Richard Wright s Writing and Reading
“Writing and Reading,” an excerpt from “Black Boy,” the first volume of his autobiography, Wright talks very little on how writing separated him from his environment but how combined with reading, which he discusses in great detail, opened a whole new world of inner torture, a sense of power, and a door to freedom. He also tells of how writing separates him from everyone around him, his classmates and family. He talks of how reading made him increasingly aware of the world around him and makes him want to venture into this new world of freedom but at the same time fears doing it. Wright uses his first story “The Voodoo of Hell’s Half-Acre,” to explain how his writing started to distance him from his friends and caused untold anxiety, disappointment, and anger among members of his family (One Hundred Great Essays 780.