NON-AFRICAN PROSE
RICHARD WRIGHT: Black Boy
What are the causes of Richard’s problems with Aunt Addie?
Explanation
Richard is the protagonist of the novel who at an early age recognizes the threat in any environment that can subjugate him and learns to flee from such. Aunt Addie is Richard's aunt - the younger sister of his mother. Before their meeting, Richard and paralyzed mother had been living with Grandpa and Granny in Jackson Town. Richard has just come back from Greenwood. His return coincides with Aunt Addie's from a missionary school having trained as a teacher.
The fact that Richard has just returned from Uncle Clark who would have helped in his upbringing is no good news to anybody least of all, Aunt Addie. She has had a strict missionary training and believes that Richard is the 'black sheep' of the family and should be enrolled in a religious school.
This bias therefore trails him to the strict religious school where Aunt Addie is the sole teacher. Richard takes exception to Aunt Addie's method of teaching and this affects their relationship. Not realizing the horrible experiences of Richard, who has become hardened at age twelve, Aunt Addie makes the mistake of thinking that she is dealing with a child and bases their relationship on that premise. Richard feels it inappropriate that he is being forced into the same class with pupils ranging from ages five to nineteen.
Aunt Addie picks so much on Richard in the class to the extent that she gives him a thorough beating over an offence he has not committed Aunt Addie's amateurish approach to teaching makes her a nervous, self-conscious teacher. She sees her blood relation - Richard - as a lost soul and this creates bitterness and antagonism between them. Aunt Addie sees Richard as a burden to the family and feels that he should be grateful for having the family's passion in feeding him. Richard retaliates to Aunt Addie's continuation of the 'disciplining' at home, and fights her with a knife: "Aunt Addie took her defeat hard ... she has descended to my own emotional level in her effort to rule me and my respect for her sank..."
Richard abhors the indoctrination and brutal games which the pupils are subjected to and stops studying since "wait Addie (the teacher) would ignore him in class. She finds pleasure in laughing at Richard as he bleeds after hurting himself in the 'brutal' pop-the-whip game in the school. Richard is emotionally hurt. "Aunt Addie was laughing, the first and only time I ever saw her laugh on God's holy round". Nothing makes Richard develop a cordial relationship with Aunt Addie, not even the "all night" prayer sessions in 'Granny's church. When Richard responds to his yearnings and aspirations by writing the story "The Voodoo of Hell's Half-Acre" like the whites, Aunt Addie castigates him. Like Granny, Aunt Addie gives Richard up for lost and becomes very hostile ordering him around.
Their relationship would not have been so unhealthy had Aunt Addie taken Richard's problem, (especially hunger), experiences and feelings into consideration. Nothing makes Richard develop a cordial relationship with Aunt Addie, not even the "all night" prayer sessions in '..granny's church. When Richard responds to his yearnings and aspirations by writing the story "The Voodoo of Hell's Half-Acre" like the whites, Aunt Addie castigates him. Like Granny, Aunt Addie gives Richard up for lost and becomes very hostile ordering him around. Their relationship would not have been so unhealthy had Aunt Addie taken Richard's problem, (especially hunger), experiences and feelings into consideration.