In the book 'Black Boy' by Richard Wright, alienation is shown throughout the story. According to Marx's theory of alienation, it is a separation of things that are naturally meant to be together, and therefore a person actually becomes an "alien" in the world they live in. Marx focuses his theory on social alienation which can be seen in Wright's book. Marx's talks about social alienation in the labor process, and the four types are product of labor, process of labor, human nature, and alienation of each other. .
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Alienation from the product of labor means that a person is working for someone and making certain products but they are unable to buy them for themselves, so they are alienated from the product they produce. In Black Boy Richard Wright worked in many different homes for wealthy white people. They paid him a very little amount of money for the work that he was doing. He was responsible for cooking their food, and in one instance he prepared eggs for the white family and the owner of the house told him that he was not allowed to eat the eggs. Instead, he was given a plate of moldy molasses and hard bread, which he did not eat even though he was starving. Another example of alienation from the product of labor was when Wright was working in the optical business. He was working with glasses by cleaning them and doing little things to help the process. Even though he didn't actually make them, he did contribute to the company, and he most likely was unable to buy a pair of glasses if he needed them. This type of alienation means that the worker is paid a minimum amount in order to produce the maximum amount of work. Because the worker is paid less than what he works for, he is being taken advantage of. Blacks were very much taken advantage for by white people in the early 1900's. Even though slavery had been abolished, the black population was still in a way treated as if they were still slaves.
