Characters and Themes in Black Boy The novel Black Boy is Richard Wright's autobiographical account of his life which begins with his earliest memories and ends with his departure for the North at the age of nineteen. In Black Boy, Wright chronicles an unstable home life that takes him from Natchez, Mississippi, to Memphis, Tennessee, back to Jackson, Mississippi, then to Arkansas, back to Mississippi, and finally back to Memphis, where he prepares for his eventual migration to Chicago. Most critics agree that Black Boy is a highly selective account, more selective than the term "record" in the subtitle suggests. By the time Wright wrote Black Boy, he was already an established fiction author. He had published a collection of short stories called Uncle Tom's Children and the highly successful novel Native Son. Wright has carefully chosen the experiences he includes in Black Boy, the ones he highlights, and the tone in which he writes about them. Many readers even think that he made up some of the incidents. Many agree, however, that Wright constructs his autobiography to achieve the precise impact he desires. Of course, the central character of Black Boy is young Richard Wright. To distinguish between this young character and the author who watches him many years later and occasionally makes up episodes about him, this guide follows the standard practice of referring to the former as "Richard" and the latter as "Wright". Wright introduces Richard&...... middle of paper ...... He initially wanted the book to also describe his life in Chicago, but his publisher decided to accept only the southern part. As a result, the book becomes partly an indictment of the South and its oppression of blacks.