Discussion About Black Boy by Richard Wright And Other Novels

In this journal i will be discussing 5 readings that i found to be really personal intriguing to me and how much i enjoyed reading and analyzing them during class. First i will be discussing Black Boy by Richard Wright. The lessons regarding humanity we can take away from the novel is that everything is not as it seems. Racism and discrimination from each race is one of the big lessons in the novel. This shows that it was not all about the different races being separated; but it shows how badly African American were treated as human beings. It did not end with just the whites treating the blacks differently, it went the other way around as well. African Americans wished that the whites were not as mean and ill-tempered towards them. Overall, humanity was and still is hypocritical. The other lesson is all about education. Education in Richard Wright’s time showed that, the African American race can become anything with an education and some people would not want to see you become a success if that meant reaching a higher status than them. This concept transitions into Naturalism because the people around you can and most likely will influence you the most to either do, continue, or stop something. that you want. In short his novel is very controversial in terms of which side of naturalism it favors. By reading Wright’s book, the reader can take with them a deeper understanding of segregation in the early-mid 1900s, and the life lesson that anyone can achieve anything, no matter how impossible it may seem.

The second book i will be talking about is Life and death of a filipino in america. This story captures the essence of how immigrants from all over the country struggle to migrate to america without enduring some kind of hardships to get here. The story is based on the narrator speaking in first person and he’s basically explaining how he grew up and moved his way eventually to america. The story goes on about him experiences 4 different kinds of death and each one showing a different take on his life. A little bit about Carlos Bulosan, after striking out on his own and saving enough money for his passage, Bulosan left Manila aboard a ship bound for Seattle. He never returned to the Philippines. During the harrowing transoceanic crossing, an epidemic of meningitis broke out and several of the Filipino passengers, who were confined to the steerage section, became ill or died. When Bulosan arrived on July 1, 1930, the United States was a country deeply mired in the Great Depression. With unemployment high and competition for the few available jobs intense, immigrants who were drawn by promises of opportunity instead encountered resentment and racism. Those who were too new to know their rights were often exploited. With no money or family in Seattle, Bulosan was quickly recruited to work in the Alaskan fish canneries. After a season of hard labor, his total earnings, after some questionable deductions, were only thirteen dollars. And with that Bulson came to know the marginalized world of the Filipino immigrants. Ostracized by the mainstream, Filipino men created their own rough-and-tumble bachelor societies.

Another story i will be talking about is excerpt from thousands pieces of gold ,Thousand Pieces of Gold opens in mid-1800 northern China with Lalu on the edge of being a grown up and she and her family are ruaral farmers in a region that is run by violence and poverty. On the egde of a downward spiral that ends in a robbery in which she is sold for two bags of seed. She is sold again to a Shanghai lady. Then Lalu is send off to America and auctioned for $2,500 to a Chinese saloonkeeper in a racially divided mining camp in Idaho where she is forced to change her name to holly. She is then determination to live free, Polly eventually succeeds with the help of Charlie Bemis a person she had met, who she later married, and together, they reside on the River of No Return. Firmly grounded on historical documents, oral histories, and period photographs, Thousand Pieces of Gold is an important part to the literature of pioneer life in the West. Its remarkable embarkment and excellent storytelling appeals to a wide range of students including me. Thousand Pieces of Gold, by Ruthanne Lum McCunn tells the remarkeable, true story of a Chinese pioneer’s experiences as a slave and free woman in the American West. This story offers instructors the opportunity to engage students in thoughtful discussions and activities examining important concepts such as the meaning of the American dream, voluntary vs involuntary immigration, acculturation vs. assimilation, , race , gender ethnicity, discrimination, and civil rights in the historical milestone of the late 19th and early 20th century. The American west includes information on the book’s support of how the Common core standards are supposed to be shared..

The next story i will be talking about is Equal in paris by James Baldwin. Baldwin illustrates the way in which particularly when one is in a foreign country one comes to spend time with people in a somewhat random fashion. Baldwin does not like the American tourist particularly much, but they have a preexisting affinity simply on the basis of both being foreigners from the same place. While there are undoubtedly positive sides to this phenomenon, there are also negative ones, as this chapter will show. Baldwin’s vulnerability is emphasized by the lack of money and knowledge he brought with him to Paris, an ominous sign about what is to follow. Baldwin’s bizarre experience of going to “mass” in prison conveys much about Baldwin’s impression of Christianity in general. The priest speaks about Christ’s love, yet the wall dividing him from Baldwin as well as Baldwin’s confinement within the prison in the first place highlights the profound lack of love that defines life within Christian countries. Rather than operating according to a logic of acceptance and forgiveness, the French nation incarcerates and punishes its inhabitants for crimes as minor as stolen hotel sheets. Particularly in this moment, Baldwin’s suspicion of the church appears well-founded. Considering the incontestably great cultural monuments of the former colonial powers whether Descartes or Chartres Baldwin maintained that the Algerian blue-collar worker in Paris has no reason to genuflect before them (let alone before the infinitely lesser cultural achievements, such as satirical cartooning). Instead, Baldwin says, he has, “once these monuments intrude on [his] attention, no honorable access to them To bow down before that history is to accept that history’s arrogant and unjust judgment” of him.

The next story i will be talking about is Mr. Lecker, a white farmer who owns a large plantation in the South with its many fields, buildings, and animals. He believes that he is a man of strong principles, deep and proper beliefs about what is right and wrong. He is one of the two main characters in “The Ingrate.” This short story is written by Paul Laurence Dunbar whose father had been a slave. His father had been owned by a white man in the South. This story is brought from the reality. It is from Dunbar’s life. Dunbar’s father escaped to freedom in the North and fought for the North in the Civil War (1861-1865). So does Josh, a slave of white farmer as plasterer, working on the walls and ceilings of the plantation, who wants to freedom from slavery. The story is interesting. The author does not straightly show who an ingrate, a person who shows no gratitude, gives no thanks for help or kindness shown to him or her. However, it can show by the attitude and personality of the character. Most of people assume that the an ingrate people is the slave, Josh. Mr. Lecker had broken up his high principle not to teach a slave read, write, and figure. After Josh had been taught and being clever, he run away from the master. So, it makes people conclude that the ingrate is the slave. Due to the explanations above, the writer conducts analysis on character of Mr. Lecker as the master.

Another story i was fascinated about and will be discussing is Kaiser and the war by Simon Ortiz. A little bit about Simon Ortiz Born on 27 May 1941 in Albuquerque, Simon Joseph Ortiz was raised in the small outlying Acoma Pueblo community of McCarty’s, New Mexico . Ortiz’s mother, Mamie Toribio Ortiz, was a member of the Eagle clan; his father, Joe L. Ortiz, belonged to the Antelope clan. From a large family, Ortiz grew up in dry country spotted with sage, juniper, and the rough basalt terrain known as El Malpais. Inhabitants of Tacoma’s mother pueblo on a great mesa nearby have prayed for rain in this area for at least a thousand years, and Ortiz is heir to and carrier of this tradition.The story is rife with ambiguity and dark humor. A little bit To avoid being inducted into the army, Kaiser hides out in the hills at sheep camp. The tenderfeet lawmen pursue him, but Kaiser holds out with assistance from his Grandfather. He finally comes in when he realizes that the government will not give up on him. Kaiser is put in jail, where he is reduced to a shadow of his former self. Eventually returning home, Kaiser dies at sheep camp after asking his sister to return to the government a gray suit he had worn continuously. This cryptic ending to the story, which is told by a boy whose father had been a good friend of Kaiser’s, spoke to me because it showed how hard a father works to support his family and provide for them no matter the circumstances.And that the old gray suit that has come to symbolize Kaiser’s identity also represents the disintegration of the American dream.

And lastly the last story i will be talking about is Rite of encounter by Russell Bates.Rite of Encounter is, initially a very dry and imposing story. The reader is given same information repeatedly, as if it were not received the first time. This redundancy is an insult to the reader. For instance, in the very first line of the story the narrator tells the reader that, ‘In the third week of his fasting, The owl that sings found the white ma. This information is given quite clearly, yet later the narrator repeats himself by saying, ‘A dog meant white men”. It is not necessary for the narrator to remind the reader. This ‘spoon-feeding’ is insulting to the reader. The narration was also rather dry. There is little description. The story is conveyed to the reader without any details, and quite plainly, the story is simply reported. The omniscient third person narration is also, at times, confusing. The narration occasionally dips from third person to first without any explanation. For example, when Singing- Owl is suffering of dehydration, fatigue, and hunger the narrator is reporting the condition of the character. Suddenly, the next line reads, ‘Water. Must get water. It is unclear who says this. Not by any surprise , Bates, employs this strange tactic again to demonstrate Singing- Owl’s exhaustion. The narrator comments on Singing- Owl’s declining condition, then says, ‘Perhaps I’m tired. All right. I am tired Again, the reader is left unassured of who is speaking. This intentional alteration of narration only robs the story of unity. There is, however, one manipulation of the characters which is interesting. Smallpox is characterized beautifully. Giving life to a disease gives life to a story, which, from the beginning, is dragging on without such animation. Smallpox mocks our ‘hero’, Singing- Owl. This tormenting by a naturally inanimate character saturates the story with fantasy and mysticism.

The conclusion of the story, unfortunately, leaves the reader with the same sense of disappointment with which it was started.The singing owl, rather than becoming a hero, becomes a situation for Smallpox to control. The owl that sings breaks down and agrees to bring Smallpox back to the tribe. Even though Singing- Owl does not completely understand the methods of Smallpox, he does understand the negative repercussions. Yet the singing Owl grants Smallpox’s wish. This event did not live up to expectations that the reader describes and degrades the main character. The Singing Owl gains some redemption by trying to infect his enemies, but is not effective and is going to die a dishonored man. There is, yet another disappointment. The events leading up to the climax are superfluous and consuming. The events of the story that are brought up during the period of time from meeting Smallpox and bringing him to the camp are useless. And that bates gives numerous examples of how the Singing Owl tries to lose Smallpox. All of these descriptions of the story are given in a good context that it makes the story more interetsting. It does not enhance the plot of the story. And the overall setting does not offer any truly enhancing tales or even a sufficient value. Smallpox was depicted beautifully, but the remaining details in the story were reported poorly and distantly.