Richards ViewsRichards Views

Represented through his Marxist views he characterized society as divided into opposed classes

Each of his works he portrays the individual

In his works he wrote about the dignity and humanity of society’s outcasts, and about who cast them out

ChildhoodChildhood

He was born in Natchez, Mississippi in 1908

His father abandoned his family when he was 5

He did not have much of a education as a child, because his mother was sick

Because of her illness he was raised by a series of relatives in Mississippi until he was 15

Childhood Cont.Childhood Cont.

He held a bunch of odd jobs to help support his family

He wrote is his free time and his first short story, "The Voodoo of Hell's Half-Acre,“ was published in the spring of 1924 in the Jackson Southern Register

In 1925 he moved to Memphis on his own, and two years later moved to Chicago

Getting StartedGetting Started

He studied Marxist theory, joining the Communist party in 1932, and he contributed poetry to leftist literary magazines

He become the center of a group of African American Chicago writers and had started to write fiction, in 1935

New YorkNew York

In 1937 he moved to New York and wrote for the New York Writers’ Project and as a reporter on the communist Daily Worker

In 1938 Richard published a collection of four short stories titled Uncle Tom’s Children

One of the stories includes ‘Bright and Morning Star’

Life in ParisLife in Paris

He was the first African American bestseller for ‘Native Son’ which was published in 1940’s

He broke from the communist party in 1944

In 1947 in moved to Paris where he was warmly accepted

He lived out the rest of his life, with his wife and two children, in Paris

Summary of Bright and Morning Summary of Bright and Morning StarStar

The story begins with Sue, a descendant of slaves living in the south under Jim Crow laws, waiting for her son, Johnny-Boy, to return home

Johnny-Boy is a member of the Communist Party

Reva, a white girl dating Johnny-Boy, informs Sue that someone has leaked news of the group’s meeting to the sheriff

That night, the sheriff and his men break into Sue’s home, looking for Johnny-Boy

SummarySummary

Sue gives no information to the men, and she is beat unconscious

Sue awakes to Booker, a new white member of the Communist Party, who asks for the members’ names, in order to warn them of the sheriff’s knowledge about the upcoming meeting

Sue gives Booker the names, and is then told by Reva that Booker was the one to tell the sheriff about the meeting

Summary Cont. Summary Cont.

Sue decides she must shoot Booker before he can give the names to the sheriff

Sue then watches Johnny-Boy being tortured for information about the group

When Booker finally arrives, Sue shoots him

The sheriff’s men then shoot both Sue and Johnny-Boy

Analysis of Bright and Morning Analysis of Bright and Morning Star - ThemesStar - Themes

Racial Violence

Martyrdom

Communism and Socialism

Racial ViolenceRacial Violence

Against Sue

Against Johnny-Boy

Against Sug

The Sheriff and his men

MartyrdomMartyrdom

Johnny-Boy’s death

Sue’s Death

“The Dead that never die”

Strength

CommunismCommunism

Offered hope to Johnny-Boy

Also offered hope to Wright

Common cause to bring people together

Equality for all