Embracing What He Was “Taught to Shun”: Tracing Richard Wright’s Recommitment to His Grandmother’s Seventh-Day Adventist Faith

Abstract

Abstract: This essay considers the theme of religion in the work of Richard Wright. Margaret Bolden Wilson, Richard Wright’s grandmother, was a fervent Seventh-day Adventist who ensured her grandchild followed the tenets of her faith for the many years he lived with her as a child and teenager. Though Wright left the faith once he left her house at seventeen years old, its influence on him remained for his entire life. While Wright is normally positioned as a secular humanist, this paper argues that his Seventh-day Adventist background complicates that categorization. His roots in the church inform his criticisms of the Communist Party and ultimately manifest consistently and prominently in his literary oeuvre.