Sunday, February 22, 2009
Hunger
I don't believe that Wright is really hungry for anything except food. He is poor, black, fatherless, and stuck in an orphanage. As a result, he does not have enough food and is hungry. Amazing concept, I know. The only possible symbolism that one could take from the chapter is one paragraph where he mentions how hungry he is waiting in the kitchen for his mother to finish work and realizes he has to wait for the rich white people to finish eating before he can even get scraps. Here one could draw out racial inequality and the fact that the racial minority is starving waiting for our leftovers. However, as aforementioned, this was one paragraph. The real reason he is "hungry" is because he has a terrible situation (which I assume he overcomes eventually). I understand that the boy loves to learn, and there are multiple examples of how much Wright seeks out and retains information that much of us would be unable too comprehend nearly as quickly. What stunned me was the ability of Wright to learn to count to 100 in one afternoon (also that the coal man was honest...). However, hunger and his love of learning don't really come together without a massive stretch of the imagination that I don't believe Wright intended the reader to make.
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2 comments:
I agree. In fact, its likely that the only reason that i have any idea what he is actually hungry for is because i sparknoted it after i was finished with my reading. Also, he was really really hungry. I mean this is an important factor in his hunger. His father left, and the minister was hogging the fried chicken. I know i a middle class white guy who really cannot relate to Richard Wright, but that would make me pretty hungry too!
I disagree. I see the angle you're coming from and i can believe that. Sure it's not necessarily a hunger for knowledge. I believe it's more of the pangs of hunger as being issues and problems in his life that harm him. It's the pain with hunger that hits him and he must over come as they are merely accessories to the life he was born into. The injustice and trauma of his childhood from drinking, abuse, "divorce," and being a black boy in the South.
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