A person always has a reason to lie, cheat, or steal. These acts are reprehensible in nature, yet sometimes necessary for an individual’s survival. In Richard Wright’s autobiography, Black Boy, Richard is a victim of his circumstances who learned to survive in world that did not offer him sound guidance and positive instruction. As a black male in the Jim Crowe South and the unforgiving North, Richard learns that in order to survive he must adapt to whatever situation is before him. Richard cannot be held responsible for his reprehensible acts, not because they were acceptable, but because they were all he knew.
Love, comfort and security are pieces of a puzzle that create happy and healthy human beings. The security and comfort that one receives from a stable home environment were as foreign to Richard as a decent meal. By his sixth birthday, Richard’s father had abandoned him, his mother and his younger brother. Richard was aware that his father had not been home in a few days, and was glad that he was absent because, “he was not here to shout restrictions at me.” (15) Unbeknown to Richard, “his absence would mean that there would be no food.” (15) Richard’s mother was able to find work as a cook, but had to leave him and his brother at home while she worked. Richard’s mother did her best to provide meals and a stable home for her children, but was unable to keep up with either. Because of this, Richard was always hungry and his family was forced to move from their home. From that point on Richard’s images of his father, “became associated with my [his] pangs of hunger”… “whenever I [he] felt hunger I [he] thought of him with deep biological bitterness.”(16)
Already bitter, Richard’s youth was filled with more unhealthy influences. At the age of six Richard took great pleasure in exploring the streets of his neighborhood while his mother worked. There was a saloon in the neighborhood that allowed him to drink alcohol and recite indecent phrases in exchange for money. Richard recounted that during that time, “the point of life became for me the time when I could beg for drinks.”(22) Not long after his mother discovered that her young son was drunkard, she moved the family to Arkansas to live with her sister. On the way to his aunt’s house, Richard’s family stopped to see his Grandmother in Mississippi. One evening while his very religious Grandmother was washing his backside, he said to her, “When you get through, kiss back there.”(41) Richard goes on say that he, “had not realized the meaning of what I [he] said; its moral horror was unfelt by me”. (41) The lack of remorse and understanding that Richard had after the incident shows that he was incapable of distinguishing himself from his early exposure of negative influence and instruction.
In his adolescence Richard’s mind was clouded with stereotypes and racism. From his friends and community he learned to adopt racist views and stereotypes about Jews. He writes, “All of us black people who lived in the neighborhood hated Jews, not because they exploited us, but because we had been taught at home and in Sunday school that Jews were “Christ killer”. (60) Richard learned from an employer that white people did not trust him to work and not steal. Once Richard was left nearly speechless when interviewing for a position and was blatantly asked, “Do you steal?” Lastly, Richard learned from the death of his Uncle Hoskins, the owner of a prosperous saloon killed, “by whites who had long coveted his flourishing liquor business,” (54) that the world around him could not be trusted to be fair or honest.
Richard lived in a perpetual state of misunderstanding because he desired to do right, but just could not. In his Grandmother’s house he was expected to live as a devout Seventh Day Adventist even though he was not a believer. His Grandmother believed that, “one sinful person in a household could bring down wrath of God upon the entire establishment, damning both the innocent and the guilty.” (103) Richard had experienced so much in his young life that it would have been hard for him to believe in a god that was fair and just. Instead of the adults in his life (with the exception of his mother) trying to give him sound guidance and instruction, they were constantly trying to break his spirit. Richard’s Aunt Addie worked hard to break his strong willed spirit and eventually, “descended to my [his] own emotional level to control me [him]” (110), her efforts were unsuccessful. Even Richard’s Uncle Tom who he barely knew decided that he would be the one to give him, “a lesson in how to live with people.” (159) When Richard resisted, his Uncle promised him that “Somebody yet will break your spirit.” (160).
Instead of spirit breakers and people who longed to control him, what Richard needed were positive role models who could have taught him the correct way to navigate the world around him.
Richard Wright cannot be held accountable for the reprehensible acts of his youth and adulthood because he did not have sound guidance and instruction from his family and the community around him. Richard had to rise above the attitudes of all of the people who tried to break his spirit and deter him from his dreams. Richard was a survivor who applied the skills he had to making the best life possible for himself and his family.