So this week I finished Black Boy. In class we talked about the second part and some people didn’t really think it connected. I have to admit I didn’t enjoy the Horror and the Glory quite as much as Southern Night probably because it lacked that certain shock quality inherent in the violence and pronounced repression of the first part. But for me I definitely like the book better with the second part included. Had the book ended after Southern Night it would have seemed too hopeful to be realistic. I guess it would be easy to believe that in the North Richard could find what he was looking for and be happy and fulfilled. The second part of the novel demonstrates the imperfection in the world, the need for continuing change, and also personally I found part two more modern and more relatable.

One thing that struck me as interesting was on page 272 in Black Boy when Wright declares, “Culturally the Negro represents a paradox: Though he is an organic part of the nation, he is excluded by the entire tide and direction of American culture.” I never really thought about how strange it is that whites more or less tried to keep a whole group of people who had been part of the nation⎯ before even the massive flood of immigrants⎯ from impacting American culture. This isn’t entirely unique to the Africans though it was probably most pronounced in their case. I’ve read accounts of how ostracized immigrants (especially Chinese and Italians) were by white Protestants. I guess this goes back to the theme of otherness we were discussing. It seems like people are always looking to isolate a group and probably due to the color of their skin blacks were most easily distinguishable and thus most readily isolated.

I liked Wright’s use of parentheses in the second part. Normally parentheses enclose information that is not entirely essential to the reader’s understanding but in this case they were where the core of Wright’s ideas were located. It was as though the autobiography stopped and he stepped in and talked to readers from the perspective of a well educated, experienced adult with an important message to get across.

Another important passage is on page 281 when Richard decides, “ I felt that it was unfair that my lack of a few pounds of flesh should deprive me of a chance at a good job, but I had long ago emotionally rejected the world in which I lived and my reaction was: Well, this is the system by which people want the world to run…” So Richard realizes the cold, mechanical world and accepts it for what it is rather than wanting to change it. I think that though this seems like such a hopeless realization, readers may actually be inspired to want to change this element of our world. To some extent, I think the change is already occurring. For instance, I know when my parents applied to college their wasn’t emphasis on an essay instead it was grades and test scores that counted most. Now however activities and experiences factor into admission. Sadly, I think a lot of people feel as though they must accept the world for what it is. I don’t know if this is unique to my generation but I think its really important to chose some issue to be passionate about because if everyone did then the world would be always progressing but not radically, or chaotically.

Richard also talks about when he worked in the institute and saw the students getting instruction in mathematics and chemistry and felt as though he was looking into the world of another race. The image of the starched white nurses and the old, fat black girls walking behind them reminds me of some weird futuristic society where people would be separated in such a distinct and arbitrary manner and then I remember that this was actually and almost unfathomably in our past. I can’t begin to comprehend how enraging it must have been to be forced to live in a world not your own.

For me, the most memorable image of this book is of the white doctor slitting the vocal cords of the dog and then the dog looking up at the moon in a silent wail. This silent suffering so closely mirrors the blacks that are silenced violently by the whites who barely give any thought to what they’re doing. Finally, when the animals get loose in the lab Richard wants to tell the whites but fears the repercussions. Thus, the whites treat the workers like children and in doing so only harm themselves because it means they can’t really on the