Vocabulary in Black Boy

Struck repeatedly and hard with a whip, belt, or switch as punishment. Here it describes a severe physical beating that goes on until the child loses consciousness.

The bag-like milk-producing organs hanging from the underside of a cow or other female animal. Wright uses the image to describe the terrifying shapes his feverish mind conjures on the ceiling.

Impossible to soften, satisfy, or reason with; relentlessly hostile. Wright uses it to describe a white social force that cannot be appealed to or moved.

Deeply devoted and enthusiastic, especially about a belief or cause. Here it describes Granny's intense, unwavering commitment to her religion.

Something demanded as a required payment or condition, often harshly. Granny's exaction is the price Richard must pay — pretending to worship — in exchange for being housed and fed.

The basic necessities of food, shelter, and care provided to someone, especially in exchange for something. Richard must fake religious devotion to earn his keep from Granny.

Never softening, easing, or showing mercy; continuously harsh and unyielding. Wright uses it to capture Granny's absolute refusal to bend her strict rules.

A sense of shared fellowship and social connection among people. Wright uses it ironically to describe the saloon as the one place in the neighborhood where people genuinely gathered together.

A style of literature that portrays life with harsh, unsentimental honesty, showing how environment and circumstance shape people. Wright says his hard life prepared him to appreciate this kind of writing.

Made a firm, definite decision that one intends to keep. Richard silently commits to never placing his trust in someone again after being frightened.

To harm, destroy, or override someone's safety and rights by force, with no regard for them as a person. Wright uses it to describe white men's power to ruin or end a Black person's life at any moment.

Escaped one's grasp or understanding; remained just out of reach despite effort. Richard feels he is alive but cannot quite grasp what life is truly supposed to mean.

Took great, uninhibited pleasure in something. Here it describes the joy Richard once felt when he allowed himself to write freely and feel deeply.

Rough, unpolished, and undeveloped — not yet shaped by skill or training. Wright describes his early imagination as raw and unrefined, not yet formed into real craft.

A sudden, instinctive urge or drive to do something, felt before conscious thought. Wright describes the desire to dream and create as a force that was suppressed but then surged back.

To hide one's true feelings, intentions, or identity behind a false appearance. Wright lists it among the survival skills a Black man in the Jim Crow South had to master.

The double life a Black person in the Jim Crow South was forced to live — acting submissive and agreeable around white people while holding a completely different inner self in private.

Showing open scorn and disrespect, treating something as worthless or beneath consideration. Uncle Tom dismisses Richard's writing with complete disdain.

Strong hopes and ambitions for achieving something better in the future. Wright observes that society deliberately set a low ceiling on what Black people were allowed to want or aim for.

To give worth, purpose, or justification to something — here, to make one's own existence feel meaningful and worthwhile through action.

A false, expressionless outward appearance deliberately worn to hide one's true emotions from dangerous observers. Richard uses it to describe the blank face he must show white people.

A state of danger, instability, and lack of safety or protection. Wright uses it to describe the precarious, threatening conditions he fled in the South and then found again in the North.

Bitter conflict, struggle, and fighting between people or groups. Wright uses it to describe the power struggles he always found wherever organized religion was present.