March 19

 

Richard Wright is taught about morality from his actions. He either has a guilty feeling like when he was stealing from people, or he would get into trouble with his mother or father. Since Wright did not believe in religion, I do not believe that the church influenced his learning about morality in any way. He may have learned about morality a little bit in school by learning about the proper way to act. I had a hard time finding a direct connection from Wright’s life with the passage that we read, but the education that Wright received did teach him morality. When he went to a religious school, I felt that he learned less since he was against religion. When he went to a non-religious school, he was able to learn more from it about morality since he had a better attitude about it. 

March 16

Wright’s realization at the end of Black Boy is that the world is not and is never going be what he wants. He is never going to find the perfect place to live. By living in Chicago and the South he realizes that both places have downsides and they are not fully to his liking since they are not what he envisions as perfect. Wright also realizes that the people around him are not like him. He struggled throughout most of the book with relationships and by the end he realizes that he does not form the same types of relationships that other people do. On the last page of the book, Wright decides that the only ways to express his views to other people is to write them in words. He says that if people respond, even at all to his writings, then he will write more. It will be a sign to him that people understand him and his life experiences through his writing.  

March 13

I don’t fully agree with Wright that artists and politicians are at opposite poles. Both types of people can be open thinkers and make their work through their creative sides. Artists are always creating new pieces of work that no one has ever created before or done the same way that they have done it. Politicians are always coming up with new ideas to try to help people or make things better in different areas of the world. There is a lot of creativity involved in both jobs. Both jobs also allow them to influence other people either through art or decisions that are made. I do agree with Wright in the fact that the jobs that they do are complete opposites. The thinking is very different since one is a personal decision on what to create versus ones that can change something for many people like creating a law. 

March 12

Yes, I believe that it is possible that one voice can move a crowd to action. It takes an extremely determined person to do it, but it is possible. In Black Boy, Young was able to move the entire club with his ideas and the presentation of his ideas. He was extremely motivated to push his ideas to the club, so everyone heard and believed him. Even though he was presenting these ideas without knowing the truth, he was still able to get people to believe him. He was so determined to make people believe him that Wright was even fooled into thinking he was correct in what he said. The ridiculousness of his ideas also grabbed the attention of his audience. It is possible to move a crowd to action with one voice assuming that the person is motivated, determined, and has a strong enough presentation of ideas to gain the attention of the people they want to move to action. 

March 10

“(It was not until I had left the delicatessen job that I saw how grossly I had misread the motices and attitudes of Mr. Hoffman and his wife. I had not yet learned anything that would have helped me to threat my way through these perplexing racial relations. Accepting my environment at its face value, trapped by my own emotions, I kept asking myself what had black people done to bring this crazy world upon them?” (265)

 

My initial thought when reading this paragraph was that Wright was going to go on to say how badly Mr. and Mrs. Hoffman had treated him at the deli. It took me reading farther in the chapter to realize that they didn’t treat him badly; they just treated him differently than any other white person had ever treated him. It was interesting how he had for so long wanted whites to treat him differently, but when they finally did he didn’t know how to act and ended up secluding himself even more than before. Had someone treated him like this in the south, he would have been even more wary of him or her than he was of the Hoffman’s. He posed a good question at the end of the paragraph by asking what the black people did to deserve everything. He never goes on to answer the question because he doesn’t know the answer, but it got me thinking.  

March 6

Wright’s next move at the end of part one is to move to Chicago with his aunt and start a new life. He also wants to earn enough money to bring his mother and brother up as well. I think this will be a positive move for him. Although, he was successful in Memphis with a good paying job where he was able to get along with the whites and he had a nice place to stay, he wasn’t completely happy. If he didn’t take the chance to go to Chicago then he would never truly be happy. There may be a negative side to his actions, like not making it in the city or not making enough money to bring his mother and brother to the city. In general though, the actions will have a positive influence in his life and if nothing else, it will allow him to realize that he tried and that he couldn’t succeed. 

March 5

Yes, subservience is a necessary part of living. In Wright’s case it was necessary because the only way he could have a job and survive in the south was to do what the white people told him to do. He goes against subservience when it comes to how he treats his Uncle Tom and the other people around him, but the majority of his time is spent doing what other people want, whether he likes it or not. It also applies to everyday life for anyone. Following the law would be considered subservience because the law tells people what they can and can’t do. If subservience was not a part of everyday life than people would be running around doing whatever they wanted without caring about anyone else. Subservience isn’t just a necessary part of society, but it is a part of everyone’s life. 

March 3

When Wright says he had “begun coping with the white world too late,” he meant that he was at a disadvantage because he had not been taught what the other kids had been taught about “white” people. Griggs had warned him earlier in the book that the “white” people didn’t like him because of the way that he treated them. This shows up in these two chapters because Wright goes through many jobs and they are all ones where he has to be very careful with what he says or does. At one point, he works at the hotel where Griggs’ brother worked and was killed; this was one job where he had to be especially careful because he had to act differently than he ever had before. He learns a lot of lessons and he has to work harder than the other kids to keep jobs especially since he was saving money. 

March 2

I do believe that Wright was justified in not giving the speech at his graduation. It would not have meant anything to Wright had he given the speech that the principal had written for him. It also showed that he would give into any pressure that was pushed upon him, even from an adult. Wright did not want to show weakness and letting one sign of weakness slip would ruin his image forever. Pride was also an issue and I think that in his case, it was better that he not risk his pride than to give into the principal. Pride was one of the things that Wright was getting out of his education and giving that up would mean losing a huge part of his schooling. In the end, I think that it was better that Wright refused to give the speech than risk his image and his pride.