Wright's Message By, Reggie Cannady The beginning of the twentieth century marked the beginning of a new era. There were many inventions, innovations, and ideas that sprang forth at the time. America was slowly becoming one of the strongest countries in the world. But the beginning of the twentieth century was also marked with the hardships and struggles of African-Americans. Freed from slavery, you would think that African-Americans would be finally recognized as equals, but the reality was that the majority of blacks were treated as though they were inferior to the white race. Richard Wright, an African""American writer, expressed his thoughts and ideas about racial equality in much of his prose. Wright had a strong message to convey to the public. The inhumane treatment from whites became the impetus to write a novel like "American Hunger". There are many examples of Wright's internal struggle with understanding why Negro life was so difficult in America.
An African-American child at a segregated drinking...
Portrait of Richard Wright
Kevin and I with Paul Wright at Sonfest 2005Horace Porter writes, "As the curtain falls on the last page of "American Hunger", the continuation of Richard Wright's autobiography "Black Boy", he is alone in his narrow room, watching the sun sink slowly in the chilly May sky. "Having just been attacked by former communist associates as he attempted to march in the May Day parade, he ruminates about his life. He concludes that all he has, after living in Mississippi and Chicago are "words and a dim knowledge that my country has shown me no examples of how to live a human life." Wright ends his autobiography with the following words: "æI wanted to try to build a bridge of words between me and that world outside, that world which was so distant and elusive that is seemed unreal"æ I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo,