Morals

I think that Richard taught himself the morals he lived by.  Throughout his life Richard was always in a conflict with some higher authority because he didn't not tolerate being treated badly for no reason.  Most kids around him at the time had listen to the teachings of the church and their parents to know that you have to do whatever and adult says when they say it, and you have to act a certain way to white people.  Wright didn't pick up on any of this.  He was always against going to church, and never saw the importance of going to school.  The reading states how morals from schooling or church related things, but Richard really didn't follow any of this.  Ironically, he seemed to have more morals than all of his friends that were brought up this way.  Richard could never justify stealing or letting himself succumb to the white, but many of black accepted it as a way of living.  I don't really know how Richard was able to teach himself so many advanced logics about life at such a young age, but I guess that just what makes him such a unique person for the time.  

Realization

At the end of the novel Richard came to the realization that the communist party and many others fighting for what they thought justice was were blind.  Richard states, "there're blind, I said to myself.  Their enemies have blinded them with too much oppression."  The communist party had rejected Richard for no legitimate reason, and Richard now knew that there was no point in fighting to be apart of there world.  He saw how corrupt they actually were even though the party didn't even realize that they had any issues.  They were fighting for rights but at the same time they were taking rights from others.  Richard realizes that people were so blinded by anger and hostilities from others that no ones was seeing threw clear lenses anymore.  All their priorities were in the wrong places.  Richard excepted that this was a reality and there was nothing he could do about it.  He was not angry with this because he knew that they could no longer control their irrational behavior.  Instead Richard become wrestles and anxious because he was striving so hard to figure out a way to express the actual reality of what was happening in the world in a way that people could understand. 

Artist vs Politicians

I do agree with Richard's view that artist and politicians stand at opposite poles.  An artist main purpose and goal is to create art that will have some sort of emotional impact on the viewer.  The opinion that the viewer gets from the piece can range in a wide verity of things, yet this does not matter to the artist.  The sole point of creating something is to let different minds come to different conclusions about there work, and as long as it evokes emotion or a response then their goal has been fulfilled.  They also are stimulated by there own emotions and views when creating the messages of their work, and they have an unlimited space to explore.  Politicians on the other hand do not have this type of freedom when speaking for their views.  Their sole purpose is to convince people that their certain view is the right one.  Because they have this challenge, there is little wiggle room to experiment with ideas or creativity.  They preach one specific outlook on something and will do everything they can to convince others to share the same view, while it doesn't matter if artist have a positive response to their work just as long as there is least a response. 

I think that it can be very easy for one voice to call a crowd to action, but it depends on who the person is.  If the person is well respected and has respected ideas then it is easy for people to turn to the person that seems to know what they are talking about.  Richard came into the communist group with little idea about what kind of group the John Reed Club even was.  But, after he expressed a couple of his ideas people turned to him and he was soon nominated as the leader of the group.  When Comrade Young come to the group people started to respect his opinions when the saw that he was an amazing artist.  When he started accusing Swann as working with the police people did not go against him because they truly believed that he was a credibly source.  If a person looks credible and has a reputation at something people are quick to turn to someone that seems to know what they are talking about, because many people need guidance and someone to follow to affirm what they think is true.  

Richard Wright

In one of the parenthesis he describes how in the south one was certain that there were hated.  He described how Shorty would offer to be kicked by the white men for money.  In chicao he is experiencing a whole different type of racism, because he does not know if people are racist or not because he is ignored like an object.  Richard comments that he now thinks that being kicked is better that the uncertainty of not knowing what people are thinking.  He would rather know where he stood in the world even if he was being taken advantage of than not know where he sands in society.  This is similar to what Linda felt in the book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.  They both thought that the north would be this place where racism wasn't an issue.  But, they were both only half true in there assumptions.  They both found that when they moved to the north that there was no explicit racism one could see, but there was a great deal of indifference.  People didn't pay attention to them at all, and this made them feel uneasy because they didn't know how people felt or how to act. 

Positive Change

I defiantly think that going to the North will be a positive change for Wright.  He is so unhappy in the south that at this point any change could look positive.  Wright was beginning to fall into the conformity with all the other black in the south, and he knew that he needed to get out before he lost all of his dignity.  Blacks like Shorty and Harrison were willing to give into the demands of the whites in order to get by, and Wright never wanted to see himself willing giving up his self respect for money.  The North sounds like it will be a positive change for Richard, especially because he is going to be able to be with his mother and brother once again.  On the other hand, the North could end up not being all he dreamt it to be.  Like in Life of a Slave Girl, once she was in the North she realized that discrimination was still there, but it was in the form of indifference.  I also have just recently read about this time ear in History class.  During this time, many blacks moved to the North, and found there to be still much racism and segregation.  This confused many blacks because  all they have ever heard about the North was positive things, and it was a place where everyone could live peacefully. 

Subservience

In the time Richard was living in I do think subservience was a necessary part of living.  Richard had tried to get around it by not conforming to the whites orders or the orders of people within his family.  This proved to fail him miserably.  He found out soon that although it might be extremely hard for him to do he needed to obey the needs of the whites and treat them high than himself.  If he did not do this in life he wouldn't get anywhere, and could possibly end up dead.  Richard dealt with whether to subside to others or not his whole life, and I think he finally realized when he was in Memphis that there was no other way to live but to give in to this.  In todays world there is a certain limit to which we use subservience.  We are not required to use it to every person we see like Richard had to for every white person.  We are only required to use it in situations such as dealing with parents, teachers, bosses, or figures that are higher than us that maintain some sort of control over us.  Subservience will always be necessary in living in order to avoid major conflicts or hardships in your life, but I don't think that it is anywhere as necessary as it was during Richard's life. 

Wright coping with the white world

Wright states that he "began coping with the white world too late."  What he mean by this is that too late on in life he learned that in order to be successful or not be killed it was a necessity to treat whites different from blacks.  As a young kid Wright was different from many by the fact that he didn't not understand why some people had rights or authority over things that others didn't.  Because of this outlook, he never was content to assimilate with all the other blacks around him that had no problem letting whites treat them badly.  Many others were conditioned at a young age to automatically move aside when a white person walked by them, or knew the exact words to say to a white person in order to make them happy without a second thought.  Wright view of the world did not let him be conditioned in this way.  Now at an older age where he is finding himself in positions where he needs to have the outlook on life as his friends do, he does not know how to act in a way that won't get him in trouble with the whites.  Unlike others, he has to think about every action he takes and every word he says to a white person, and this is extremely hard for him to do.  He knows that he can not make it through life without getting in big trouble or killed, so he knows that he must leave in order to make it in the world. 

Speech

Wright had worked hard and earned the right to be called valedictorian.  He was asked to give a speech that would represent his hard work and the hard work of his classmates.  When Wright found out that he was to give a speech that was written by for him he had every right to refuse to read it.  Richard felt as if it was his right to speak his own words to the audience to describe what points he wanted to get across.  The speech that they wanted him to read was written to please both white and black people.  Richard has never cared about how he makes white people fell because he doesn't really notice a difference between race.  Richard has eery right to refuse to say the speech, because he had earned it and should be able to reflect himself to others on his accomplishments.  This is yet another instance where Wright gets into a conflict with authority because he does not assimilate like everyone else does.  Richard's principal even tells him that he has been working with kids all his life and he has never encountered anyone that has an attitude like Richard does.  

Wright vs. Uncle Tom

Wright and uncle Tom first start out the feud with Tom waking up Richard and asking him what time it was.  Richard responded with the time twice, but Tom insisted that it was the wrong time and got mad at him for his "sass," and said he was going to beat him.  Richard got made at him because he knew that he had done nothing wrong, and that Tom was acting out on a grudge that he had against him.  At this point, Richard is not afraid to stand up for himself against being beaten for unfair reasons because it is a part of his daily life.  In order to show that he wasn't going to take crap from Tom, he can out with razor blades in his hands so that Tom could not beat him. It obviously worked.  Richard noes how to stand up for himself now against things that he does not feel he deserves to be punished for.  This type of rejection of authority is why most adults can't stand him.