A Synopsis of Richard Wright's Autobiography Black Boy

Richard Wright’s autobiography, Black Boy, tells about the real life occurrences that characterized his life from childhood until adulthood. The book begins with Richard’s boyhood, which was spent mostly growing up in the South where Jim Crow laws still dominated the every day lives of blacks. These laws stipulated that segregation was mandatory in public places such as restaurants, movie theaters, bathrooms, and hospitals. Jim Crow laws indirectly influenced more than just segregation however; they caused Southern American to divide into a class of blacks that predominately lived in poverty. On the other hand, whites were financially more sound at the time, and abused their newly earned power by buying the black farmer’s land and employing them as laborers. The social unrest between Southern blacks and whites is a large theme of the book, directly or indirectly influencing nearly every event of Wright’s young life. 

One interesting event in Wright’s childhood that is portrayed in the first chapter of Black Boy is the description of how Wright became a six-year-old drunk. As a young boy, Richard is largely unsupervised by his mother, Ella who is raising him on her own. The challenges that Ella has to face such as poverty, hunger, lack of education, and her being a black woman in Jim Crow South all contribute to her negligence raising Richard. Ella was determined to make a successful life after her husband left, and had to go to work to support her family. Because Ella is working, Richard is left to his own devices much of the time. In this event in the novel, Richard is looking for ways to entertain himself when he comes across a bar where he can laugh at the drunks entering and exiting the saloon.