your life that you may not have otherwise. The feeling of being let down is one of the most crushing feelings one can experience. The
Things are always nicer in thought than in reality; with some this is not a big deal, but with others it’s a deal breaker. In Richard Wright’s case, this is a major “deal breaker”. This is all in Richard Wright’s autobiography titled Black Boy. Richard, as a young boy, is constantly beaten and rebuked wrongly by his family. As a young man, he discovers money and thrives for knowledge and writing skill. Finally, as a mature adult he goes through stressful issues with his Communist friends. As he is growing up he is beaten, told off, and frightened; but above all else, he is constantly being disappointed by his imagination always being worse than his reality; this is what made him the man he is today. Being disappointed is one of the worst feelings one can have; feeling it all the time would be unbearable. Richard is told he will go on a huge beautiful boat on his journey to a new home from his old burned down home; “For days I had dreamed about a huge white boat floating on a vast body of water, but when my mother took me down to the levee on the day of leaving, I saw a tiny, dirty boat that was not at all like the boat I had imagined. I was disappointed and when the time came to go on board I cried and my mother thought that I did not want to go with her to Memphis, and I could not tell her what the trouble was” (pg. 9). Having all this excitement and joy taken right out of your head all at once is a catastrophe. This adds constant dullness to life and surprises which ensures his sadness and therefore, making him want to change. After more of these disappointments, Richard builds an opinion of his imagination; “My imaginings, of course, had no objective value whatever” (pg. 74). Having the opinion that your own thought is of no value is depressing. Depression can lead to a desire to fix things in your life that you may not have otherwise. The feeling of being let down is one of the most crushing feelings one can experience. The