Have you ever felt alienated? Have you ever felt like you did not belong or were.
not exactly like everyone else? Well you wouldn't be alone. In the novel Black Boy,.
Richard Wright had a constant feeling of alienation. Whether it was his physical or.
emotional hunger, his disagreements with injustice, or his unwillingness to conform, he.
always felt this way.
Throughout Black Boy, Richard expresses his seemingly never ending hunger. .
Toward the beginning of the book when Richard is young, his father leaves the family. .
This puts them in a tough situation due to the fact that their main source of income is.
gone. The effects of this event impacted Richard and his family hard. His mother was.
forced to get a cooking job, however she was unable to provide a sufficient amount of.
money all of the time to keep the family fed, often leaving them hungry. While Richard.
is with his mother at her job Richard cannot understand why he doesn't have any food to.
eat and the white people have food all of the time: .
Watching the white people eat would make my stomach churn and I.
would grow vaguely angry. Why could I not eat when I was hungry? .
Why did I always have to wait until others were through? I could.
not understand why some people had enough food and others did.
not.(Wright 22).
Not only does this show Richards hunger to be fed, but it also foreshadows the role that.
racism will play later on in the novel. However you will see that Richard exhibits his.
emotional hunger than anything else. He is introduced to reading and writing from the.
kids in his neighborhood that attend school. Since the family's religion strictly forbids.
this, Richard has never been exposed to this and finds it very interesting. As soon as.
Richard gets acquainted to reading and writing, and attends school, he decides that he.
wants to be a writer and learn even more about these things. Since he was a child and.
then an adult, Richard was always hungry to learn more.