Black Boy; Post One

The author of the autobiography, Black Boy, Richard Wright, makes many mistakes and gets blamed for them immediately. I think that there should be a difference between blaming someone directly or the environment. Many people get confused, when blaming someone; they don’t realize that there is a difference in the consequences when blaming the person instead of the environment. I don’t think that Richard is a bad boy; he grew up in an environment where his parents weren’t ever home to teach him properly. When someone does something out of line, many people jump to conclusions that the person knew that their actions were wrong and they still decided to take them.

Readers realize that Richard is always blamed for his mistakes before the blamer thinks about the situation, throughout the first chapter. At the beginning of the novel Richard was forbidden to make noise and he must stay inside all day because of his sick grandmother. Because of Richard’s boredom and curiosity he lights his home on fire. In this particular situation he is too young to realize that his actions of lighting the house on fire were wrong. After the house is well…gone, Richard gets beat by his father because he is so frustrated with his son. This is a situation where the person immediately gets upset with the young child when really the environment sparked his actions. Towards the end of the chapter we come along a situation where Richard has learned swear words at school so he decides to write these naughty words on his neighbor’s windows with a bar of soap. His mom beats him. This is an example where Richard was rightfully blamed because he was aware his actions were wrong yet decided to do it anyway. A time when you should be blamed and not the environment is when you know what you’re doing is wrong yet you do it anyway.

About Steph

My name is Stephanie but most people call me Steph. I am in Ms.F's Enriched English 10 class, this will be my second year in the enriched language arts course. I'm part of a six person family and two dogs. I am very involved at my church, St. Patricks in Edina, I love the community and being there makes me feel welcome! That's a little bit about me to get my blog up and running.