Richard Wright Short Stories

Before ‘Black Boy,’ ‘Native Son’ and his other controversially popular and award-winning novels came to be, Wright started off as a poet and short story writer. The author knew from age twelve he was made for this, so he followed through with years of practice before publishing his groundbreaking piece, a short story collection titled, ‘Uncle Tom’s Children’ in 1938. The success of this meant he never looked back and continued to power through, this time delving into novels, poetry, essays, and more short stories. In this article, we will analyze Richard Wright’s short story collections as well as the individual stories therein. 

Famous Essays and Short Stories by Richard Wright

Beyond being a great book author, Wright was also an acclaimed socio-political essayist whose works are lauded and praised by global social change makers and diplomats for their impacts.

Three Books From Exile

This collection includes three of Richard Wright’s best critiques on racial issues – including some very impassionate social commentary about not only the world’s strongest nations but also on developing nations of Africa and Asia. This highly insightful piece houses ‘Black Power,’ ‘White Man, Listen!,’ and ‘The Color Curtain’ – all written about his global excursions in the 50s. 

Black Power 

‘Black Power’ is a powerful political critique written by Richard Wright about his trip down to Ghana, West Africa, at the time the region was still grappling with the impact of several spells of colonialism in the hands of the Europeans and Britain. With an analytical eye, Wright lends his opinion about the state of affairs in the Gold Coast, its political, economic, and cultural heritage, and trends as it were at the time, with part of the author’s resolve being that the region and its people were remarkably impressive and far from being the ‘Dark Continent,’ a stereotypical designation erected by earlier authors.

White Man, Listen! 

One of Richard Wright’s fearless pieces of writing, ‘White Man, Listen’ is more or less a three-part thesis where Wright seeks to educate his audience by taking a step back in history to cover the genesis of black oppression, he then caps it with the state of things for people of colour in America. The author concludes with a commendation for the nationalism spirit in the people of Gold Coast and the inspiring drive and impact of regional black leaders like Kwame Nkrumah for the region. 

The Color Curtain 

This is the third piece in Richard Wright’s Exile Books, and like the other two parts is equally powerful in driving change in the region for which it was intended. Wright wrote this report in all veracity for the Banding conference in  Indonesia in 1955. In the presence of several hundreds of African and Asian-Afro representatives, Wright delivers a strong message in ‘The Color Curtain’ – passionately calling for the elimination of the colour barrier in sister states. 

Uncle Tom’s Children and other stories

‘Uncle Tom’s Children’ is Richard Wright’s first written work published in 1938. It is a collection of fictional short stories about the negro experience in the era of an extremely oppressive American society. The book gained great critical and commercial success and became the pacesetter for the author’s more popular and acclaimed future works in ‘Native Son’ and ‘Black Boy.’ The following five stories make up the ‘Uncle Tom’s Children‘ collection.

Big Boy Leaves Home 

The book follows a group of black teenagers led by Big Boy as they take a playful trip to a white neighbourhood and seek to use a swimming pool. Despite the white owner’s objection, Big Boy and his friends jump into the pool and begin swimming – only to scare a white woman who then calls her husband who pulls up and guns down two of Big Boy’s friends. Big Boy wrestles the gun out of the white man’s hands and kills him then flees with his other friend who is unfortunately caught while Big Boy narrowly escapes to Chicago and forever hides from a searching white mob.

Down by the Riverside 

‘Down by the River’ unravels the story of a black farmer called Mann who faces the most critical time of his life as he struggles through the unfortunate hit of a devastating flood to save his family – including his pregnant wife – from the disaster. Mann eventually begins evacuating his family in a stolen boat, but soon coasts towards the region of the boat’s white owner who shoots at and tries to kill him. The book yet again provides its readers with an insight into the historic conflicts between the white and black communities in America a century ago. 

Long Black Song 

This book follows another breathtaking story about the conflicts of black and white races and features Silas, a black cotton farmer, living with his wife and their little daughter. One day when Silas travels to a distant village to sell his produce, his wife is visited and raped by a strange white man. When Silas returns and finds evidence, he beats his wife sends her away, and later kills the white man who slept with her. Silas is then cornered by a white mob who attacks him and sets his home ablaze, but Silas isn’t going to die until he has killed some more white men. 

Fire and Cloud 

‘Fire and Cloud’ follows the tale of Taylor, a black preacher, who dedicates his life to saving his followers from an outbreak of famine. Being under the rule of an all-powerful white government wielding all the foods, Taylor travels alone to meet with the white authorities attempting to sell them the critical plight of his people, but is sent home without bread for his people. Left with no other option, Taylor liaises with the village mayor and a communist group to try to redeem his people one last time from the impending danger. 

Bright and Morning Star

‘Bright and Morning Star’ follows yet again another tale of black oppression, this time with an old woman, Sue, as its leading character. Years of suppression from the white authorities have led to Sue denouncing her faith, but now trusting in the communist party. She must save her sons – one already in jail and the other held up in the woods by a white sheriff. Sue makes one final wish to try and save her son, but that doesn’t come without imminent danger to both their lives. 

Eight Men (A Short Story Collection) 

‘Eight Men’ is another important short story collection of Richard Wright which features eight sad and gripping tales of black men and their struggles to survive in a world dominated by white men. Below are all the other stories found in this collection:

The Man Who Was Almost a Man 

‘The Man Who Was Almost a Man’ is another one of Richard Wright’s bildungsroman about Dave Saunders, a young black boy who wants so badly to become powerful and is also frustrated about his white employer’s ordering, control, and criticism of him. Wanting to grow up quickly and taste freedom, Saunders dreams about buying a gun to feel empowered, but when he does so, he is out of control and almost loses himself in the madness of things. 

The Man Who Lived Underground 

A bestselling and recipient of multiple critical acclaims, ‘The Man Who Lived Underground’ is a deeply compelling noir of the classic Richard Wright black oppression thriller which deals with a certain black man called Fred Daniels, a block who is framed for murder in his south side Chicago neighbourhood. He is later released and is forced to take shelter in the most abysmal trenches in the city. 

Big Black Good Man

This short story by Richard Wright follows the story of an innkeeper who suffers from negrophobia. Then one day, a big black man lodges in one of his rooms and orders the innkeeper to send in a prostitute to keep him busy for the six nights he plans to stay. On the sixth day, the man appears on the counter to meet with the innkeeper. After paying for all the services, he grabs the innkeeper by the neck and the innkeeper fears the big black man will kill him, but he doesn’t and leaves – only to visit the next year with six white shirts in thanks for the innkeeper’s hospitality.

The Man Who Saw the Flood 

‘The Man Who Saw the Flood’ follows another Richard Wright tale about a catastrophic flood that sweeps in at the worst time for a family. The story carries a deep undertone of oppression, enslavement and freedom of the black race. 

Man of all Work

‘Man of All Work’ takes an interesting story twist with Richard Wright’s main character, Carl, desperate and determined to save his young black family from hunger and imminent homelessness, who decides to disguise himself as a woman, his wife, and works as a housemaid in the home of a white man. 

Man, God Ain’t Like That…

Prototype to Richard Wright’s black oppression narrative, ‘Man, God Ain’t Like That…’ follows a short story about a young black man who gets framed for sexually violating a white woman and is seized by the white authorities who break him into admitting to the crime. The themes of segregation, maltreatment, and violence are seen all over in this book. 

The Man Who Killed a Shadow

In ‘The Man Who Killed a Shadow,’ Richard Wright tells the story of Saul, a man who is afraid of the shadows, a metaphor the author uses to portray a systemic issue of racism of the mid-1900s. Saul sees the worst of the authorities after he rejects a white woman’s sexual advances on him. With this short story, Wright sought to paint a picture of the ordeals awaiting a black man who snubbed a white woman. 

The Man Who Went to Chicago 

This tale follows a similar storyline of struggle, prejudices, and the social hostility faced by a black man living in a white man’s world. The man in the story happens to be a jack of all trades and travels far and wide, working different unpleasant jobs and having to face the inhumanity that comes with being a member of his race. 

FAQs