For this journal, reread the end of chapter 3 carefully and think about how this passage helps to understand both the actions of adolescent Richard Wright and the treatment of those actions by a much older Richard Wright in Black Boy (up to the end of chapter 7, your required reading this week). Select and analyze at least two clear examples that show how the priorities expressed at the close of chapter three inform Wright’s prose and guide his description (or selection) of events and feelings. Where is Wright especially realistic or naturalistic in ways that distinguish him as a writer? Where does he treat suffering with insight? Where does he “drive coldly to the heart of every question”? Finally, if both younger students and university students like, appreciate and learn from Richard Wright, what does that say about those students? About approaches to literary studies?
