On Richard Wright's Black Boy

In Richard Wright's autobiography, Black Boy, I was struck by the overwhelming hardships of racism, hunger, beatings, and instability of Wright's homelife. Suffice to say, I was amazed at Wright's accomplishments of going from an extremely poor hunger stricken young boy to an accomplished writer and influential person through his connections with the John Reed's Club and later a part of the Communist Party.

At the end of Wright's book, Black Boy, I was consistently needing to look up information of historical fact. I chose to research first the Black African American involvement with the Communist Party in 1928. This led me to formulate an opinion that Wright may have fashioned some of his non-conformist ideas of liberty and freedom of speech after H.L. Mencken when reading the American Mercury as a dishwasher (344). My response paper analyzed an article written by William E. Cain, "A Lost Voice of Dissent H.L. Mencken in Our Time" written by Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia in 2006. Thus, answering my question of, "Had Richard Wright been influenced by H.L.Mencken during his late teen years when he read the American Mercury? Did Wright speak with the same authority of Mencken with outspoken ideas of freedom and liberty?"

Also, towards the end of Black Boy, when Wright was ostracized from the Communist Party, he was consistently called a "Trotsky" and a intellectual (377-389). I wanted solid background information of what was going on in Russia during this time period, so I read the article, "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" written by Columbia Electronic Encylopedia in 2009. I was given background of the economic and political situtation of Russia from 1917-1938. Russia during this period turned to "capitalism" and away from consumer goods (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia 1-8). "Collective and state farming" was nationwide during Stalin's reign and his gradual transformation of Russia was at it's high (1-8). The "Five Year Economic Plan" which had been renamed from the "New Economic Policy" of 1921 was put into place by Stalin. Any farmers who refused this plan were "liquidated" and approximately "5 million people" were sent to Siberia (1-8). Trotsky killed one of Stalin's closest members and then led a "purge" through out Russia during 1936-1938 (1-8).

This information was very helpful to me since I do not have a solid background of history. I wanted to share this so others may have this information too, if they were interested.

Lastly, a topic of discussion that I dealt with was if I thought that Wright was correct in changing the title of American Hunger to Black Boy in 1944? What was Wright's driving force behind writing this book? Does the title reflect this belief?

I decided that I did believe that Wright was correct in changing the title, because even though the theme of hunger was present through out the book, that Wright wanted to focus on the heart and soul of Black African American's in the old South during this harsh time. His passion for showing the hardships and struggles of the Black African American's during the Great Depression was the driving force behind his writing.