the careless boy

ethics

The ethics of living Jim Crow require that Richard be abject, obedient, and silent a slave in everything but name. Yet everything we know about his character has prepared us to expect rebellion. He might be shy and reserved, but he is nobody's pawn. How he will, in fact, deal with the shock of confronting real white people is completely unpredictable. He craves the independence and the necessities which a job will provide. But how much of himself will he have to sell in order to buy those things?

His first confrontation is disastrous. His employer, a female, does more than abuse his race and his humanity. She abuses his aspirations to be a writer and he cannot return to work for her afterward. His next job at least brings him good food. But he is astounded by the way the white family treats one another. Richard is at first shocked, then curious, at their behavior. It makes for good stories at school, although he is exhausted by the work itself.

Oddly, it is not really through his relations with these people that we are exposed to his reactions toward whites. Rather, it is through his response to his Uncle Tom, who has moved in with them, that we see the intensity of his rebellious feelings about Jim Crow society. His refusal, on violent terms, to let his uncle beat him for speaking forthrightly, is his refusal to live by the standards of his time. He will not be anyone's slave or anyone's whipping boy. His uncle says that this rebellious spirit will lead him to the gallows, never considering that it might lead him far beyond the gallows. Richard can react only with contempt for his uncle because he has learned, through his jobs, the significance of all the baffling beatings he has received at home. He sees how these beatings fit into the whole social structure, and he refuses to participate.

Aside from the book's aesthetic and historical value, Black Boy gives important insights into the evolution of a writer. The shocks and blows he has received so far could have happened to any number of black children at that time in the South. Why, then, did Richard Wright's character take an exceptional turn?

Ever since his mother's illness and the changes it brought to his life style, Richard has been increasingly unable to communicate and participate with his contemporaries. For a brief time, it appears he might at least have the pleasure of friendship and companions in school. (If he had, perhaps he never would have left the South or written. Perhaps he would have been able to adjust his personality to the Jim Crow way of life, and he would have remained anonymous one of many "black boys.") But his mother's illness has made a permanent difference in his nature, and this difference combined with the forces of rebellion and individualism to form Richard Wright the writer.

As he moves from job to job, from the seventh to the eighth grade in school, he is always conspicuous by his attitude of detachment. It makes him unpopular not only with his coworkers, but with his classmates. He has a short story printed in the local black newspaper, and most of the people he knows are completely bewildered by it. A black boy is not supposed to do those things.

The provincialism of his people is both a good and a bad thing in this case. While they upbraid and try to shame Richard, instead of embracing and praising him for his accomplishment, they are also unable to see the larger design in this small event. Therefore, there is no one who can warn him, in realistic terms, against trying to fulfill his dreams of being a writer. If there had been someone around with the sophistication to know the dangers and hazards in the path his life was taking, he might have been stopped. But there is no one to do that, and so he nurtures his dreams.

Richard's dreams and his stories are an escape for him when he is fourteen and fifteen, but only a temporary escape. His work, his home, and his acquaintances create a circle of insecurity and sorrow around him. He can't escape them or their stories. He hears how blacks are killed by whites for stepping out of line; people he knows receive that "reward" for the slightest slip. He must always be on guard against the same fate or at least until he can get away from this repressive environment.

At fourteen, Richard has a view of life far beyond his years, but he also has the vulnerability of a child. As he sees himself increasingly ostracized by his friends and family, he is hurt more and more and retreats deeper and deeper into himself. When he overhears his Uncle Tom warning his cousin to stay away from him because he is no good, his heart snaps inside of him. It is the final wound, and he knows that he must leave home as quickly as possible.

There is a special kind of tension that comes with being misunderstood. On the one hand, one is determined to prove society wrong and to show people who you really are. On the other hand, there is always a tendency to accept another person's judgment and, in so doing, become the very person you are seen to be. On an individual level, this tension is building up in Richard day by day; on a racial level, he sees it happening to all blacks in the South.

He has been told, at home, as long as he can remember, that he is worthless and bad. A part of him wants to live up to this reputation, even though it is false. Another part of him is constantly rebelling against that judgment. He sees the people around him accepting the white man's opinion on blackness. They are taking the easiest, and safest, course. He is disgusted by this, and his Uncle Tom represents what is most cowardly about his people.

At school the same problem arises. Given the honor of writing the valedictory address, Richard is shocked to discover that it is all a fraud. The principal has a prepared speech for him to read because there will be white people present in the audience. Richard refuses to read anything but his own speech, against everyone's advice. As a result, he is more ostracized than ever. Ironically, he is now considered to be even more evil, although he has responded to the part of himself which refuses to accept that judgment. It is 1925, and Richard is almost seventeen when he goes out to face the world.