full title · Black Boy (American Hunger): A Record of Childhood
and Youth
author · Richard Wright
type of work · Autobiographical novel
genre · Bildungsroman (coming-of age-novel); modernist novel; existential
novel
language · English
time and place written · 1943–1944;
New York City
date of first publication · 1945
publisher · Harper & Brothers
narrator · Black Boy is narrated by the author,
Richard Wright, and tells the story of his life from early childhood
to about age twenty-nine.
point of view · As the text is written as a stylized memoir, the narrator
always speaks in the first person. Although he occasionally speculates
as to what another character thinks or feels, those speculations
are always conditioned by the fact that the narrator is a real historical
figure with limited knowledge.
tone · Confessional, ironic, philosophical
tense · Past
setting (time) · Roughly 1912–1937
setting (place) · Primarily Jackson, Mississippi; West Helena and Elaine, Arkansas;
Memphis, Tennessee; and Chicago, Illinois, with detours to rural
areas in the Deep South and to New York City
protagonist · Richard Wright, the author and narrator
major conflict · Richard demonstrates inborn individualism and intelligence, traits
that can only cause problems for a black man in the Jim Crow South;
he struggles with blacks and whites alike for acceptance and humane
treatment; he struggles with his own stubborn nature.
rising action · Ella (the schoolteacher) tells Richard the story of Bluebeard
and His Seven Wives; Richard writes his story “The Voodoo
of Hell’s Half-Acre”; Richard graduates from public school and enters
the workforce only to be terrorized by the actions of racist whites.
climax · Richard reads H. L. Mencken’s A Book of Prefaces and
becomes obsessed with reading and writing; Richard permanently flees the
South; he makes his way to Chicago, where he can live a more dignified
life and more fully exercise his ambition to become a writer.
falling action · Richard comes to understand the psychic pain of growing
up black in America and realizes his duty to record his experiences and
his environment through writing; he enters the Communist Party and
W.P.A. programs, coming into contact with serious writers and outlets
for writing about his ideals; he is ousted from the Party but comes
to a new vision of himself as an artist
themes · The insidious effects of racism; the individual versus
society; the redemptive power of art
motifs · Hunger; reading; violence
symbols · Ella’s infirmity; the Memphis optical shop
foreshadowing · Perhaps the sharpest foreshadowing in the novel is
the activity of Comrade Young in the Communist Party. The fact that
a madman participates in the workings of the Party without being detected
suggests that the Party is fallible. Another example is Richard’s
relationship with his family, a relationship that foreshadows how
his personality will conflict with white authority.
