Richard Wright's Struggles With Racism Quiz

5 September 2022
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question
Which excerpt from Black Boy best demonstrates the idea that Wright's family feels frustrated and trapped in their financial situation?
answer
At night there were long, halting discussions about our going to live with Granny, but nothing came of it. Perhaps there was not enough money for railroad fare.

Explanation: The excerpt from Black Boy that best demonstrates the idea that Wright's family feels frustrated and trapped in their financial situation is the following:We were always on the verge of eviction and always behind in the rent. The furniture was shabby, the stove was old, the plumbing was bad. There was never enough coal to last the winter, and we always had to borrow from the neighbors. We never had any money for food, and we were always hungry.""
question
Finally I heard my mother's name called; she rose and began weeping so copiously that she could not talk for a few moments; at last she managed to say that her husband had deserted her and her two children, that her children were hungry, that they stayed hungry, that she worked, that she was trying to raise them alone. Then my father was called; he came forward jauntily, smiling. He tried to kiss my mother, but she turned away from him. Which best describes the author's purpose in including this anecdote?
answer
to clarify Wright's father's attitude, personality, and values

Explanation: The author is trying to show the contrast between the mother's reaction to her husband's desertion and the father's reaction. The mother is weeping and trying to explain her situation, while the father is smiling and trying to kiss her. This shows that the mother is more invested in the relationship than the father is.
question
Which excerpt from Black Boy best illustrates the effect that society has on Wright's father?
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From the white landowners above him there had not been handed to him a chance to learn the meaning of loyalty, of sentiment, of tradition.

Explanation: The excerpt from Black Boy that best illustrates the effect that society has on Wright's father is when Wright's father is forced to leave his job at the optical company. Wright's father is a very proud man and he does not want to be seen as a failure. He feels that he has to provide for his family and he does not want to be a burden to them. This event shows how society can make it difficult for people to succeed.
question
We left. I had the feeling that I had had to do with something unclean. Many times in the years after that the image of my father and the strange woman, their faces lit by the dancing flames, would surge up in my imagination so vivid and strong that I felt I could reach out and touch it; I would stare at it, feeling that it possessed some vital meaning which always eluded me. Based on this excerpt, how did Wright feel about his final boyhood encounter with his father?
answer
as if he had unfinished business

Explanation: Wright felt unclean and disturbed after his final encounter with his father. He felt that there was something vital and important about the experience that he could not understand. The image of his father and the strange woman kept returning to him, and he felt that if he could only stare at it long enough, he would be able to see what it was trying to tell him.
question
Again I was faced with choices I did not like, but I finally agreed. After all, my hate for my father was not so great and urgent as my hate for the orphan home. My mother held to her idea and one night a week or so later I found myself standing in a room in a frame house. My father and a strange woman were sitting before a bright fire that blazed in a grate. My mother and I were standing about six feet away, as though we were afraid to approach them any closer. Wright explains his difficult choice in this excerpt in order to show that he was
answer
willing to do anything to leave the orphanage.

Explanation: not happy about either option, but he chose the lesser of two evils. He hated his father, but he hated the orphanage even more. He and his mother were standing away from his father and the woman because they were afraid of them.
question
From far beyond the horizons that bound this bleak plantation there had come to me through my living the knowledge that my father was a black peasant who had gone to the city seeking life, but who had failed in the city; a black peasant whose life had been hopelessly snarled in the city, and who had at last fled the city—that same city which had lifted me in its burning arms and borne me toward alien and undreamed-of shores of knowing. Which best describes Wright's realization in this excerpt?
answer
Wright acknowledges that the city that destroyed his father's dreams was the same city that fulfilled his own.

Explanation: Wright realizes that his father was a black peasant who had gone to the city seeking life, but who had failed in the city. He also realizes that his father's life had been hopelessly snarled in the city, and that he had at last fled the city.
question
Finally I heard my mother's name called; she rose and began weeping so copiously that she could not talk for a few moments; at last she managed to say that her husband had deserted her and her two children, that her children were hungry, that they stayed hungry, that she worked, that she was trying to raise them alone. Then my father was called; he came forward jauntily, smiling. He tried to kiss my mother, but she turned away from him. I only heard one sentence of what he said. "I'm doing all I can, Your Honor," he mumbled, grinning. It had been painful to sit and watch my mother crying and my father laughing and I was glad when we were outside in the sunny streets. Wright uses this personal experience to establish
answer
his mother's desperation.

Explanation: Wright uses this personal experience to establish the theme of the black family's struggles within the white society. The father is shown to be irresponsible and uninterested in the welfare of his family, while the mother is shown to be working hard to provide for her children. This contrast highlights the difficulties that black families face in a society that does not value or support them.
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From the white landowners above him there had not been handed to him a chance to learn the meaning of loyalty, of sentiment, of tradition. Joy was as unknown to him as was despair. As a creature of the earth, he endured, hearty, whole, seemingly indestructible, with no regrets and no hope. He asked easy, drawling questions about me, his other son, his wife, and he laughed, amused, when I informed him of their destinies. I forgave him, and pitied him as my eyes looked past him to the unpainted wooden shack. Based on this excerpt, which best describes how being a sharecropper impacts Wright's father?
answer
It takes away his sense of humanity and his ability to feel.

Explanation: Wright's father is a sharecropper, which means he is a tenant farmer who does not own the land he works on. He is paid a portion of the crops he grows, and the rest goes to the landowner. This system makes it very difficult for sharecroppers to get ahead, as they are always in debt to the landowner. This excerpt shows how being a sharecropper has made Wright's father resigned to his lot in life. He has no hope of improving his situation, and no loyalty or sentimentality towards the land or the people he works for.
question
A quarter of a century was to elapse between the time when I saw my father sitting with the strange woman and the time when I was to see him again, standing alone upon the red clay of a Mississippi plantation, a sharecropper, clad in ragged overalls, holding a muddy hoe in his gnarled, veined hands—a quarter of a century during which my mind and consciousness had become so greatly and violently altered that when I tried to talk to him I realized that, though ties of blood made us kin, though I could see a shadow of my face in his face, though there was an echo of my voice in his voice, we were forever strangers, speaking a different language, living on vastly distant planes of reality. Which best explains Wright's assertion that he and his father "were forever strangers"?
answer
Wright is stating that he is emotionally disconnected from his father.

Explanation: Wright's assertion that he and his father "were forever strangers" is best explained by the fact that they had been living on vastly different planes of reality for a quarter of a century. Wright had become so greatly and violently altered during that time that he could no longer communicate with his father.
question
"It's not for me," my mother was saying. "It's for your children that I'm asking you for money." "I ain't got nothing," my father said, laughing. "Come here, boy," the strange woman called to me. I looked at her and did not move. "Give him a nickel," the woman said. "He's cute." Wright most likely included this anecdote in order to
answer
demonstrate his father's dismissive treatment.

Explanation: Wright most likely included this anecdote in order to highlight the contrast between his mother's selflessness and his father's selfishness. From the very beginning of the story, it is clear that his father is not a good provider or role model. He is lazy, uneducated, and unwilling to work hard to provide for his family. Meanwhile, his mother is always working hard to make ends meet. In this particular instance, she is begging his father for money so that she can buy food for their children. However, his father is more interested in spending money on alcohol than he is in providing for his family. This contrast between his parents' values is likely what led Wright to become the successful man that he was.