Hunger Essay

Hunger played a big role in Richard Wrights life. When a person thinks about hunger, food comes to mind. We never think of hunger as anything else. In "Black Boy" written by Richard Wright, a young boy faces many different types of hunger. He wanted to be able to do what the white children did. He wanted to be able to go to school, to learn, to read, have friends, have a job. But because he was an African American he could not. This is what I will be discussing in this paper his many different types of hunger.

Have you ever experienced real hunger? The kinds of hungers that Richard experiences in Black Boy are not obvious in the society where you and I reside. The present middle class citizens cannot really relate to true physical hunger. Hunger for most of us is when there is nothing that we desire to eat around the house and therefore skip one meal. This cannot even compare to the days that Richard suffers without food. Physical hunger, however, is not the only hunger apparent in Richard's life. Richard suffers from emotional and educational hungers as well.

From an early age of his life thereafter, when his father left, his family starving which led to Richardss physical hunger. He feels as though it is his job to support and help his family since his dad left. By reading and learning through co-workers he learned how to deal with others, whether they are black or white. He learns the secret of how to survive in his society by watching how others act and react to one another. "Hunger stole upon me slowly that at first I was not aware of what hunger really meant. Hunger had always been more or less at my elbow when I played, but now I began to wake up at night to find hunger standing at my bedside, staring at me gauntly" (16). Soon after the disappearance of Richard's father, he begins to notice endless starvation. The type of hunger that Richard describes is worse than one who has not experienced hunger can even imagine. "Once again I knew hunger, biting hunger, hunger that made my body aimlessly restless, hunger that kept me on edge, that made my temper flare, that made my temper flare, hunger that made hate leap out of my heart like the dart of a serpent's tongue, hunger that created in me odd cravings" (119). Because hunger has always been a part of Richards lifestyle, he cannot even imagine eating meat every day. This simple joy would be a miracle to him, yet to most it is nothing. These weakening and piercing hungers are frequently evident where poverty lives in the Jim Crow South.