"Using My Grandmother's Life as a Model": Richard Wright and the Gendered Politics of Religious Representation

Abstract

Silent and fearless, an Indian maiden drowns herself rather than break a mysterious vow—this is the essence of Richard Wright's first short story, written on his knees during a time of prayer. Each day his grandmother pleaded with him "to pray hard, to pray until tears came," so frustrated was she with her grandson's rebelliousness, his willful religious doubts, and feeble attempts at Christian devotion (Black Boy 119). Wright consented to the older woman's wishes, like many of his own characters in the years and novels to come, with much apprehension and dismay. Convinced that his prayers were empty words that "bound noiselessly against the ceiling," he manipulated the daily hour of private reflection toward his own creative ends. After failing to write a hymn, the thirteen year old put aside his Bible, turned to his studies in Native American history, and found his own voice in imaginative prose (Black Boy 120). [End Page 13]