Prejudice In Literature Essay, Research Paper

Toni Morrison?s, The Bluest Eye, Alice Walker?s , The Color Purple , and

Richard Wright?s autobiography , Black Boy , all represent prejudicy . The

preceding novels show the characters were typical victims, not understading the

division of power amongst races. The Bluest Eye , a heart breaking story of a

little back girl living in Lorain, Ohio during the 1930?s, manifest the

longing of Pecola Breedlove?s obsession for love. In order to achieve love she

would have to deny herself of her true identity and surrender to what is thought

to be beautiful and superior: little white girls ?gifted? with blond hair

and blue eyes. The novel procalaims the nation?s love for little white girls.

Sadly, Pecola wishes every night to abolish her ugliness: her blackness. If she

could only become ?beautiful? she would be loved , rather then become the

subject of hatred ranging fom people like her mother tro her teachers to her

classmates. Recounting the story of a black girl?s hardship?s in the world

of prejudice, Alice Walker?s , The Color Purple presents a moving story of

love, ill-treatment, and growth. Celie, the main character, advances toward

inner growth changing from a abused and submissive wife to an independent and

confident black women. The story is written in Celie?s journal addressed to

God. This is because the only person she thinks she can trust is God I with her

secrets. From Celie?s journal the reader finds out about other characters in

the novel such as Alfonso, Mr._____, Shug, Nettie, and Harpo. The theme of the

novel is straightforward and simple. Like many of the other novels devoted to

the mistreatment of blacks and black women especially. Much of the novel reflect

points in the authors life. The novel is derived from Alice Walker?s own

personal experience, growing up in the rural south as an abused and uneducated

child. Black Boy is an autobiography about Richard Wright. He was born in the

rural Mississippi, the grandson of slaves. Richard Wright overcame every social

obstacle including poverty, racism and limited education to achieve the

regonition as the creator of America?s most powerful literature. Black Boy,

Richard Wright’s autobiography, covers his childhood and early adulthood. It

opens with four-year-old Richard’s rebellion against authority. In order to

occupy his time Richard accidently burns down his grandfathers house. ?My idea

was growing. Now I was wondering how the long fluffy curatians would look if I

held the burning straws under them( pg 11).? All throughout the entire novel

Richard has some type of hunger. His hunger gets him into trouble. At the time,

Richard was and resentful of his mother’s command of silence. After his mother

determined that he was unharmed, she beat him so badly that he lost

consciousness. When Richard and his brother were very young, Nathan Wright,

their father, a sharecropper , abandoned the family, plunging them into poverty.

Richard’s constant hunger made him extremely bitter toward his father. Over the

next few years, Ella, Richard’s mother, would desperately attempt to feed,

clothe, and shelter her children. Her long hours of work often meant leaving her

children with little supervision. When Richard was six years old, he began

begging drinks in a nearby saloon where the customers plied him with nickels if

he would repeat various curse words and offensive phrases. When beatings

didn?t work helpfully with his growing obsession with alcohol, Ella engaged

the babysitting services of an older black woman in the neighborhood who watched

every move. Ella moved in with her sister, Maggie, and Maggie’s husband, Silas

Hoskins. Hoskins was the owner of a successful saloon, so there was always more

than enough food to eat. Nevertheless, Richard was unable to lose the fear that

his hunger would return anew, so he hoarded food all over the house.

Unfortunately, the newly found stableness was not destined to last. The local

whites were jealous of Hoskins’s profitable business, so they murdered him and

threatened to kill the rest of his family. Maggie and Ella fled with the two

boys to live in another town. Maggie and Ella’s combined wages proved adequate

to feed and clothe Richard and his brother, but Maggie became involved with

"Professor" Matthews, a wanted man. Matthews, being a wanted man gave

the children valued things and a puppy.Shortly after Richard desired to sell the

dog for money to sooth his hunger. The lady only having 97 cents was denied new

ownership of the puppy. A week later the dog was run over and killed. Ella and

the children fled to the North after Mathews killed a white woman; Ella once

again had to work alone to provide for herself and her children. Ella’s health

began to deteriorate. Because she didn?t have money for rent she and her sons

were forced to move several times. A paralytic stroke disabled her, so Richard

was forced to write to his grandmother for help. Ella’s siblings gave hat help

they could, but none of them could take on the responsibility for both of her

children. Richard’s grandmother took on the responsibility for caring for Ella.

Maggie took Richard’s younger brother to raise in Detroit, while Richard chose

to live with his Uncle Clark, who lived close to Richard’s grandmother. However,

Richard ultimately could not get along with Clark and his wife Jody, so he

returned to Jackson to live with his mother in his grandparents’ home. Richard’s

grandmother was a strict Seventh Day Adventist, but Richard was an atheist from

an early age. He also had a yearning to be a writer, a profession that his

grandmother distrusted as "wrldly." His relationship with his

grandmother was therefore a never-ending battle. His Aunt Addie eventually

joined the crusade to save his soul, and Richard was enrolled in the religious

school where she taught. One day, she beat Richard in class for an offense that

he did not commit. He was accused of eating in school. She tried to beat him

again after school, but Richard fought her off with a knife. In the following

years, Richard would have to defend himself against the violence of various

members of his family. Despite his random schooling, Richard managed to graduate

from the ninth grade. He tried to work to save money in order to move to the

North, but he found himself unable to assume the role of humble inferior to his

white employers and co-workers. During this time, he suffered numerous

frightening, often violent confrontations with white racism. He moved to Memphis

where the atmosphere was less dangerous. He insulted the attempts of his kindly

landlady, Mrs. Moss, to marry him to her daughter, Bess. Meanwhile, he began

saving for his escape to the North. His mother, brother, and Aunt Maggie joined

him in Memphis, and later moved with him to Chicago. Chicago urged new desires

and dreams in Richard, but he was still too afraid to fully acknowledge them.

Mired in the sadness and chaos of the great depression, Richard found an

ideology that appealed to him in Communism. He felt that he could aid the

Communists in spreading their message via his writing, but to his horror and

dismay, he soon discovered that petty rivalries and paranoia ran deep among his

peers. He found himself he object of suspicion and distrust because he was

branded an "intellectual." After a series of political battles and a

great deal of persecution, Richard became like an alien from the Party. He was

ousted by several Communist when he tried to march in a May Day parade, but he

did not let this rejection defeat him. Instead, he resolved to find his own

forms of expression and self-realization through his writing. One of the factors

that influenced the novels was the setting. The Color Purple takes place in the

south during the early 1900?s. It is not usual that predjudicy against women

and blacks took place. The Bluest Eye also takes place during the early 1900?s

in Lorain , Ohio. Similar to the Color Purple black boy takes place in the

south; arond the 1930?s in Mississipi. This time in civilization is ideal for

predjudicy. This was the time during the civil war. Black were not slave but

they were still treated with little respect. Racist whites were extremely

hostile to black literacy, and even more so to black Americans who wanted to

make writing a carreer. During these times blacks were highly mistreated.

Without the setting it would be doubtful for the plot in the novel to take

place. All of the novels portray prejudicy toward the characters. The theme of

the Color purple is straightforward and simple. Like many other novels devoted

to the mistreatment of blacks and black women espescially, The color purple is

dedicated to black womens’ rights. Much of the narrative in Walker’s novel is

derived from her own experience, growing up in the rural south as an abused and

uneducated child. Richard seems to be a mere reflection to Alice Walker, in his

autobiography, Black Boy. Similarly to Richard and Alice Walker, Pecola is a

little black girl who is also abused. Pecola’s dreams represented the all

American dream. In Pecola’s eyes hiteness represents beauty, middle-class

affluence, popularity, and happiness. Throughout the novel, lines from Dick and

Jane preface several chapters. The perfect white world of the reading contrasts

sharply with the poverty and suffering of the black characters in the novel. A

pattern of rebellion and punishment last all throughout Black Boy. After

searching and searching Richard refused to give up his individuality to prove

his loyalty to himself and others. He decide, as he always had, to go his own

way. The characters in The Bluest Eye, Black Boy, and The Color Purple are

victims of social obstacles such as being the vistims of racism, poverty and

poor education. The characters deal with their obstacles differently. Pecola

hides away wishing everyday to terminate her blackness. Soon later, due to

herself and people around, she goes mad thinking she is actually gifted with

blue eyes more beautiful than anyone elses. Celia stays a submissive wife until

Shug comes along to boost her self-esteem to where it has never gone before. At

first Richard , in Black Boy, does not understand any of his obstacles.

Therefore that was his hunger to go searching for more knowledge.

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