Richard Wright's autobiographical novel, Black
Boy, chronicles his life, his hunger for knowledge and acknowledgement both
in his own family and in society. But, it is also the story of anyone who is socially
and economically deprived who wants to be able to have the opportunities to which he/she
is entitled as a human being. Wright's search for self is universal and, withing the
context of America, it is, indeed, a search for the "American
Dream."
The posthumously published American
Hunger takes off from where the earlier biography ends, chronicaling not only
his disillusionment with the Communist party with which Black Boy
deals, but also the difficulties that Wright experienced as a poor black in the urban
North. At the end of this book Wright asks a question reflective of many that he has
asked in Black Boy:
What had I got out of living in America?....I
paced the floor knowing that all I possessed were words and a dim knowledge that my
country had shown me no examples of how to live a human
life.
Because
American Hunger, a more thorough autobiography, poses harsh
criticisms of Communism, Wright's publishers urged him to only release the "Southern"
version and not include his life in the North because the Book-of-the-Month Club
objected to his criticisms of the Communist party and threatened to withdraw its
support. Black Boy was published in
1945.
A look back in history somewhat explains the urgings
of the publishers in the wake of the second world war and the stirring of the "Communist
Scare" of the 1950s with McCarthyism. However, it is only right that Wright's
autobiography include all the significant events and influences of his life. Thus,
American Hunger is a better title, for it is more comprehensive and
more fitting. Wright's autobiography is a book that all Americans can read and relate
to in their own desires for improvement and advancement of
themselves.
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