Richard Wright (1908- 1960), an African American author, has grown up in the American South at a time when the American society has witnessed deep division, for together with the Whites vs. Blacks conflict there has been The Blacks vs. Blacks tension likewise, and violence has formed the dominant behavior between the conflicting groups. Wright's autobiographical novel, Black Boy, shows how he has been reared by a mother who believes that violence is the only effective strategy to protect her son from their violent environment. The misery and hardships the mother, Ella Wright, has undergone in her larger society as well as with her family and separated husband, have led her to adopt this strategy. She uses violence to teach her son the priority of family, religion, and beyond everything else she teaches him violence itself as a means of self-protection. Albeit this strategy affects the mother-son relationship negatively on the part of the son at the beginning, the son's intellectual maturity minimizes its significance, and he gradually starts to generate sympathy and show deep understanding towards his mother.
The article discusses Wright's mother use of violence as a method for bringing up her son, Richard Wright in his autobiography, Black Boy. It also examines the impact of this method upon Richard's relationship with his mother and how he perceives her maternal role. Finally, the conclusion sums up the main findings of the article.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- Violence as a Safeguard against Hostility: Black Mother-to-Son Parenting in Richard Wright's Black Boy
- Abstract
- Keywords
- In a community where the color of the skin has been the criterion by which its members are assessed, Black people have suffered a constant pressure due to their lack of educational, economic, and social opportunities.
- The mother-son relationship between Wright and his mother, as portrayed in his autobiography Black Boy, is one example of the African American mother relationship with her son, and violence, extraordinarily, forms the strategy which she believes is for his own advantage.
- Born in (1908) at Pucker's Plantation in Roxie, Mississippi, Richard Wright, the son of Ella and Nathan Wright, a school teacher and a sharecropper, had spent most of his difficult childhood in the American South; the place where Wright, like all other Black people, has suffered semi-legalized discrimination, pauperization and deprivation of education.
- The autobiography opens with a dramatic scene of the four-year-old Richard setting his grandmother's house on fire out of a child's curiosity.
- Whenever Richard is beaten up, Ella justifies it with words like: 'you've learned your lesson.' (p.14) and ‘I'm going to teach you ....' (p.17) which gives the reader the impression that she is trying to perform the role of the teacher inside her own home, but what kind of teacher is she to Richard in this situation?
- W. E. Du Bois believes that Black Boy is a fictionalized autobiography even if its subtitle; A Record of Childhood and Youth, gives the reader the impression that the story is an accurate record of Richard's life.
- Extraordinarily, Richard's first attempt to overpower the excessive violence he suffers at his own home has been directed against his father rather than his mother.
- This situation might not only signify the troubled relationship between the father and his son, but it also signifies the first stage of Richard's intellectual cognitive development.
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte
Der Artikel untersucht die Verwendung von Gewalt als Erziehungsstrategie in Richard Wrights Autobiografie „Black Boy". Er analysiert die Gründe für Ella Wrights Einsatz von Gewalt, die Auswirkungen auf die Beziehung zwischen Mutter und Sohn sowie Richard Wrights Entwicklung und Wahrnehmung seiner Mutterrolle.
- Gewalt als Erziehungsmethode in einem rassistisch geprägten Umfeld
- Die komplexe Beziehung zwischen Richard Wright und seiner Mutter Ella
- Richard Wrights Entwicklung von der Kindheit bis zur Jugend
- Die Auswirkungen von Gewalt auf die psychische Entwicklung des Protagonisten
- Das Verhältnis zwischen Familie und Gesellschaft in der amerikanischen Südstaaten-Gesellschaft
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel
Die Einleitung stellt Richard Wrights Kindheit im amerikanischen Süden und die prägenden Erfahrungen mit Rassismus und Gewalt vor. Die frühen Kapitel des Buches zeigen, wie Ella Wright ihren Sohn mit Gewalt erzieht, um ihn vor der brutalen Realität der Umgebung zu schützen. Der Artikel beleuchtet Richard Wrights Reaktion auf die Gewalt und die Entwicklung seiner Beziehung zu seiner Mutter.
Schlüsselwörter
Die zentralen Begriffe des Buches sind Gewalt, Rassismus, Familie, Erziehung, Mutter-Sohn-Beziehung, soziale Ungleichheit, Diskriminierung, Selbstbehauptung, Identität, psychische Entwicklung, und die amerikanische Südstaaten-Gesellschaft.
- Quote paper
- Iman Khdairi (Author), 2017, Violence as a Safeguard against Hostility 2017, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/438637
