Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary
devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Hunger
By frequently reminding us of the problem of his physical
hunger, Wright emphasizes his hunger for other things as well—for
literature, artistic expression, and engagement in social and political issues.
Though there are indeed many instances in the novel when Richard
does physically hunger for food, he eventually concludes that food
is not as important as the other problems facing the world. He asserts
that the world needs unity more than it needs to cure physical ills.
Both Richard and the world have a more important need: understanding
of and connection with one another. Physical hunger is merely a
symbol of the larger emptiness Richard’s brutal, inhumane life causes
him to feel. Throughout the autobiography he exhibits a strong desire
to carve out a richer, more satisfying existence by connecting with
the world around him. Just as literal hunger works to undo itself
by making a person want to eat, so the motif of hunger works in Black
Boy. Richard’s greater emotional and intellectual hunger
serves as a sort of literary magnet that pulls us through the story,
making us just as anxious to see Richard succeed as he is.
Reading
Throughout the text, Richard seeks out reading with a
passion that resembles a physical appetite. Indeed, these two sensations—the desire
to read and the desire to eat—are closely allied. At times, this alliance
breaks down and the two sensations flow together. In Chapter 5,
for example, Richard catches the smell of meat frying in a neighbor’s
kitchen while he is reading. From his bookish daydreams, Richard
drifts into a fantasy of having plenty of meat to eat. There is
also the image, in Chapter 15, of Richard
simultaneously devouring food and Proust’s novel A Remembrance
of Things Past, hoping to flesh out his body and his writing.
It is as if Proust is part of Richard’s weight-gaining plan. This
blurring of literary and physical appetite is most explicit when
Richard remarks, “I lived on what I did not eat,” suggesting that,
at some level, reading takes the place of food. As such, reading
works as a counterpoint to the motif of hunger in the novel. While
hunger represents the spiritual and emotional emptiness within Richard,
reading represents Richard’s bread and water, giving him the energy
he needs to persevere.
Violence
Richard is cursed, beaten, or slapped every time he stands
up to Granny, Addie, or other elders, regardless of how justified
he may be in doing so. When whites believe Richard is behaving unacceptably in
their presence, they berate, slap, or manipulate him; in one instance,
they smash a whiskey bottle in his face. When Richard acts out of
line with the Communist Party, they denounce him and attempt to
sabotage his career. Clearly, then, violence—which here means all
the abuse, physical or mental, that Richard suffers—is a constant
presence in Black Boy. Violence looms as an almost
inevitable consequence when Richard asserts himself, both in the
family and in society.
However, violence takes over Richard’s mind as well. Richard learns
that he must demonstrate his violent power in order to gain respect
and acceptance at school. Additionally, he reacts to his family’s
violent, overbearing treatment with violence of his own, wielding
a knife against Addie, burning down the house, and so on. More broadly,
violence infects the black community in general, whether from within
or from the white community’s imposed violence.
Perhaps the most important violent sequence in the novel
occurs when Olin makes Richard and Harrison suspect each other of
murderous intentions. Even though they acknowledge to each other
that they mean each other no harm, they cannot escape the reality
that the racist culture demands they fight viciously. One root of
this violence between Richard and Harrison is Olin’s feigned friendship toward
each of the men. Thus, we come to see that violence in a racist
world often goes beyond physical attacks.
