From Fighting Words Summary

Analysis of Fighting Words In this analysis, I’m analyzing From Fighting Words by Richard Wright. As I read the story, I saw that Wright has no clear thesis, but as I read I noticed that the story gave me ideas. During my reading, I saw that Wright has a lot of themes, and symbols, and causes and effect. To start off, a literary device that Richard wright uses is theme. In Fighting words, he does not just use one theme he uses multiple themes. One of his theme that he uses is that you have to work when you want to obtain knowledge. An example from the story is “I want to ask you a…. I wonder if you’d let me use your card?” Another example for this is “That afternoon I addressed myself to forging a note.” Another them that used is Racism’s
Restrictions. A supporting detail would be “there was a huge library near the riverfront… any more than they are were the parks and playgrounds of the city.” Another theme is some of the whites in the south did not want blacks reading books. An example “what books by Mencken does he want…. Oh no mam. I can’t read.” One theme his uses is when reading the knowledge obtain can change your life. Example from the story “Now it surged up again… new ways of looking and seeing.” Another Literary device he uses is symbols and his major symbol is books. One of the things symbolizes is knowledge. An example is “It was not a matter of believing or disbelieving what I read, but… that made the look of the world different.” Books also symbolized history. An example from the story is “Who were these men about whom Mencken was talking so… and scores of others?” Another thing books had symbolized was power. An example for is “yes, this man was fighting, fighting with words… on earth anybody had the courage to say it.” A method of development that Wright uses is cause and effect. The thing that causes Wright to want to read was “The article was a furious… Short sentence: Mencken is a fool.” Some examples of effects that this had Wright was he had he had to lie. Here an example of him lying “That afternoon I addressed myself to forging a note… Have some books by H.L. Mencken? I forged the white man’s name.” Another effect this had on him he was enlightened by Mencken’s work. An example is “I opened A Book of Prefaces… the clear, clean, sweeping sentences.” Another effect it had on Wright was he became wiser. The example here is “I concluded the book with conviction that I had somehow… being affected by something that made the look of the world different.” In the end, Wright use many tools, but the ones I give is just a few of them. As I kept reading I noticed that Wright uses a lot of themes, symbols and causes and effect.