The Fight

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The Fight

Richard Nathaniel Wright was born, September 4, 1908, on the Rucker Plantation in Roxie, Mississippi and died, November 26, 1960. He was a son of an illiterate sharecropper and the grandson of former slaves. When he entered school at Howe institute he had to live in an orphanage for a brief amount of time until his mother could get back on her feet since she was ill and have him move to Jackson, Mississippi. After a couple of complications and back and forth movement, Wright re-entered school in the fall of 1918, but was forced to leave after a few month's because of his mother's poor health and force him to earn money to support his family. Still they were unable to pay the rent and had to move so to make things less stressful Wright would gather excess coal to heat up the house. Meanwhile his mother ended up suffering a paralyzing stroke and they shortly returned with her mother back in Jackson. By that time Richard had went back to school at the age of 13 and had entered 5th grade, but was quickly placed in the 6th. During this period he was delivering newspapers and had worked briefly with a traveling insurance salesman. That following year he had moved on to the seventh grade with news that his grandfather had died. Despite that, he managed to earn enough to buy his textbooks , food, clothes, by running errands for whites. In the meantime Richard spent most of his free time reading novels, magazines, and any other reading he could get his hands on, voraciously. During this time he wound up writing his own short story called "The Voodoo of Hell's Half Acre" in 1923 and then later graduated high school in the year of 1924 as valedictorian and had moved to Memphis, Tennessee. Soon after, his family had reunited with each other while he stayed busy working several low- paying jobs.

He went on to become one of the greatest black writers in American history. He was a very intelligent and articulate black male who pursued to be one of the best writers known to mankind and became one of the first African-Americans to achieve literary fame and fortune.

In 1927, he moved to Chicago, where he became a post office clerk until the Great Depression forced him to take on various temporary positions. During this time he became involved with the Communist Party, writing articles and stories for both the Daily Worker and New Masses. His ties to the Communist Party continued after moving to New York, where he became the Harlem editor of Daily Worker and helper for the editing of a shirt-lived magazine called "New Challenge".

He moves on to create and publish his own novels and short stories and one story that left an impact on people, "Black Boy", was the autobiographical story of his life, starting from the age of four into his mid twenties. The book shows the life of a young black man growing up in the south when Jim Crow laws existed and the general hate for blacks by whites. Black boy illustrates the fight for black America and his dealings through it by reading and seeking education. In his quest towards the absorption of knowledge, Wright stirred up animosity amongst both blacks and whites.

In the story he has a chapter called "The Fight" where he felt as though, each new school meant a new area of life to be conquered. He viewed violence as apart of everyday life and in this chapter he is brought to a new school by his uncle, Clark, and is introduced to his new principal. He observes his new surrounding and work provided in his classes and figures its was nothing he can't accomplish, but still he worried, "My anxiety was still in me; I was wondering how I would get on with the boys", that was his main thought for the first half of the school day. "This was my test. If I failed now, I would have failed at school, for the first trial came not in books but in how one's fellows took one, what value they placed upon one's willingness to fight. " He worried about how he would fit in, or get accepted with the boys in the school, because as a new student, for the most part, you always get tested and Wright knew this. As a new male in a new school he knew what he had to do if things were brought on him and he knew he had to fight to not be dealt with. He couldn't make friends until he proved his self to everybody and showed them that he was a force not to be messed with. During the rest of the day he pondered on just how tough the boys were at the school, how hard they fought. So during recess when he went into the school grounds it just so happened that a group of boys were on they're way to approach him. Richard leaned against the wall trying to conceal his uneasiness and act casual when one of the boys said, "Where you from", and he replied "Jackson." The boy replied back and said, "How come they make you people so ugly in Jackson", while the rest of the boys laughed. So Richard replied back with an instant come back and they started to go at it with the mouth for a bit. The crowd started to get hype and instigate. The two of them continued to argue and the crowd sensed a fight coming on. The boy came closer to Richard about 4 inches away from his face but their still was a sense of hesitation in the both of them so one of the boys in the group was eager and got inpatient, shoving the boy into Richard. That's when the fight began and Richard pushed him back swinging his right hand fist into the boy's mouth. The crowd huddled up so tight around them that it was almost difficult for them to throw punches but still, Richard fought forcefully and tigerishly, determined not to lose because he knew if he did, he would have to fight every last single boy who wanted to mess with just because. So he had to make an example out of the boy who thought he was tough. He was determined to try to leave a scar or draw blood from the boy to show the boys that he wasn't a coward but the bell rung and they were quickly pulled off each other by the other boys. So by now the fight looked like a tie and the boy shouted back at Richard "I ain't through with you!" After the fight the boys were eager to get to know Richard asking him questions, maybe even trying to be his friend so they could have him as their protector. They did this because after they seen him fight they felt like he was worth knowing. At the end of the day Richard was suppose to fight the boy after school but the boy never showed up. On his way home he had come in contact with a cheap ring and decided he was going to use it on any bully who decided to test him but he never had to use it because after he showcased it at school, it got spread among the boys, so when Richard pressed his enemy, the boy did not respond and he realized that he no longer had to fight and was now accepted in his new school.

In the story Richards anxiety foreshadows the events that come his way. It was as if without a doubt he knew deep down inside his gut that a fight or something maybe even worse was going to occur so he kept stressing his self on how the day was going to turn out and what strategy he should use to keep his cool. His anxiety only gave a clue to what was going to happen, which was a certified fight.

If I were in this situation I would have acted exactly like Richard down to the tea from when he meant the principle, to when he considered that the work wasn't that hard, up until the thoughts that lied on his conscience.

This exact situation never happened to me but in general there's always someone that wants to test you. Moreover, I believe it's in people's nature to want to do so, whether aggressively or in some cases mentally they like to test and challenges ones intelligence. Life is based on competition challenge and survival of the fittest and in this story Richard Wright depicts this notion.