Hunger

Physical hunger is not the only hunger apparent in Richard Wright’s life. What seems to have driven Wright’s quest might be described as the multiple dimensions of hunger. It seems that both the absence of food and of his father have become interchangeable in Wright’s mind. When Wright reflected back on his childhood he stated, “As the days slid past the image of my father became associated with my pangs of hunger, and whenever I felt hunger I though of him with a deep biological bitterness” (16). This was not just focused against the father, but against the whole society. Wright was really longing for a better life, and this was hard to accomplish especially knowing that during the early twentieth century there was a lot of inequality between blacks and whites and his home life was a struggle as well.

Wright also has an educational and emotional hunger and he wants to be like the other boys going to school and reading. Educational hunger is one that I think Wright has the hardest time facing because he is a smart boy, but because of the Jim Crow Laws he is not really encouraged to learn. Furthermore, emotional hunger represses Richard’s life because he seems to desire attention, but doesn’t get it in his home environment and doesn’t really know how to associate well with others because of it. Whether it is physical, emotional, or educational hunger each of these affects his life significantly.