this article analyzes the novel Black Boy by Richard Wright under the theme of 'identity' by discussing two main aspects of Richard's life: his childhood and his adulthood.

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Critical Analysis of the Book Black Boy by
Richard Wright under the Theme of Identity
By: Husain Necklace
Al Jamea Saifiyah Arabic Academy

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Introduction
Black Boy by Richard Wright is a fantastic novel detailing Richard’s journey from
childhood to adulthood; explaining how he evolves into the man he is and how he finds his calling
as a writer.
The novel takes a bildungsroman approach and details various aspects of Richard Wright’s
life; all the while delineating to the readers how hard his life had truly been, and how those
hardships helped him into formulating his own identity in the society – his identity as a writer.
There are, no doubt, several themes corresponded with this enigmatic novel which not only
discusses Richard’s life but also discusses numerous elements which helps the society at large to
understand and contemplate various conflicts and societal pressures. Through all of that, we as the
audience are capable of extrapolating the morals and teachings which Richard Wright – as the
writer – wants to narrate to his readers; hoping that we may learn from his mistakes and from his
experiences and hardships. Which might be one of the many reasons that provoked him into writing
an account of life in the first place; because he realized that there was a lot to learn from them.
Moreover, another commemorative aspect of this book is that throughout the novel we see
Richard – the man he is while writing this autobiography – analyzing the events himself for the
reader, so the reader doesn’t have to look at layers of writing in order to interpret what the author
is trying to tell or allude to – Richard does that himself. In doing so, he establishes his identity as
the person he has become from that as he was, or had been throughout his life and journey.
This paper, therefore, will fixate upon the element and the theme of identity in this novel,
analyzing and discerning how Richard’s identity develops throughout his life until he has evolved
into the man which he hoped he would someday become; into the man which he saw himself as;
into the man which he knew he could be regardless of what others said.
In order to analyze the novel in the above mentioned perspective, the paper will be thus
divided into two sections, much like the manner in which the novel has been divided:
1. Richard’s Childhood
2. Richard’s Adulthood
The paper will try to provide examples where possible and be as thorough as it can. However,
it is important to understand and note that due to the restraints of the paper, it will be able to
expound only so much and not as much as the author of the paper would intend to or hope for.
Therefore, leaving a gap, or rather an array of gaps, for the readers and students of literature –
much like the author of the paper himself – to fill in, research, and explore.

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Childhood:
The novel begins with Richard burning down his house. His mom beats him so bad that he
finds himself close to death. Towards the end of those events, towards the end of the first chapter,
in order to somewhat somber or compliment the dire and dangerous tone with which the novel
commences, Richard decides to pitch in his understanding of nature. This is witnessed throughout
the novel in different areas; whenever things begin to get tough in his life, Richard’s understanding
of the nature and the society around him deepens, and he shares those understandings and induced
emotions with his readers.
When Richard describes the nature, when he tries to describe everything that he sees happening
around him, we sense this sense of excitement and jubilation in his tone. That is because –
according to him – he is beginning to identify, beginning to understand. As we later on discern,
there is this thirst of knowledge already engrained within him, therefore, this sense of excitement
in the very beginning to deduce – even if it is so early in his life – is comprehendible.
He states: “Each event spoke with a cryptic tongue. And the moments of living slowly revealed
their coded meanings.” This is a very basic and a simple example of how Richard goes about
exploring his surroundings; understanding them and then decoding the messages which he thinks
are stored within them for the observers to unravel and decode.
However, what he unconsciously does, along with understanding the nature, is that he
understands where everything belongs, he understands their identity, he understands where they
fit in, and he tries to discern the same for him; where does he fit in? Where does he belong? How
does he fit into his surroundings? These questions seem to be taking birth inside of him already at
a very young age, he doesn’t realize it yet but he will as the story – his story – progresses and as
he feels the need to identify himself not just to the society in general but to himself as well.
This is our very first encounter with this theme of identity in the novel.
Furthermore, when aboard the ship called Kate Adams enroute to Memphis Richard states –
describing his feelings to his readers: “Solace came when I wandered about the boat and gazed at
Negroes throwing dice, drinking whisky, playing cards, lolling on boxes, eating, talking, and
singing.”
Richard uses the word ‘solace’ to describe his feeling upon seeing the Negroes. The word
means: ‘comfort or consolation in a time of great distress or sadness’. Meaning that upon seeing
the people around him he felt that he was in a familiar environment. That he wasn’t in a place
which he did not recognize or which was alien to him; he didn’t feel alone anymore, hence, the
word ‘solace’.
This again alludes to the theme of identity, because at a very young age Richard was certain
that this was his calling, that this was his identity; long before he discovered books, knowledge,
and the power of words; he felt that drinking, singing, and everything else which these familiar

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people did is what he was meant to do, too – which is why, perhaps, he does become a drunkard
at a very young age, however he relapses from it and gets his life back on track again.
Hence, he attempts to identify himself as one of them. However, later on in the novel we
will discover how he feels much more alienated amongst them than he does right now in this
situation; that is because he realizes that he is, truly, very much different from them.
While on the topic of books, words, and writer, it seems obligatory to mention the instance
which first marks Richard’s encounter with the power of words. He states: “I had my first triumph
over my father…I had taken his words literally”, “My mother’s words had brought it to life in my
mind”
This is the very first time that we see Richard come face-to-face with the power of words.
This is the first time we see him realize how he can use words as weapons and use them to attack
others. Later on in the novel Richard will begin to identify himself as a manipulator of words, as
the user of words, and as a writer. This will become his identity, which’s first glimpse is reflected
and provoked through this early encounter in his childhood.
Moving on, another valiant example of how Richard’s identity evolves can be understood
from the tragic events which made him a drunkard by his sixth year. Richard Wright brings this
sad part of his life into his novel for various reasons. One of which is easily identified in the
proceeding event, when because of his drinking habits the people in the saloon pay him to vocalize
the words which they whisper in his ears; even though he has no idea what they mean.
However, once his thirst for alcohol is subdued, it is replaced by the thirst of knowledge.
This is evident when he jumps up and down on his bed after he has successfully learned to count
from one to hundred, and when he seamlessly asks his mom about the world outside when she
comes home from work.
All of these events are important and vital in Richard’s life because they formulate a sense
of identity for him. They begin to inform him that he is not a drunkard, he is not illiterate, he does
not belong in a gang, instead he is supposed to learn, he is supposed to write, he is supposed to use
words to tell stories and everything that he observes.
Moreover, this hunger of knowledge, this wild spree of questions, it is what becomes the
catalyst of Richard finally understanding and contemplating the difference and the tension existing
between the ‘white people’ and the ‘black people’.
Adulthood:
As readers we notice numerous conflicts intertwining together helping shape Richard’s
identity. It can, and may, be suggested that ‘conflict’ is what evolves Richard’s boyhood into
adulthood as it is through those conflicts – be it personal, societal, or racial – that provides him
with a deeper and an in-depth understanding of himself as well as his true identity; the identity

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which remains hidden at his core and is only flushed out towards the end of the novel, when
Richard finally travels to South and becomes the writer he knew he always was.
One of those ‘conflicts’ which helps shape his identity is that of him being a member of a
gang while in school. He sheds more light onto it, stating that: “We were now large enough for the
white boys to fear us and both of us, the white boys and the black boys, began to play our
traditional roles as though we had been born to them, as though it was in our blood…”
This is an important revelation for Richard. As he is no more a child, as he is growing up,
he realizes his place in the society. He realizes the racial conflict between the white people and the
black. He understands that he should have this enmity towards his enemies – the white people –
naturally because he believes that he was born into it; that it is but natural to hate the white people
and to talk about killing them in front of his friends just so he may seem tough and manly.
Therefore, in the early stages of his boyhood, Richard defines his identity as a kind of man
who despises the white; as a man who is a fighter, not a loser, and who will kill before he his killed.
This is further expressed by Richard when he talks about how he was injured in a fight and after
he was treated how he was beaten by his mother and asked not to fight again: “Her words did not
sink in, for they conflicted with the codes of the street. I promised my mother that I would not fight,
but I knew that if I kept my word I would lose my standing in the gang, and the gang’s life was my
life.” By stating that the gang’s life was his life, he establishes his identity as one of the gang
members – as a boy who would rather fight the white boy’s than obey his mother and do something
productive with his life.
The is further demonstrated through Richard’s thoughts: “I resolved that I would emulate
the black woman if I were ever faced with a white mob…The story of the woman’s deception gave
form and meaning to confused defensive feelings that had long been sleeping in me”. This further
helps the readers establish his identity as a fighter rather than someone who would merely sit and
watch the injustice happening to him and his people. This instinct to fight is later on discernable
though his writing – an evident and foremost example of which is this autobiography of his itself.
We see this particular identity dissolve, however, soon after Richard’s mother dies and he
feels restrained and strangled amongst his grandmother and her religious predicaments in her
house. Soon enough, Richard establishes his identity as a rebel; however not in a bad way. He
rebel’s when his grandmother refrain’s him from working, he rebel’s to continue to work after he
realizes that his white boss abuses him and discriminates him from the others, and he rebels when
he wishes to travel to South and his grandmother disagrees with him.
Through this rebellious character, through this personality, we see how Richard’s identity
is molding and shaping so that the soon-to-become identity of the writer can sink in. In a way, one
could assume that these were the obstacles that Richard had to par with in order to achieve his
objective in life.

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Moreover, to further this thought, we as readers can refer to that moment when Richard –
still a child – listens to his first story in his grandmother’s house. He describes the ordeal as
follows: “Not to know the end of the tale filled me with a sense of emptiness, loss…So profoundly
responsive a chord had the tale struck in me that the threats of my mother and grandmother had
no effect whatsoever”.
This is really the first time we see Richard reacting so strongly about something. Even
when he was a drunkard he never reacted so profoundly to alcohol, neither was his thirst for it so
violent as his thirst and hunger for words, for novels, and for stories.
This profound and violent hunger constantly boils up inside of him. It provokes him to
devour Marx’s theories of society, to borrow the ID card of his co-worker – a white man – in order
to gain access to the library and munch through as many books as he could.
This same hunger is instrumental into finally making him realize that what he wants to
achieve and do in his life is not to work for others, but to work for himself; to become a writer, to
write stories not only about fairies and fiction, but stories which he had seen in his journey to
adulthood; stories which he knew lingered in every street, in every corner, in every dilapidated
house, in every child’s eye, every single place where he had been, lived and stayed during his
childhood and adulthood. Everything which he experienced, every conflict which he went through
and overcame, it had all contributed into evolving him, shaping him, and finally establishing him
as a writer. That was his calling, that was his identity, and towards the ending of the novel, in the
final few pages, readers witness how hard he fights in order to accept that identity, in order to
weave it into his current life and to finally become a writer. It is what later on provokes him to
rebel against his grandmother and follow his heart and travel to the South, where he does achieve
what he set out for and, finally, after all that he endured, establishes his identity as one of the best
writers in American history.

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Conclusion
In conclusion, as the paper mentioned earlier, Black Boy is a fantastic novel brimming with
hope, passion, desire, etc. It is one of those novel’s which holds a different realm for every different
reader to explore; a different pathway for every traveler to embark and to discover where it might
lead them.
The most important virtue – in the opinion of the person writing this paper – which this
novel imparts onto its readers is the virtue of never giving up and to never stop dreaming. This
virtue, or characteristic, or element, or whatever it may be, is embedded very deeply within every
single fiber and form of literature – may it be poem, drama, fiction, etc.
Literature has this invigorating beauty and power which appears different to every
individual. It allows every individual to use their own intellect and imagination to figure out what
the other person is wanting to communicate. It opens a wide horizon of communication – such that
even modern technology could not provide.
Richard Wright uses this power and beauty to its maximum in his novel in order to
demonstrate to the world, to the society, and to everyone who thought that he was nothing; he
demonstrates the beauty of words and the power of a writer.
As English Literature students it is incumbent on each one of us to discern the power of
those words in every single literary text and demonstrate it to the world. So that the beauty of
literature blooms not just for those who study it but for everyone else, too.
Richard Wright does this through his novel. He establishes an identity for himself as well
as all of the writers in the world. However, it is obligatory upon those writers to further establish
this identity for the next generation of writers and English Literature enthusiasts to come.
Black boy is rather a stepping stone is a series of steps of a long convulsing ladder which
is yet to be climbed.