Richard Wright's novel Black Boy is not just the story of one man's struggle to find intellectual freedom and happiness, it is a story about his discovery of strengths and intrinsic weakness of language. And the ways in which its power can separate one soul from another and one class from another. Over the course of the novel, we move from fear to respect, to abuse, to fear of language in an educational cycle that could be compared to a tumultuous love story. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay From the beginning of the novel we see young Richard realize the power of language when he follows his father's literal directions and kills a cat he has befriended (12). Although he knows that this is not really what his father wants him to do, following these directions explicitly temporarily gives him a kind of power over his father's wishes. At the same time it reveals a weakness of the father, namely his lack of control over language gives him less power. Later, when Richard has to defend himself from attackers who repeatedly try to steal his mother's money(21), he learns a new and symbolic lesson: victory can come when you have money, words (the shopping list) and a big stick to defend. himself. The subsequent experience with language scares him and distances him from it. He becomes "blind with rage" (29) when he is forced to erase the four-letter words from the places where he wrote them. He doesn't understand how, in his innocence, he could abuse something that in the past had only done him good. After this experience, Richard avoided using powerful language for many years. In one scene he refuses to erase the ink from a stack of envelopes(36), fearing, perhaps, the power of the written word, and in some way fearing that this action will bring back memories of the hateful day he had to erase. his own words from the walls of his city. Although his love for the language is soon strengthened when Ella reads him the wonderful story of Bluebeard and his seven wives(44), he is severely reprimanded for it, which shows him once again that the language can be dangerous. He says that his response to the story Ella reads to him is an "emotional response" (47), and that it brings with it "an acute, frightening, and almost painful excitement" (48). This gives him further respect for language and its power. At the same time he brings fear again, because his aunt tells him that novels are "the devil's work". This fear accompanies him in the following years. So much so that he can't even write his name on the board. When he raises his arm to write his name, his mind goes blank and blank: at this point he can't even remember his name, much less write it. He continues to ignore in language what he doesn't like, doesn't understand, or doesn't agree with. He uses his power sparingly: he writes letters to relatives when his mother is ill and reads only sporadically, until a new job teaches him that ignorance of the language isn't in his best interest either. When he sells newspapers he hasn't read, an older black man advises him to read what he's selling. It seems impossible that in all the time he has been selling these papers he has yet to read one, and therefore one must believe he has unconsciously ignored the fact that these papers are written by the Ku Klux Klan(153). Now that he can no longer ignore language and its power, it seems that once again he must use the written word for his own purposes, abusing it to get by. To this end he begins selling insurance to black sharecroppers who are too illiterate and uneducated to know that they don't need it. It doesconsciously, understanding that he is robbing these people through the use of language, of power: he is using a power against the powerless that they cannot resist because they do not understand. Despite his self-loathing, despite these episodes of deception, he continues to pursue the use of language to his advantage. He publishes a three-part story (even though he doesn't get paid for these stories, it's a success), and decides he wants to write novels for a living. Proceeding along this path he finds himself once again faced with the fear of language. This time, however, others fear the language, his language. Case in point is a speech he wishes to give at the end of school (207). The principal summons him to his office and informs Richard that he must give a pre-written speech and that he cannot give his own. Richard claims that he has the right to give the speech he wrote, and when the principal hesitates, Richard realizes that he has actually scared him with the power his words might have on white people arriving at graduation. Richard does not want to face the fact that his words might have a negative effect on the audience, he still avoids fully understanding the power of language, saying that he wants to learn, but there are some things he would rather not know (208). This power over language places Richard outside the law, or so he believes. As he says later in the story, "I no longer felt bound by the laws that whites and blacks were supposed to obey in common, I was outside of those laws" (237). In this new form Richard begins to devour reading material, as if he were forming a new kind of creature within himself, a creature that only wants to read and read more. He uses a co-worker's library card and checks out book after book, something foreign not only to the black people around him, but also to the white people. His suspicion that words are the ultimate power is confirmed when he reads a book by H.L. Mencken and realizes that the man is fighting with his words, using them as weapons, "as one would use a club" (193). When he finally escapes north, and we leave the "southern night" behind, we see a new Richard. This new Richard is now making full use of his use of language. We see this when he takes an exam to join the postal service. He no longer tries to hide his knowledge of the Northern language, but instead begins to explore it thoroughly. Even the white people around him don't read and are amazed to find that he reads the American Mercury. He also begins to use language to learn about other things. He studies books on social issues that are addressed through sociological and psychological studies and calls them his “most important discoveries” (327). These are his most important discoveries in this second half of the book because they will soon lead him to embrace new social concepts. This latest immersion in reading isolates Richard, as he gets sucked deeper into the language and further away from the ordinary people around him. . Of this condition he writes, "Emotionally, I was withdrawn from the objective world; my desires floated freely within the walls of my consciousness, contained and controlled" (328). He enters an almost mystical realm, and is "amazed by its dazzling magic" and "awed by [its] vast, delicate, intricate, psychological structure" (332). He joins a black literary group and discovers that they too are far beneath the kingdom in which he resides. He finds them completely preoccupied with sex, as if they were a baser form of life than his. He despises them for this and feels they will never truly live as they should. With this more arrogant attitude he once again turns to language for money, abusing his knowledge to rob insurance clients who succeed.