Language as the Key to Identity and Social Acceptance in Richard Wright’s Book, Black Boy :: Wright Black Boy Essays

Language as the aboriginal to Identity and Social Acceptance in Richard Wrights Book, Black male child According to African American writer, James Baldwin, language is a vivid and crucial key to individuation and brotherly acceptance. Black Boy, by Richard Wright, defends Baldwins belief. In a selected Black Boy passage, where Richard and his friends converse, the rhetorical techniques, pathos and warrants promote to convey Wrights own attitude toward the importance of language as a key to identity and social acceptance.The idea that language is definitive to identity and social acceptance is defended in the passage by the exercising of pathos. Diction largely relays the comfortability of Richard and his friends with distributively other by not oration in proper English, with phrases like, that aint gonna do you no good, and let looseing to like miz for miss and scareda as scared of. Also, syntax is used to subscribe short explanatory sentences after each blurb of dialo g An wrathful grunt of supreme racial assertion. Language as an indicator of social acceptance is also seen in the word choice, with a wide present of cuss words, like sonofabitch, hell, and nigger. Repetition is developed by with(predicate) out the passage with the word silence, to indicate the identity of the boys with language. Wright also incorporates personification, personifying the boys talk being able to weave, roll, surge, spurt, veer, swell showing the comfortability and social acceptance of each other because of language. Richard Wrights use of pathos helps to defend Baldwins beliefs on language.Another rhetorical technique that aids as a acknowledgment for Baldwins views is Wrights use of value-based arrogances, or warrants. The boys establish their black identity through diction, referring to on another as nigger and we, nave and lam. Many assumptions are made about whites with rhetorical questions like, Man, aint they ugly? and other race related questions. The conversation of Wright and his friends make the assumption that whites treat blacks poorly, which establishes identity through language. Agreeing of the other boys with the racial assertion just leads to social acceptance. Repetition of negative statements about whites also further strengthens the warrants. The opposition is an animal to be killed on sight is a metaphor, which illustrates the black assumptions of whites through language.