1. Richard Wright Biography of Richard Wright 1908-1960 Ms. Diehl
Pre-AP 9th English

2. Early Life
Born on a plantation near Natchez, Mississippi, on September 4, 1908.
Son of a sharecropper who deserted his family when Wright was 5.
His mother became ill, and the family moved to Jackson, Mississippi with his grandmother.
Grandmother tried to stop Wright from writing.
His grandmother attempted to crush his imagination.
Wright and his brother lived in an orphanage for a short time because of family problems.
He would recall his childhood as a “time of hunger.”
For food, but also for affection, understanding, and education.
Although a very good student, Wright never graduated from high school.

3. Research
Research 1914 in America, and list 10 facts about this time period. What was happening historically, and politically?
Most literature is classified as a certain genre, Black Boy is classified as “Naturalism.” Define the literary genre of Naturalism.
What is the Wright school of literature?

4. Naturalism: A Literary Genre
Key themes of Naturalism:
Survival, determinism, violence, and taboo.
The "brute within" each individual,
composed of strong and often warring emotions:
passions, such as lust, greed, or the desire for dominance and the fight for survival in an amoral, indifferent universe.
The conflict in naturalistic novels is often "man against nature" or "man against himself"
Characters struggle to retain a "veneer of civilization" despite external pressures that threaten to release the ‘brute within.”
Example: Bigger Thomas
Who is Bigger Thomas? Spend five minutes researching who he was and why is is an example of trying to find the “brute within”
The forces of heredity and environment as they affect, and afflict, individual lives.

5. Warnings in Wrights Works
In his time, acts of violence were most often aimed at other African Americans, but Wright warned that one day it would be aimed at whites. Nearly 60 years later, do you find his warning to be true? With a partner, spend 10 minutes researching this warning. Does racism still exist today? Is racism aimed more so towards whites today, or African Americans? Is it towards another race? Explain the significance.