The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch By Richard Wright

American Author, Richard Wright, won the Guggenheim Fellowships award for his creative ability in the arts, and is known for his instant seller book Black Boy that was published in 1945. He writes a classical essay called “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch” on the hardship of a young African-American male during the time of segregation. Wright’s intentions of the short essay is to express what the social norms as a African-American male was considered, such as taking off a hat if you were in an elevator. The hardships he faces are conformity to authority. The audience of the essay seems to be open to the public, but specifically speaking historians or people interested in learning new information on segregation would suit best for the essay. Throughout his essay he uses hyperbole's to further help his point; hyperbole's can be used in a sarcastic way, as well as serves the purpose of emphasizing. In his case he tends to use it in a sarcastic way and to signify his feelings at the time. He also uses repetition to express how much race matters to him, and the rest of the community. He displays this by saying the word “black” multiple times to describe the environment that he lives in. In each stage of his life he deals with the proper way to handle situations when encountering a Caucasian individual. Since his mother indirectly told him how to act with Caucasians he struggled in the beginning with his home and work life. Richard Wright is able to achieve is purpose by really allowing the readers to know what he is feeling, as well as what his action are. If the readers were not aware of his feelings, then he mostly likely would not have been able to achieve his purpose, which was to show the social norms of an African-American.

http://www.holtlaborlibrary.org/BusBoycott.htm

Title: Segregation

 

Bus

 

   

              Caption: Richard Wright did try to move away from conformity