James Baldwin describes language as a "political instrument," that connects with the public and reveals are private identities. He also describes how one language may be comprehensive to us but then be incomprehensible to someone else, just as Richard Wright experienced and depicted in his autobiography Black Boy. By using Aristotle's rhetorical techniques pathos and logos Wright was able to convey his attitude towards the importance of language as a key to identity and social acceptance.
Wrights experience with language was not so much as a verbal encounter but a written one, which correspond with his fascination with books. Which in turn caused him to wonder about life and his future in the South.
Wright uses pathos to covey his thoughts on the novels he read such as Sinclair Lewis's Main Street, which caused him to identify himself with the characters and the "whites" that surround him such as his boss Mr. Gerald . Wright began to see him as a typical American, who was the type of man who would work half the day then leave to go golfing. In result Wright felt that he could feel the limits of his life and possibly predict his movements .
The use of language in the novels that Wright read caused him to recognize how he and his family were truly regarded as. Such as when Wright read Dreiser's Jennie Gerhardt and Sister Carrie he realized the horrific and tragic pain his mother was suffering from .
One of the key reasons language was important to Wright's writing and reading was how he learned how to write. Wright knew that it took more than the desire and feeling necessary to write a story or even a paper, first he had to acquire the "book" knowledge of the English language . To do this he bought grammar books but they resulted in being of no use. However after reading novels by such authors as T.S. Eliot, Tolstoy and O. Henry Wright developed a better sense of the English language .