Black Boy.
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Throughout life, our memories are full of senses that keep us linked to our past. Due to familiar senses, we can look back in our head and see images we once knew. If there is a distinct smell, we can remember grandma's blue ribbon winning lemon pie. Or, the memory of a lost love will return when you see a couple arm in arm strolling through the park. These images are captured through our five senses and we can remember our past. In the auto-biography, Black Boy, Richard Wright delivers these images of his boyhood through descriptive and visual poetic compositions. These choppy yet insightful, "There was." sentences, provide imagery that is unlike the rest of the novel. They show what Richard's childhood contained, the experiences, the dreams, and the naive notions.
In these numerous sentences, Wright displays some of his childhood images that show his true character. "There was the disdain that filled me as I tortured a delicate, blue-pink, crawfish that huddled fearfully in the mudsill of a rusty tin can"(Wright, 1944). There was so much hatred and injustice concerning the African-American people in these times, not to mention the authority of Wrights" elders, he wanted to feel like he had control over something. Since he felt there was so much domination over him, he wanted to feel powerful and be in have control over something which was innocent and measly that couldn't fight back, much like himself. He may have also did it so he didn't have consequences. .
Since these lines are all from Wright's childhood, he has a very naive sense of what goes on in the world. I know that when we read these lines, most of it sounds silly but most of us have all felt these emotions. "There was the great joke that I felt God played on cats and dogs by making them lap their milk and water with their tongue" (Wright 1944).
