Analysis of the Black Characters in Richard Wright's 'Uncle Tom's Children'.
ABSTRACT
Tugas Akhir ini ditulis untuk memenuhi salah satu persyaratan kelulusan
sebagai Sarjana Sastra. Saya memilih kumpulan cerita pendek Uncle Tom’s
Children, karya Richard Wright untuk dianalisis di dalam Tugas Akhir ini. Saya
akan membahas empat tokoh utama berkulit hitam dan bagaimana mereka
bereaksi terhadap diskriminasi kulit putih.
Richard Wright sangat piawai dalam menggambarkan setiap tokoh utama
dalam setiap cerita sehingga mereka tampak seperti dalam kehidupan nyata.
Hampir semua tokoh mempunyai sifat berani bertindak, peduli kepada sesama dan
setia kawan. Di sisi lain, mereka seringkali dihinggapi perasaan takut karena telah
berbuat sesuatu terhadap kulit putih.
Di dalam Uncle Tom’s Children, setiap tokoh utama digambarkan
mengalami perlakuan diskriminatif dari orang kulit putih, dan Richard Wright
sebagai pengarang menggambarkan juga bahwa mereka tidak tinggal diam, tetapi
mereka berani memberikan reaksi terhadap perlakuan orang kulit putih. Namun,
betapapun kerasnya usaha orang kulit hitam berjuang untuk mempertahankan
hidup mereka, pada akhirnya mereka tetap menjadi korban, hanya karena mereka
adalah orang kulit hitam.
Maranatha Christian University
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE …………………………………………………....
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………..
ii
ABSTRACT …………………………………………….......
iv
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study ………………………………………..
Statement of the Problem ……………………………………….
Purpose of the Study ……………………………………………
Methods of Research …………………………………………..
Organization of the Thesis ………………………………..........
1
2
3
3
3
CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS OF BLACK
CHARACTERS IN UNCLE TOM’S
CHILDREN …………………………………………
5
CHAPTER THREE: CONCLUSION ……………………
19
BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………
22
APPENDICES:
Synopsis of “Big Boy Leaves Home” …………………………
Synopsis of “Down by the Riverside” ………………...............
Synopsis of “Long Black Song” ………………………………
Synopsis of “Bright and Morning Star” ………………………
Biography of the Author ……………………………………...
23
23
24
25
25
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APPENDICES
SYNOPSIS OF UNCLE TOM’S CHILDREN
“Big Boy Leaves Home”
There are four black boys whose names are Big Boy, Buck, Lester and
Bobo. One day, all of them want to swim in a creek which lies in a white man’s
property. When they are swimming, a white woman finds them and she calls her
husband, an army officer. Her husband comes and gets angry with them. The four
black boys feel scared, so they decide to leave. The white man shoots Buck and
Lester. And then he tries to kill Big Boy and Bobo. Big Boy tries to protect Bobo
from being killed. Finally, Big Boy shoots the white man. Big Boy and Bobo run
away.
When Big Boy comes home and tells what has happened to his parents, his
parents decide that Big Boy must leave home to hide, because they know that the
whites will be looking for him. When Big Boy is in his hiding place, Bobo is
caught by the whites and Big Boy sees the whites burn Bobo to death. At last Big
Boy can escape from the whites.
“Down By The Riverside”
A black man whose name is Brother Mann needs a boat to take his
pregnant wife to the hospital. Mann tells his cousin, Bob, to buy a boat, but Bob
steals one from a white man. Mann uses that boat as he has no choice. However,
23
on their way the white man who owns the boat sees Brother Mann and recognizes
his boat. The white man gets angry with Mann and wants his boat back. And then
the white man starts shooting at Mann. Mann shoots him back and the white man
is dead. Unfortunately, when they reach the hospital, his wife has already passed
away. Along with another black man, Brinkley, Mann is asked to rescue the
people in the Riverside. They turn out to be the woman whose husband has been
killed, and her children. Although he has a chance to kill them, he decides to
rescue them, instead. Later, the soldiers catch him. Before the soldiers kill him, he
tries to run away. However, the soldiers shoot him and he dies in the river’s edge.
“Long Black Song”
Silas is a hard worker. He has bought a farm so that he can grow his own
crops like white men. One day, when he comes back from selling his crop, he
finds the fact that his wife has slept with a white salesmen. He gets very angry.
In the morning, the white salesman comes back. Silas whips him and then
shoots him to death. Silas knows that if he kills the white man, he can never be
free. He waits for the whites who want to take revenge on him. Later, Silas has a
gunfight with the white people who come to get him out of his house. In the end
he dies when the whites burn his house. Silas never gets out of his house when the
house collapses.
24
“Bright and Morning Star”
An old woman Sue, has two sons. They are members of communist party.
Sug, his first son, has been imprisoned. Sue waits for her another son, JohnnyBoy, to come home. A white fellow communist, Reva, who is the daughter of a
major organizer, stops by to tell Sue that the sheriff has discovered about the
meeting at Lem’s and Sue must tell the comrades about it so the sheriff can not
catch them. And then Johnny-Boy comes home. Sue sends him to tell his
comrades not to go to the Lem’s for the meeting.
Later, the sheriff comes to her house looking for Johnny-Boy. He slaps
and hits her because she does not want to tell where Johnny-Boy is. When she
gains her consciousness, she tells everything to Booker. However, Booker is the
sheriff’s informer. Sue realizes that she is the only person who can save the
comrades and her son. She soon takes the risk to save them. Remembering the
sheriff’s words, she brings a white sheet and wraps a gun in it. Then she goes
through the woods to stop Booker from telling the sheriff. The sheriff tortures
Johnny-Boy in front of her. When Booker comes, Sue shoots him before he
mentions anything about the comrades. And then, the sheriff shoots Johnny-Boy
and Sue.
BIOGRAPHY OF RICHARD WRIGHT
Richard Wright was born near Natchez, Mississippi, on September 4,
1908. His father, Nathaniel, was an illiterate sharecropper. His mother, Ella
Wilson, was a well-educated school teacher. Their poverty forced them to move to
Memphis when Richard was six years old.
25
Richard Wright attended a local public school for a few years. In spring
1924, the Southern Register, a local black newspaper printed “The Voodoo of
Hell’s Half Acre”, which is his first story. From 1925 to 1927, he worked several
menial jobs in Jackson and Memphis. During the time, he continued writing.
In 1927 he moved to Chicago. In 1937 he moved to New York and
became the editor of Daily worker. In 1938 his four short stories were published
together as Uncle Tom’s Children. His first novel Native Son was published in
1940. In 1939 he married a white dancer, Dhimah Rose Meadman, but then they
separated. In 1941 he married Ellen Poplar, a white member of Communist Party,
and they had 2 daughters whose names are Julia (1942) and Rachel (1949).
In his last years he was plagued by illness. After his death on November
28, 1960, another collection of his short stories Eight Men was published. Black
Boy was published in 1945. The importance of his works comes from the impact
of his ideas not from his style and technique. His most significant contribution
was his desire to accurately portray the blacks to the white readers and destroy the
white myth of patient, humorous, and submissive black man.
26
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The existence of racialism in America started before the independence
of America in 1776. Slavery was then one of the most real forms of
discrimination in America. Later there was segregation between black and
white people. Long after the Emancipation in 1865, racialism in the USA still
exists. The black still do not have full freedom as American Citizens.
‘Racialism is an emphasis on race or racial considerations, as in
determining
policy
or
interpreting
events’
(http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/r/r0006500.html). This means racialism
emphasizes on the differences between race which can sometimes lead to
prejudices, misunderstandings and a belief that one race is superior to the
others. In the USA, the whites are the superior race whereas the blacks are the
inferior one.
One of the twentieth-century American authors who deal with
racialism in their works is Richard Wright. He is a black writer who was born
in Mississippi, one of the states where racialism were commonly practised,
especially during the late nineteenth century. Since the author was born and
1
Maranatha Christian University
lived there I believe he knew very well how black people were treated by the
whites. Wright was also seen as the seminal figure in Black Revolution, and
he wanted to change the stereotype of the black people from submissive to not
submissive people, as he described clearly in his short stories Uncle Tom’s
Children. “The reference in the title to Uncle Tom is to Harriet Beecher
Stowe’s Uncle Tom of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the negro who has become the
stereotype of the submissive black. But Wright made it clear that Uncle Tom’s
children were not submissive.” (Robert, 1973: 401) I am of the opinion that
this is an interesting aspect to discuss in my thesis.
In Uncle Tom’s Children, I can see how white people treat black
people. The blacks are treated so badly as if they were not human beings. This
book also tells about how they react towards the unfair treatment. Therefore,
in this thesis I want to analyse the portrayal of the black people who become
victims of racialism. In these short stories every black character is described as
a brave person although they suffer from the act of racialism. They try hard to
get their rights; they want to fight the mental and physical oppressions which
they get from the white people. Through their response, the readers will know
the characteristics of each black character in the story.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The problems which I would like to analyse are:
1. How does the author portray each one of the black characters in the short
stories?
2. Why does the author portray the black characters in such a way?
2
Maranatha Christian University
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
Based on the problems above, the purposes of the study are:
1. To know how the author portrays each one of the black characters in the
short stories.
2. To know the reason why the author portrays the black characters in such a
way.
METHOD OF RESEARCH
The method of research used is library research. I begin my research
by reading the primary text Uncle Tom’s Children, written by Richard Wright.
Then I read several books that can be used to support the research and other
related information from the Internet to help me with my analysis. Finally I
draw some conclusions of what has been discussed.
ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS
This thesis consists of three chapters, which are preceded by the
Preface. Chapter one is the Introduction, which contains the Background of
the Study, the Statement of the Problem, the Purpose of the Study, the Method
of Research, and the Organization of the Thesis. In Chapter two, I present the
analysis of the black characters in Richard Wright’s Uncle Tom’s Children.
And the last chapter is Chapter three, which contains the conclusion of the
analysis. This thesis ends with the Bibliography, which presents the list of
reference books and various sources that I have used, and the Appendices,
3
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which present the synopses of four short stories in Uncle Tom’s Children and
the biography of the author.
4
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CHAPTER THREE
CONCLUSION
Having analysed the black characters in Richard Wright’s short stories,
Uncle Tom’s Children, I find some similarities among the four of them.
Firstly, the four black characters are portrayed as people who all have
feelings and emotion. Big Boy in “Big Boy Leave Home” is portrayed as a
common carefree and brave boy. Mann in “Down by the Riverside” is described
as a caring, responsible and brave man. Silas in “Long Black Song” is a
courageous person; and Sue in “Bright and Morning Star” is a smart, caring, loyal
and brave woman. All the black characters are caring, loyal, brave, and sometimes
feel scared. It is obvious that Richard Wright is skillful in creating lifelike
characters.
Secondly, Richard Wright is smart in using not only adult blacks but also a
woman and children as the protagonist. And they are all brave in giving reaction
towards the whites’ unfair treatment. I get the impression that the author wants to
put forward the idea that even black woman and children are not submissive, as
Carlsen, G. Robert (1973:401) states in American Literature Themes and Writers
Second Edition, that ‘Wright made it clear that Uncle Tom’s children were not
submissive.’ He wants to change the whites’ stereotype of black people.
19
Maranatha Christian University
Furthermore, through what the characters have experienced, Richard
Wright wants to show that the blacks have tried hard to survive. However, no
matter how hard they try, they always become victims of the whites’
discrimination. The whites as superior people think that they can do whatever they
want to blacks, but if the blacks react towards the whites’ unfair treatment, there
will be no mercy for them. Almost all of the protagonists in Richard Wright’s
short stories I have discussed have to die in the hands of the whites.
Besides similarities, I also find a difference among the four short stories.
Richard Wright creates a different ending in “Big Boy Leaves Home” from the
other three stories. Big Boy succeeds in running away from the whites who haunt
him. Nevertheless, he still has to bear the effect; he feels traumatic and afraid. In
my opinion, the author wants to show that although the black boy succeeds in
running away, he is not really free. It is only his body which is free, but not his
soul. Wherever black people try to run away, they will always feel afraid and
traumatic. Black people will not feel free fully because in the end their soul will
be dead also if they always live a traumatic life.
Having analysed the black characters in Richard Wright Uncle Tom’s
Children, I am very much impressed with Mann, the protagonist of “Down by the
Riverside”. He is a caring person. He is willing to help other people in need
although he himself has just lost his beloved wife, who passed away on the way to
the hospital. Unfortunately, his good deed cannot make the whites give mercy to
him because he is black. Nevertheless, I am of the opinion that the blacks are
human beings who have to be treated equal because they have the same right as
other people.
20
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I also learn that long after the abolishment of slavery in the USA, racial
discrimination is still a common practice. I feel pity for the blacks who, due to
their skin-colour, have to suffer or even to die when they react towards the whites’
unfair treatment.
Richard Wright has brought up this issue very clearly in Uncle Tom’s Children,
which makes the book worth reading and analysing
21
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Reference
Carlsen, G. Robert. American Literature Themes and Writers Second Edition. San
Francisco: McGraw-Hill, Inc, 1973.
Website
Racialism: definition,usage and pronounciation. The American Heritage. 19962007.
20
September
2006
The Mississippi Writers Page. Wed, January 28, 2004. MWP: Richard Wright. 20
September
2006
Primary Text
Wright, Richard. Uncle Tom’s Children. New York: HarperPerennial Collins
Publisher, Inc, 1993.
22
Maranatha Christian University
Tugas Akhir ini ditulis untuk memenuhi salah satu persyaratan kelulusan
sebagai Sarjana Sastra. Saya memilih kumpulan cerita pendek Uncle Tom’s
Children, karya Richard Wright untuk dianalisis di dalam Tugas Akhir ini. Saya
akan membahas empat tokoh utama berkulit hitam dan bagaimana mereka
bereaksi terhadap diskriminasi kulit putih.
Richard Wright sangat piawai dalam menggambarkan setiap tokoh utama
dalam setiap cerita sehingga mereka tampak seperti dalam kehidupan nyata.
Hampir semua tokoh mempunyai sifat berani bertindak, peduli kepada sesama dan
setia kawan. Di sisi lain, mereka seringkali dihinggapi perasaan takut karena telah
berbuat sesuatu terhadap kulit putih.
Di dalam Uncle Tom’s Children, setiap tokoh utama digambarkan
mengalami perlakuan diskriminatif dari orang kulit putih, dan Richard Wright
sebagai pengarang menggambarkan juga bahwa mereka tidak tinggal diam, tetapi
mereka berani memberikan reaksi terhadap perlakuan orang kulit putih. Namun,
betapapun kerasnya usaha orang kulit hitam berjuang untuk mempertahankan
hidup mereka, pada akhirnya mereka tetap menjadi korban, hanya karena mereka
adalah orang kulit hitam.
Maranatha Christian University
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE …………………………………………………....
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………..
ii
ABSTRACT …………………………………………….......
iv
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study ………………………………………..
Statement of the Problem ……………………………………….
Purpose of the Study ……………………………………………
Methods of Research …………………………………………..
Organization of the Thesis ………………………………..........
1
2
3
3
3
CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS OF BLACK
CHARACTERS IN UNCLE TOM’S
CHILDREN …………………………………………
5
CHAPTER THREE: CONCLUSION ……………………
19
BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………
22
APPENDICES:
Synopsis of “Big Boy Leaves Home” …………………………
Synopsis of “Down by the Riverside” ………………...............
Synopsis of “Long Black Song” ………………………………
Synopsis of “Bright and Morning Star” ………………………
Biography of the Author ……………………………………...
23
23
24
25
25
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APPENDICES
SYNOPSIS OF UNCLE TOM’S CHILDREN
“Big Boy Leaves Home”
There are four black boys whose names are Big Boy, Buck, Lester and
Bobo. One day, all of them want to swim in a creek which lies in a white man’s
property. When they are swimming, a white woman finds them and she calls her
husband, an army officer. Her husband comes and gets angry with them. The four
black boys feel scared, so they decide to leave. The white man shoots Buck and
Lester. And then he tries to kill Big Boy and Bobo. Big Boy tries to protect Bobo
from being killed. Finally, Big Boy shoots the white man. Big Boy and Bobo run
away.
When Big Boy comes home and tells what has happened to his parents, his
parents decide that Big Boy must leave home to hide, because they know that the
whites will be looking for him. When Big Boy is in his hiding place, Bobo is
caught by the whites and Big Boy sees the whites burn Bobo to death. At last Big
Boy can escape from the whites.
“Down By The Riverside”
A black man whose name is Brother Mann needs a boat to take his
pregnant wife to the hospital. Mann tells his cousin, Bob, to buy a boat, but Bob
steals one from a white man. Mann uses that boat as he has no choice. However,
23
on their way the white man who owns the boat sees Brother Mann and recognizes
his boat. The white man gets angry with Mann and wants his boat back. And then
the white man starts shooting at Mann. Mann shoots him back and the white man
is dead. Unfortunately, when they reach the hospital, his wife has already passed
away. Along with another black man, Brinkley, Mann is asked to rescue the
people in the Riverside. They turn out to be the woman whose husband has been
killed, and her children. Although he has a chance to kill them, he decides to
rescue them, instead. Later, the soldiers catch him. Before the soldiers kill him, he
tries to run away. However, the soldiers shoot him and he dies in the river’s edge.
“Long Black Song”
Silas is a hard worker. He has bought a farm so that he can grow his own
crops like white men. One day, when he comes back from selling his crop, he
finds the fact that his wife has slept with a white salesmen. He gets very angry.
In the morning, the white salesman comes back. Silas whips him and then
shoots him to death. Silas knows that if he kills the white man, he can never be
free. He waits for the whites who want to take revenge on him. Later, Silas has a
gunfight with the white people who come to get him out of his house. In the end
he dies when the whites burn his house. Silas never gets out of his house when the
house collapses.
24
“Bright and Morning Star”
An old woman Sue, has two sons. They are members of communist party.
Sug, his first son, has been imprisoned. Sue waits for her another son, JohnnyBoy, to come home. A white fellow communist, Reva, who is the daughter of a
major organizer, stops by to tell Sue that the sheriff has discovered about the
meeting at Lem’s and Sue must tell the comrades about it so the sheriff can not
catch them. And then Johnny-Boy comes home. Sue sends him to tell his
comrades not to go to the Lem’s for the meeting.
Later, the sheriff comes to her house looking for Johnny-Boy. He slaps
and hits her because she does not want to tell where Johnny-Boy is. When she
gains her consciousness, she tells everything to Booker. However, Booker is the
sheriff’s informer. Sue realizes that she is the only person who can save the
comrades and her son. She soon takes the risk to save them. Remembering the
sheriff’s words, she brings a white sheet and wraps a gun in it. Then she goes
through the woods to stop Booker from telling the sheriff. The sheriff tortures
Johnny-Boy in front of her. When Booker comes, Sue shoots him before he
mentions anything about the comrades. And then, the sheriff shoots Johnny-Boy
and Sue.
BIOGRAPHY OF RICHARD WRIGHT
Richard Wright was born near Natchez, Mississippi, on September 4,
1908. His father, Nathaniel, was an illiterate sharecropper. His mother, Ella
Wilson, was a well-educated school teacher. Their poverty forced them to move to
Memphis when Richard was six years old.
25
Richard Wright attended a local public school for a few years. In spring
1924, the Southern Register, a local black newspaper printed “The Voodoo of
Hell’s Half Acre”, which is his first story. From 1925 to 1927, he worked several
menial jobs in Jackson and Memphis. During the time, he continued writing.
In 1927 he moved to Chicago. In 1937 he moved to New York and
became the editor of Daily worker. In 1938 his four short stories were published
together as Uncle Tom’s Children. His first novel Native Son was published in
1940. In 1939 he married a white dancer, Dhimah Rose Meadman, but then they
separated. In 1941 he married Ellen Poplar, a white member of Communist Party,
and they had 2 daughters whose names are Julia (1942) and Rachel (1949).
In his last years he was plagued by illness. After his death on November
28, 1960, another collection of his short stories Eight Men was published. Black
Boy was published in 1945. The importance of his works comes from the impact
of his ideas not from his style and technique. His most significant contribution
was his desire to accurately portray the blacks to the white readers and destroy the
white myth of patient, humorous, and submissive black man.
26
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The existence of racialism in America started before the independence
of America in 1776. Slavery was then one of the most real forms of
discrimination in America. Later there was segregation between black and
white people. Long after the Emancipation in 1865, racialism in the USA still
exists. The black still do not have full freedom as American Citizens.
‘Racialism is an emphasis on race or racial considerations, as in
determining
policy
or
interpreting
events’
(http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/r/r0006500.html). This means racialism
emphasizes on the differences between race which can sometimes lead to
prejudices, misunderstandings and a belief that one race is superior to the
others. In the USA, the whites are the superior race whereas the blacks are the
inferior one.
One of the twentieth-century American authors who deal with
racialism in their works is Richard Wright. He is a black writer who was born
in Mississippi, one of the states where racialism were commonly practised,
especially during the late nineteenth century. Since the author was born and
1
Maranatha Christian University
lived there I believe he knew very well how black people were treated by the
whites. Wright was also seen as the seminal figure in Black Revolution, and
he wanted to change the stereotype of the black people from submissive to not
submissive people, as he described clearly in his short stories Uncle Tom’s
Children. “The reference in the title to Uncle Tom is to Harriet Beecher
Stowe’s Uncle Tom of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the negro who has become the
stereotype of the submissive black. But Wright made it clear that Uncle Tom’s
children were not submissive.” (Robert, 1973: 401) I am of the opinion that
this is an interesting aspect to discuss in my thesis.
In Uncle Tom’s Children, I can see how white people treat black
people. The blacks are treated so badly as if they were not human beings. This
book also tells about how they react towards the unfair treatment. Therefore,
in this thesis I want to analyse the portrayal of the black people who become
victims of racialism. In these short stories every black character is described as
a brave person although they suffer from the act of racialism. They try hard to
get their rights; they want to fight the mental and physical oppressions which
they get from the white people. Through their response, the readers will know
the characteristics of each black character in the story.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The problems which I would like to analyse are:
1. How does the author portray each one of the black characters in the short
stories?
2. Why does the author portray the black characters in such a way?
2
Maranatha Christian University
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
Based on the problems above, the purposes of the study are:
1. To know how the author portrays each one of the black characters in the
short stories.
2. To know the reason why the author portrays the black characters in such a
way.
METHOD OF RESEARCH
The method of research used is library research. I begin my research
by reading the primary text Uncle Tom’s Children, written by Richard Wright.
Then I read several books that can be used to support the research and other
related information from the Internet to help me with my analysis. Finally I
draw some conclusions of what has been discussed.
ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS
This thesis consists of three chapters, which are preceded by the
Preface. Chapter one is the Introduction, which contains the Background of
the Study, the Statement of the Problem, the Purpose of the Study, the Method
of Research, and the Organization of the Thesis. In Chapter two, I present the
analysis of the black characters in Richard Wright’s Uncle Tom’s Children.
And the last chapter is Chapter three, which contains the conclusion of the
analysis. This thesis ends with the Bibliography, which presents the list of
reference books and various sources that I have used, and the Appendices,
3
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which present the synopses of four short stories in Uncle Tom’s Children and
the biography of the author.
4
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CHAPTER THREE
CONCLUSION
Having analysed the black characters in Richard Wright’s short stories,
Uncle Tom’s Children, I find some similarities among the four of them.
Firstly, the four black characters are portrayed as people who all have
feelings and emotion. Big Boy in “Big Boy Leave Home” is portrayed as a
common carefree and brave boy. Mann in “Down by the Riverside” is described
as a caring, responsible and brave man. Silas in “Long Black Song” is a
courageous person; and Sue in “Bright and Morning Star” is a smart, caring, loyal
and brave woman. All the black characters are caring, loyal, brave, and sometimes
feel scared. It is obvious that Richard Wright is skillful in creating lifelike
characters.
Secondly, Richard Wright is smart in using not only adult blacks but also a
woman and children as the protagonist. And they are all brave in giving reaction
towards the whites’ unfair treatment. I get the impression that the author wants to
put forward the idea that even black woman and children are not submissive, as
Carlsen, G. Robert (1973:401) states in American Literature Themes and Writers
Second Edition, that ‘Wright made it clear that Uncle Tom’s children were not
submissive.’ He wants to change the whites’ stereotype of black people.
19
Maranatha Christian University
Furthermore, through what the characters have experienced, Richard
Wright wants to show that the blacks have tried hard to survive. However, no
matter how hard they try, they always become victims of the whites’
discrimination. The whites as superior people think that they can do whatever they
want to blacks, but if the blacks react towards the whites’ unfair treatment, there
will be no mercy for them. Almost all of the protagonists in Richard Wright’s
short stories I have discussed have to die in the hands of the whites.
Besides similarities, I also find a difference among the four short stories.
Richard Wright creates a different ending in “Big Boy Leaves Home” from the
other three stories. Big Boy succeeds in running away from the whites who haunt
him. Nevertheless, he still has to bear the effect; he feels traumatic and afraid. In
my opinion, the author wants to show that although the black boy succeeds in
running away, he is not really free. It is only his body which is free, but not his
soul. Wherever black people try to run away, they will always feel afraid and
traumatic. Black people will not feel free fully because in the end their soul will
be dead also if they always live a traumatic life.
Having analysed the black characters in Richard Wright Uncle Tom’s
Children, I am very much impressed with Mann, the protagonist of “Down by the
Riverside”. He is a caring person. He is willing to help other people in need
although he himself has just lost his beloved wife, who passed away on the way to
the hospital. Unfortunately, his good deed cannot make the whites give mercy to
him because he is black. Nevertheless, I am of the opinion that the blacks are
human beings who have to be treated equal because they have the same right as
other people.
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I also learn that long after the abolishment of slavery in the USA, racial
discrimination is still a common practice. I feel pity for the blacks who, due to
their skin-colour, have to suffer or even to die when they react towards the whites’
unfair treatment.
Richard Wright has brought up this issue very clearly in Uncle Tom’s Children,
which makes the book worth reading and analysing
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Reference
Carlsen, G. Robert. American Literature Themes and Writers Second Edition. San
Francisco: McGraw-Hill, Inc, 1973.
Website
Racialism: definition,usage and pronounciation. The American Heritage. 19962007.
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2006
The Mississippi Writers Page. Wed, January 28, 2004. MWP: Richard Wright. 20
September
2006
Primary Text
Wright, Richard. Uncle Tom’s Children. New York: HarperPerennial Collins
Publisher, Inc, 1993.
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