Richard's Parentheses

In Part two of the novel you see these blocks of paragraphs that are in parentheses. These parentheses only include the thoughts of Richard Wright, like most of the book, but they possess something more in them. The passages in parentheses show Wright in a more sophisticated and thoughtful way. He analyzes race and the differences between whites and blacks. His comments on the life of blacks shows how he feels about the struggles they go through, and he finds a reason for these struggles. For example on page two hundred and seventy-two & seventy-three, Wright talks about the white girls that work with him, and how they could never really understand the life of a Negro. Wright comments on how even though they (whites and blacks) may have the same tongue, blacks spoke a different language. In the parentheses Richard shows great knowledge and sophistication while he expresses his position on the meaning of life between whites and blacks.