Richard Wright
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Richard Wright is one of many great American writers of the past. He is also one of the most controversial writers as well, mainly because of his views on race relations. Through my reading of some of Wrights works I realized he viewed race relations as a global issue. Wright gained his views about race at an early age. In his autobiography, Black Boy, he describes his life living in the south as a constant struggle. Wright is more than qualified to write about race as a global issue because he lived abroad later on in his life. Two of Wrights short stories, The Man Who was Almost A Man and Big Black, Good Man, give great insight as to Wrights feelings on race relations. The first story was written in the forties, and it employs an urban setting to depict the Negros invisibility, outsider, or underground status. The latter story was written in the fifties and celebrates in an odd sort of way a kind of Negro nationalism- Negro virility as opposed to the white mans flabbiness, and a proud awareness of an African identity. In this period Wright seems to add a little humor and he removes some of the tension that was formerly associated to his literature. (Margolies pg74)
In Wrights story, The Man Who was Almost A Man, the setting is in the south during the sharecropping days. The main character, Dave is a young sixteen year old who wants to own a gun. He feels hes old enough to own one. He feels at his age that hes a man. This fact has a humorous subliminal message, which is no matter how old you were in the south during this period, you were referred to as a boy. The titled implies this as well. The title states, The Man Who Was Almost A Man. The gun represents to Dave power, strength, and in some way self dignity. He felt that a gun would give him what all blacks were searching for during that time, self-respect. Dave was constantly teased, bullied, beat, and belittled. He worked, yet his mom would hold his wages. This mustve hurt his pride greatly. During Wrights life, he dealt with the same problems. Not only did he have to deal with criticism from whites, he had to deal with that of blacks as well. Dave feels that a gun is the answer to his problems. Dave asserts that, after he gets his gun, the other field hands couldnt talk to him as if he was a boy anymore. After he gets the gun, he kills his bosss mule. The mule is a stubborn animal, and the murder of the mule may symbolize the demise of the mule within. He felt it was time to kill the tendency inside of himself to submit to all of the attacks on his pride. After he killed the mule he felt better. He was more confident, and much better able to make decisions on his own. He realizes that he doesnt want to submit to his father or his boss, so he decides to leave. Before he was submissive, yet after the mule was dead he no longer exhibited those characteristics.
When Dave asks his mom for a gun, he approaches her as a boy, not as a man. He comes to her whining, and he waits for his dad to leave the room. Just before Dave decides to jump on the train out of the south, he looks at “the big white house”, and thinks to himself, “Lawd, ef Ah had just one mo bullet Ahd taka shot at tha house.” Just before this, Dave refers to himself by his full name. Its as though he is asserting his manhood, just before he goes off on his own into the world. (Webb, pg 56)
Dave is as much a man as his environment allows him to be. In this case his environment is in the south. He goes to work and works hard like a man should. He does make some mature decisions like a man should make. However, he makes some poor decisions also. He decides to lie about shooting his bosss mule, and everyone laughs at him. This treating him like a child is a catalyst to his childish behavior. To escape his environment, he jumps a train, even though he has no money and there is most likely trouble ahead of him. Edward Margolies has this to say about Wrights writings, “the dignity of man, and a profound pity for the degraded, the poor and oppressed who, in the face of casual brutality, cling obstinately to their humanity” (Margolies, pg 443). Wright is trying to show that people can be put down by those around them and how the only way to cling to their humanity might be to get away from those who are holding them back, even if it means the possibility of endangering themselves.
In an interview with Wright around the time he wrote this book, he expressed his views on the racial relations by saying, “There is not a black problem in the United States, but a white problem. The blacks now know what they want, and they are engaged in a hard struggle, the goal of which, they dont know, is to become men like everyone else.”(Kinnamon and Fabre, pg 124)
Wrights other short story, Big Black, Good Man, which was also his last short story, exhibited a similar sense of irony. It was as though Wright was mellowing out, and coming to grips with his feelings towards whites as a whole. This story takes place in Copenhagen. Unlike the previous story, this story takes place in Europe. Wright is attempting to portray the problem of race relations as a global problem. This story also gives a glimpse at Wrights sense of humor. The main character, Olaf, is a retired white man, who owns an inn. One day he is confronted by a “too big, too black, to loud, too direct, and probably too violent American seaman who asks for service.” Olaf was hesitant, yet he allowed the man to stay, and he gave the man whatever he wanted. He black man puts his hands around Olafs neck when he is leaving, and smiles. Olaf promises himself he will have his revenge. When the man returns a year later, Olaf starts for his gun as the man puts his hands around his neck, but before he can get it, the big man hands over six shirts that are perfect fits for Olaf. (Brignano, 171)
Throughout the beginning of Wrights career, one could sense a tone of hostility towards whites. Yet through his narrations in Big Black, Good Man, Wright seems to tell the story through the white mans eyes. Richard Wright, Critical Perspectives Past and Present, Edited by Gates and Appiah states, “One now senses a new element of race pride in Wrights portrayal; the tone of proud defiance has somehow been stilled and replaced by a note of contained racial pride.” However, it is ironic that Wright was only able to give his story this feel, through imagining what the white man was feeling. (Gates and Appiah,