Black Boy, Richard Wright

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller

 Wright’s autobiography begins with his earliest memories as a child in the South and ends with his experiences as a struggling young writer in Chicago.  Wright was born into poverty, and he suffered the effects of racism throughout his youth.  His father abandoned the family when Wright was young, and his mother soon afterward became disabled; Wright’s primary memory of youth was of hunger.  Yet somehow Wright discovered an interest in writing and through perseverance and self-study became one of the foremost African American writers of the 20^th century.

Fuller’s autobiography recounts her experiences growing up in an English family in Africa.  Fuller and her family faced all manner of adversity—civil wars, drought, snakes in the kitchen—and yet this book is her attempt to explain the deep and abiding love she feels for Africa.  At the core of this book is Fuller’s mother, whose alcoholism and depression cannot negate the fact that she is a truly distinctive and memorable character. 

Some of the themes explored in these books include:

• The process of self-invention; how an individual establishes a sense of identity.

• The importance of place and its influence on the identity of the individual.

• The role that family plays in shaping our identities.

• The impact of cultural and historical factors (such as race and social class) on the individual.

• The power of memory and the act of writing as a form of self-examination.

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:

1. RESPONSES: From each book, copy two quotations that you find particularly meaningful.  Write a well-developed one-paragraph response to each quotation.  Explain how the quotation develops an essential insight into the personality of the writer, how it develops one of the book’s major themes, or how it represents a particular quality of style or tone.  (20 points) 

2. VOCABULARY: Create a list of ten words whose meaning or usage you are not familiar with.  Make sure that these are words the meaning of which you will find useful in your future.  Define each word, provide the part of speech, and quote the sentence in which you found the word (include title of book and page number).  For words that have multiple definitions, be sure that you provide the definition that makes sense in context.  (10 points) 

3. CREATIVE WRITING: Write a typed page from the perspective of a character from one of these books.  Be creative, but also prove to me that you know the character in question and understand his or her motivation, values, and style of speaking.  (10 points)