The theme of racism and discrimination in Richard Wright’s writings

Abstract

As an American writer, Richard Wright has portrayed his experiences of racism, discrimination, oppression through his writings. Black Boy and Native Son are the most popular novels among those. Black Boy is about his real-life experiences of racism from his childhood to adulthood. In this novel, he depicts how he has to face racism at such a young age and even after becoming a member of a political party. He also shows the hypocrisy of whites that how the racist society has already decided to harass, oppress and make blacks suffer even more. However, it explores racism not only as a hateful belief held by some individuals nor it simply exists in the society rather as an insidious problem which is rooted into the American culture and woven into the deep of the society. The description of racial discrimination and prejudice through the Jim Crow Laws is a good example of it. It also shows how people from lower class have to struggle to get good jobs and better opportunities in the class structured society. On the other hand, Native Son is a fictional novel about Bigger Thomas inspired by the real-life experiences of Richard Wright. It shows how a young black boy loses his opportunities and rights for being black in the United States. Because the white hypocritical society has already decided how much the blacks will get. This deprivation drives him out of control and results in criminal offences. Moreover, it portrays how poor people have to struggle more to fulfill their fundamental rights. Through these 2 writings, Richard Wright shows the hypocritical thoughts of white people about the black community and how they mistreat them based on their race, also shows the struggle of blacks in such a toxic environment and the sufferings of lower-class people against class discrimination. The aim of this paper is to discuss Richard Wright's two novels Black Boy and Native Son to show racism and class discrimination between whites and blacks in the United States.