Black Boy

Black Boy
Bigotry alienates and victimizes people. In “Black Boy” Richard Wright introduces a character who is both a victim and a victimizer.
Richard Wright’s dysfunctional family victimizing tendencies become clear when his father abandons him and becomes confused, unstable, and untamed. Later, in court during child support hearings, Wright resents his smiling father and feels for his crying mother. In another instance Wright’s mother asks him to go ask his father for money and finds him “comfortable” with another woman. His father laughs again, and denies having any money but gives them a nickel after “the woman” says how cute he was. Hurt by his fathers laugh, he takes the nickel an...