See the disclaimer for Wuthering Heights above...some holds true for these notes. Use them to springboard you into choosing your support for the essay questions.
1. Describe the evolution of Richard’s attitude toward white people. At what points do we detect a shift in his attitude?
- Communists: comfortable at first...jewish white person invites him to dinner...after: angry. goes to New York , only housed white people
- North: uneasy, quiet, scared...white women bump into him in cafe
- Memphis...cautious because of previous experiences (fear)...lies to Jewish people because he doesn’t know how they’ll react
- Work in South...fear of white people...optical place (didn’t know why they hated him or what set them off)
- Pre-working in South; doesn’t really see white people; generic hate; standing on corner talking about hating white people with his friends
- A change when he goes to sell the dog to the white lady but won’t sell it to her because she is only a few cents short. He never shows respect because he doesn’t call the men “sir”
- Uncle got killed by a white man (enemy)
- grandmother is “white”
- professor killed a white woman
- selling the dog
- Mr. Crane from optics office who taught him...or tried...a trade.
- Memphis, Chicago
- Communist club -- John Reed
- Directly after moving to Chicago from Memphis, he gets a job at a small restaurant and a white girl got too close and acted different towards him. He realized how different the white people were from down South.
He began to feel anger towards white people after he was driven out of the optical place. He didn't want to sell his dog to a white girl, he felt confused about race.
In the beginning he doesn't understand the difference between whites and blacks and rewards everyone the same until Gibbs explained to him that he is inferior then when he moved he remained they were big fat meanies.
First he didn't know what to think about blacks and whites, he wasn't sure what the difference was or what it meant.
Second he worked for a white woman but did not want to obey her when she told him what to do.
Third, he finally made his own decisions to talk with white people and to quit listening to the outside influences
Fourth, he worked side by side with the white people as a writer
3. Richard’s mature character is formed both by the kind of knowledge only gained through experience in the world and by the kind of knowledge only gained through reading books. With respect to Richard, does one of these types of knowledge seem more important than the other? Why or why not?
- books are more important to Richard because he doesn’t care for people. Helps him analyze people in a different way. Stalin books gave him a new view.
- Both are important experience. Allows him to fit in with the ones around him and taught him how to act around white people and books gave him knowledge beyond his community
- he learns that Menke has a different voice from other white people and it helps Richard start to find his voice through writing
- When Richard is learning through the world, he sees oppression and fear, but with books, he see the real emotions people feel beyond what he sees in the real world
- Richard cares more about reading; he is opening his mind and developing point of view. Mencken books...prejudices...learns more about how white people think/act
- He gains knowledge from both. With his jobs he gains a lot of experience and becomes street smart...like he knows how the gangs work and how to treat white men. With reading, he becomes book smart. This gives him a leg up because not many other black kids are able to read well.
- The job at the optical place make him want to move
- Uncle getting killed
- Playwriting controversy with the actors
- Girl who introduced him to books
- Judges people on how literal people were
- called an intellectual though he was going to do the party wrong
9. What are the messages that Richard receives about his own self-worth through his interaction with adult characters, and how do these messages affect him?
- they don’t help fuel his feeling of self-worth. His passive external attitude towards authority and whites becomes easier to turn on and off.
- One morning when Richard was giving his uncle sass, he starts a fight between them and Uncle Tom expects him to bend over backwards
- When Richard is chastised for eating walnuts in his aunt’s class even though he was not responsible for the crumbs, he is shown that he has to place adults above his self-worth
- Family makes him seem worthless/bad/a failure. Employers: most think he’s worthless (exceptions being the Optical guy and the Jewish couple, and the family with Bess and Mrs. Moss.
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