Swallowing Pride
In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell defines and describes the archetypal hero in great detail so that familiar and seemingly commonplace stories may be understood and appreciated more deeply. He states, “The hero is the man or woman who has been able to battle past his personal and local historical limitations to the generally valid, normally human forms.” This rather general observation can obviously be applied to a multitude of characters, in this case, Richard Wright, the author of the semi-autobiographical tale, Black Boy. As an African-American growing up in the oppressive environment of the Jim Crow South, Wright faced an incredible amount of challenges and obstacles ...
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of the text, it is evident that Wright is an incredibly obstinate and willful character, a trait that both helps and hinders his journey. In the face of an inevitable beating by his parents, the child Richard resists and protests loudly and violently. He even hangs a cat by a nail on the wall as a punishment for his father’s cruelty (Wright 11). This defiance towards those who would oppress and subjugate him follows Richard throughout his young life. His family, moving from town to town and struggling with a myriad of different problems, fails to keep him in line. No matter how hard he is disciplined, Richard does what he wants with seemingly no regard for the requests or demands of others. As a result of his behavior, his already complicated life is made even more difficult. Before he is even ten years old, Wright has dealt with alcoholism, been deserted by his father, and gotten into more trouble than most people do in their entire lives.
Despite all of the hardships that he ...
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becomes the greatest test of willpower in his young life. Wright reflects, “At the age of twelve, before I had one year of formal schooling, I had… a conviction that the meaning of living came only when one was struggling to wring a meaning out of meaningless suffering” (100).
These struggles only compound as Richard grows older and begins to understand more fully the implications of the racially tense world he lives in. He both witnesses and personally experiences the extent to which racism governs his society. A number of odd jobs opens his eyes to just how difficult life could be for him should he continue to resist against the powers that be. After his friend’s brother, Bob, is ...
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"Swallowing Pride." Essayworld.com. March 8, 2011. Accessed November 22, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Swallowing-Pride/95742.
"Swallowing Pride." Essayworld.com. March 8, 2011. Accessed November 22, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Swallowing-Pride/95742.
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