the library card
...ears of age he is unable to pronounce the title of a new book borrowed called, A book of Prefaces “preface” he admits is an unusual word to him, but is quite familiar with the word which titles his second book, Prejudices as he admits he knew what that word meant as he had heard it all his life. The word to him was considered stained from memories of racial hate. What would life be like if one could not be free, free enough to enjoy all of what life has to offer?, watching as others receive special treatments, and more opportunities all because of a “fate” that was not chosen by you, but given to you. Its no wonder Richard Wright found such a release and awakening from the text he maneuvered to get from the library. It opened a door for him, although it took much maneuvering to get the key. Lying was well worth it. As he realized the power of fighting with words, just as if they were his weapon. He soon envied the courage that It must have taken to say the powerful words published in the book. Richard Wright confesses he hungered for more books, new ways of looking and seeing. He didn’t necessarily believe or disbelieve what he was reading, he confesses, but it affected him and altered his way of looking at the world. He began to see what he felt the white men were thinking of him, removed him from his sheltered thoughts. Wright, also read a book called Lewis Main Street. Which he used to identify with his boss whom he now saw as “The American Type” reducing the vast distance he once felt separated him from his employer. The books, to Wright were “a type of dope” that created moods that he would live for days, it made him regard the whites differently as he even found text that revived a vivid sense of his mothers suffering. Wisdom embraced him, and made him grow silent, and just as a philosopher, would question the world around him. He then knew what being a Negro meant and that he had been taught to live with hate, and the worst, the very breadth of life itself was beyond his reach. No it is not hard to agree with the fact that in order to solve a problem you must first know what the problem is, and for nineteen years Richard had grown up thinking that life was a world of color-superiority. Where is it possible that it may be considered “bliss?” Bliss would quite obviously not have been what Richard Wright would have encountered throughout his life of segregation, unfair treatment, and evident racial profiling. Bliss would need to be sought after, hungered and fought for. Richard and his brother began to save money towards a trip north where they felt they would be surrounded with more people that felt the same way about things that they did, it was time for them to do something about their circumstance as there new acquired knowledge opened a window of opportunity for them to possibly change their destiny. Through his readings, the distance between him and the world was increasing each day and often he found himself contained in dreams of terror. Bliss was not something that he had lost from reading those b...