The theme of Richard Wright's "Black Boy" is racism because he became a black boy for the sole purpose of survival, to make enough money, stop the hunger pains, and to eventually move to the North where he could be himself. Wright grew up in the deep dirty South; the Jim Crow South of the early twentieth century. From an early age Richard Wright was aware of two races, the black and the white. Yet …showed first 75 words of 742 total…

…showed last 75 words of 742 total…no intelligence of his own. There are many themes in Black Boy. All of them are directly or indirectly the product of racism. Wright is hungry because his mother, a black woman, cannot find a job that pays well. Wright tries to rebel against the restraint society placed upon his race. He feels isolated because he questions the relations between the races and because he will not submit to the demands of a racist society.