Raul's Black boy paper

This book matters to me because it tells the story and point of view of a person who has been under racial discrimination and who has lived a hard life and managed to win and learn from it and become a stronger person later on in life. Some of the themes that the author deals with and uses in this book that interest me are: Racial discrimination, and the hardships of life. Any person who will read this book will get addicted to it, it is so full of humor and so thrilling its impossible for you not to keep reading it once you start it. A person who likes humor and history and also who wants to learn about racial discrimination or the life in the 1920 or the great depression will want to read this book.

This book is amazing, I just love this book because it has everything in it from abusive parents to racial discrimination from robberies to forged notes to life changing events and its so thrilling that you just cant quit reading it.This book is set in the 1920s and so on and i just love that time period with the world wars , great depression and then cold war afterwards, the time when this story is told couldn't have been any better.I wish there was a third part to it and maybe see how he would be dealing with the cold war but sadly there isn't. By reading this book i have learned many things and saw how life was through another person’s eyes and how hard it was to live as a African American before the civil rights movement and during the world wars and the great depression. I have learned that the way we live today is so much better than it was back then when everyone taught it was normal to beat your child. This book made me experience someone Else's life and changed me and matured as just as Richard matured throughout experiences that he lived and told in the book. This book with whom i fell in love with makes me think how life is really based upon experiences that one goes through in his life and that is what builds his or hers character and those experiences define you personality.This book teaches you a lot about life and lets you experience what others experience and makes you see it and feel it as though u were there experiencing it yourself and learning from it and becoming a stronger more mature person.

Black Boy, by Richard Wright is a story about a young African American boy who lives in the time from before the first world war all the way through the great depression and after the second and who grows up experiencing a lot of prejudice in the south and racial discrimination and also being abused by his parents and he escapes all this by finding his passion which is reading and become a reader later on in his life. An example of what I mean is on page 54.  “Ella”, i begged,”please tell me what you are reading.” “It’s just a book,”she said evasively, looking about with apprehension. “But whats it about?” I asked. This is interesting because it really shows how Richard is beginning to find a interest in reading books and wants to learn more about them.

The plot in “Black Boy” reminds of other books. In “Harry Potter” Harry also grows up in a family that treats him badly and abuses him and he also develops a passion for magic like Richard develops a passion for reading in “Black Boy” and they both learn from the past bad experiences in they're childhood and become great at what they love most.

This book is particularly preoccupied with the relationship between Richard and the world and his trying to understand it.These are very important  issues in our society right now because people don't tend to try and understand the world around them anymore and do not look at the big picture but mostly at themselves and they're path and they do not try that much to find a meaning to the world around them.

To show that these issues are important in “Black Boy” let’s take a look closely first at a selection from the beginning of the book. This book is trying to captivate the reader by showing how another persons experience and life changed him and influenced on they're decision of what they like to do most in life which is reading for Richard. This book is not really looking for any specific type of reading but it is more general and addressing everyone not just a particular type of characters. It is meant for anyone who reads this book to change the way they look at things and they're life and captivate them and urging them to read more about other peoples experiences and about life itself.

On 37  there is one of these passages where Richard learns to read for the first time and is intrigued and captivated by it and wants more and more and his hunger for food that lived in him until then was outmatched by the hunger for knowledge and learning about the world. "After that she taught me how to read,told me stories. On Sundays I would read the newspapers with my mother guiding me and spelling out the words." What Wright  gives us here is just a taste and shows us what Richard really is passionate about and how that will affect his life later on. So one thing this means to the reader is that they need to learn from they're life and find they're own meaning to it and try to do something what they love out of all the mess they go through.

How does Richard’s experiences develop his passion for reading?
To begin to answer this, let’s turn to Chapter 1 in the book, specifically on page 37.

In this scene Richard discovers for the first time how to read. He does this after being taught how to count by a stranger and when his mother arrives home she is astonished and tries to use this moment to teach him how to read , and read him stories everyday. He then starts reading the newspaper everyday afterwards also and starts getting a taste of his passion.  Take a look at this passage on page 37:

"After that she taught me how to read,told me stories. On Sundays I would read the newspapers with my mother guiding me and spelling out the words."

This is important because it gives us a glimpse of Richards passion and what will later develop in his life as his career. As Richard learned how to read he discovered what he loves to do most and made him hunger for knowledge even more than he hungered for food.

Next, take a look at what happens on page 56, where Richard says, "“Ella”, i begged,”please tell me what you are reading.” “It’s just a book,”she said evasively, looking about with apprehension. “But whats it about?” I asked."

This is important. It's worth re-reading this and thinking about the exact language: for instance, This is the first time Richard actually gets to read and hear books and novels and he is very curious about them and finds them intriguing even tough his parents told him not to read them . This is really important because it shows how Richard still has a appeal for reading and that he cannot hold himself even by his parent’s will from reading books and discovering new things. This relates to my question because his experiences so far have only made him want to read and discover more and seek the mysteries of novels and books.

Let’s take a look at both of thee scenes, and why they have to say about my question: How does Richard’s experiences develop his passion for reading?. These scenes are similar to each other because they both tell how Richard is developing his passion for reading and how his interest for reading grows.The differences between these two scenes is that in the first one Richard discovers reading and starts reading newspapers and in the second one he starts reading novels and expands his passion for reading. He wants to tell the reader that reading makes a big difference in they're lives.

There is a sense of delight that arises from these first two little vignettes. I understand from these scenes that Richard loves to read and wants to explore the world through the use of books and maybe also escape the difficult reality that he is living. This is different from what i was thinking when i first read the scenes because i tought its just a kid being curious temporarily but i saw that the trend continues and his passion for it only grows and now i understand that this was meant for him. For those who are reading the book for the first time i recommend you pay very close attention to how Richard approaches reading throughout the book and how his passion for it grows.These scenes are the crucial scenes were his love for reading is nurtured and were he discovers a new fascinating world which he can explore.

The sense of discovering, suggested already by these two scenes where both new  and where fascinating. We see this theme again on page 210. Here Richard in his 8th grade class being bored starts to write a story , his first story that he himself imagined , this was to be his first ever fiction novel. Richard out of his experience with books so far begins to write a book purely out of his own imagination and formulates a quite well story since it is published by the local newspaper and becomes quite famous. This shows that his passion for reading that he experienced before now grows and he wants to become a writer himself and share his experiences with others.

Writing
Richards first writing in this book is through his very own imagination and experience, in this case from all the novels he read he imagined a story of his own. It's as if his natural gift has just awakened inside him to produce a wonderful piece of writing that people enjoyed and appreciated. This is the first instance in which Richard  will write and create a story, Richard experiences develop his passion for writing. He says:

“One long dry afternoon i took out my composition book and told myself that I would write a story: it was sheer idleness that led me to it”...

Also take a look at page 211. ”What is that?” he asked. “A story”, I said. “A news story?” “No, fiction.” “All right. I’ll read it,” he said.”

“Where’s my story?” I asked. “Its in galleys,” he said. “Whats that?” I asked: I did not know what galleys were. “Its set up in type,” he said. “Were publishing it.”

In scene three Richard writes his first story and manages to give it to the local newspapers to publish it which becomes a instant hit. This relates to my thesis question because Richard writes his first story now after going through reading newspapers and novels and wants to try and create his own piece.

There are other important themes in this book as well. In one way or another they all have to do with writing. Yes, this is a book about a young boy growing up through racial discrimination and parental abuse and who, but it is very much, very consciously, a book about a boy growing up and discovering what he loves to do most even tough the environment he lives in is against it. So in these early scenes it's all about parental abuse and discovering of reading and writing. But it's actually not even quite so easy or so simple as these early scenes that I've just discussed might make out.

Reading
Reading is the most important part of how Richard overcomes all his troubles is by reading and seeing the world through other people’s eyes and trying to find the answer to his own questions and are people so racist and violent.

So think about the scene on page 310 where Richard asks the Catholic were he would to allow him to rent books from the library. This shows that even tough he was forced by his boss to fight against a fellow African American just for the fun of it and everything isn't going too well for him , he still finds relief in books and in reading. This scene tells us that the main character is reading because its a way to deal with the world around you and to maybe answer questions that cannot be answered and to see what others experienced and to relate to yourself. The author is trying to tell us that reading should be a part of every persons lives and that it is necessary for us to explore the world through books.

So far Richard grows up being abused by his parents and he discovers a new world of reading and later on he discovers how to read novels and enjoys it and falls in love with it and then he even writes his own stories and to escape all the racism he starts renting books and reading even more than before. So thus living in a fantasy world to escape the crude reality or to make sense of the world through the means of books.

What can we learn from this book is that no matter how bad you life is you can always find something that you love to do and stick with it and excel at it and overcome all the troubles in your life and maybe help others overcome the troubles in they're life and that is why it is necessary to read others experiences and maybe share your own so that others can learn from what you have been through. The Author is trying to make us feel like reading should be a part of our daily lives and reading is the meaning to life.

My point sum is that we should be devoting more of our time to reading and learning from other peoples lives and experiences and relate to our own lives and find a meaning to the world around us and to overcome all our troubles and then help others overcome there's so that the world may become a better place for all of us.