Richard Wright's Autobiography "Black Boy": Analyzing Literary Techniques
tom riddle
Ms. sterm
English 12H-Period 5
13 December 2012
Black boy “Analyzing Literary Techniques” Paragraph
In Richard’s Wright autobiography “Black boy”, Wright describes his childhood as a time where he had to be grateful for what little he had, even though he grew up in the slums and often experienced extreme hunger. Wright uses imagery, which is words and phrases the author uses to appeal to the senses and form an image for the reader to better comprehend their idea, to further demonstrate these thoughts, feelings, and images to the reader. Wright uses imagery to describe his hunger when he says “When supper was over I saw that there were many biscuits piled high upon the bread platter, an astonishing and unbelievable sight to me” (Wright 51). Wright uses this imagery to describe how wonderful and unbelievably astonishing those stacks of biscuits’ appeared to his near starving self that was lucky to have more than tea as a meal every day. Another time Wright uses imagery to describe his childhood is when he is speaking of play activities he did when he grew up in the slums and says “But our greatest fun came from wading in the sewage ditch where we found bottles, tin cans that hold tiny crawfish, rusty spoons, bits of metal, old toothbrushes, dead cats and dogs, and occasional pennies” (60). Wright uses imagery in this quote to describe his youth and how poor the environment he grew up in was. Along with describing his childhood environment, the imagery in this quote also shows how Wright as a child could be characterized as grateful. Young wright can be characterized as grateful in this quote, because even though the imagery is creating the image of a really poor area that isn’t suitable for children to play in, young Wright sees it as his favorite place to play. Therefore, Wright uses Imagery to describe how he made with what he was given and to emphasize the feelings and images he had experienced growing up in the culture he
Ms. sterm
English 12H-Period 5
13 December 2012
Black boy “Analyzing Literary Techniques” Paragraph
In Richard’s Wright autobiography “Black boy”, Wright describes his childhood as a time where he had to be grateful for what little he had, even though he grew up in the slums and often experienced extreme hunger. Wright uses imagery, which is words and phrases the author uses to appeal to the senses and form an image for the reader to better comprehend their idea, to further demonstrate these thoughts, feelings, and images to the reader. Wright uses imagery to describe his hunger when he says “When supper was over I saw that there were many biscuits piled high upon the bread platter, an astonishing and unbelievable sight to me” (Wright 51). Wright uses this imagery to describe how wonderful and unbelievably astonishing those stacks of biscuits’ appeared to his near starving self that was lucky to have more than tea as a meal every day. Another time Wright uses imagery to describe his childhood is when he is speaking of play activities he did when he grew up in the slums and says “But our greatest fun came from wading in the sewage ditch where we found bottles, tin cans that hold tiny crawfish, rusty spoons, bits of metal, old toothbrushes, dead cats and dogs, and occasional pennies” (60). Wright uses imagery in this quote to describe his youth and how poor the environment he grew up in was. Along with describing his childhood environment, the imagery in this quote also shows how Wright as a child could be characterized as grateful. Young wright can be characterized as grateful in this quote, because even though the imagery is creating the image of a really poor area that isn’t suitable for children to play in, young Wright sees it as his favorite place to play. Therefore, Wright uses Imagery to describe how he made with what he was given and to emphasize the feelings and images he had experienced growing up in the culture he