Author: Komla M. Avono

Poverty is basically raceless. Both Whites and Blacks do suffer from it. Still, in the U.S. Southern context as presented in Richard Wright’s Black Boy, one realizes that Blacks have been impoverished by the raging brutality of racial segregation. Informed by both Postcolonial and Marxist criticism, this paper intended, first, to show that the American South is an environment that impoverishes African Americans and, then, to use it to understand their reaction vis-à-vis their impoverishment. The findings revealed that the more an individual is denied his basic rights, the more dangerous he becomes. The implications of the findings intended for practice are discussed.  

Keywords: Poverty, impoverishment, black boy, hunger.

Komla Avono, Professor of American literature (literature and race), University of Lome, Lome, Togo. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.