Richard Wright's Early Life
Richard Wright is an African-American author of several novels, poems, and short stories. He is the son of Nathan Wright, a sharecropper, and Ella Wilson, a school teacher. He is the grandchild of slaves and his grandfathers fought in the Civil War. Wright faced major difficulties growing up. When he was five years old, his father abounded him and his family. Additionally, Wright lacked education skills due to the constant transitions between the homes of family relatives. Although his education improved in middle school, he had to drop out of high school in 9th grade to get a job and help support the family. All of the challenges that he had to cope with transitioned him into the incredible man he will be remembered as. Even though his works
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When Richard Wright was five years old, his dad, Nathan Wright, left the family to live with another woman(Wright). He explains in his autobiography, Black Boy, he grew bitter feelings for his father after he left because the Wrights fell into poverty without Nathan's financial support. This forced his mother, brother, and himself to go live with family relatives. Later on his mother suffered a stroke severely incapacitating Ella, resulting in Richard Wright's grandmother bringing in the family. Wright had an obsession with books and lacked an interest in religion. This caused a conflict with his grandmother because she "had an incredibly strict religious regimen"(Padgett). She attempted to reform him and forced him to attend a religious school. When Wright started to work as an adult in Jackson, he experiences the reality of racism towards blacks. In Black Boy, Wright is" run off by two men because they believe such skilled work is not meant for blacks"(Wright). He demonstrates to the reader the reality of life for blacks in the south. They dealt with racism and couldn't count on others to stand up for them. When the two white men ran him off of his job, the white northerner who hired him did nothing to stop it. Wright recognized whites didn't care for blacks. They didn't view blacks as equals, they looked at them as less
When Richard Wright was five years old, his dad, Nathan Wright, left the family to live with another woman(Wright). He explains in his autobiography, Black Boy, he grew bitter feelings for his father after he left because the Wrights fell into poverty without Nathan's financial support. This forced his mother, brother, and himself to go live with family relatives. Later on his mother suffered a stroke severely incapacitating Ella, resulting in Richard Wright's grandmother bringing in the family. Wright had an obsession with books and lacked an interest in religion. This caused a conflict with his grandmother because she "had an incredibly strict religious regimen"(Padgett). She attempted to reform him and forced him to attend a religious school. When Wright started to work as an adult in Jackson, he experiences the reality of racism towards blacks. In Black Boy, Wright is" run off by two men because they believe such skilled work is not meant for blacks"(Wright). He demonstrates to the reader the reality of life for blacks in the south. They dealt with racism and couldn't count on others to stand up for them. When the two white men ran him off of his job, the white northerner who hired him did nothing to stop it. Wright recognized whites didn't care for blacks. They didn't view blacks as equals, they looked at them as less