Richard Wright’s “12 Million Black Voices”

Richard Wright’s “12 Million Black Voices”

Richard Wright’s “12 Million Black Voices” is a book that was published in 1941. In the book, the writer combines his prose style of writing with a compilation of photos showing the lives of poor black people in the northern ghettos during the Great Depression. The images in the book were particularly selected by Edwin Rosskam and were drawn from the Security Farm Administration. The pictures used in the book include works by prolific photographers of the people such as Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, and Arthur Rothstein. The book covers areas from the rundown farm shacks in the north to the storefront churches of Harlem and black lives in the 1930s in the United States. It is a depiction of weariness, desperation and misery under the weight of rural poverty. Wright makes a compelling commentary of the pictures as he narrates about the history of oppression of African Americans in the U.S. However, the people also showed spiritual strength and resilience during this dark period. Consequently, the book stands out as a comprehensive work of passion, and poetry that paints a picture of grim history in the social organization during the Great Depression.

The writer begins the book with a picture of an old man. Using the image of the older adult and the boy as the starters of his narration, Wright literary paints a picture of how life has been for the blacks in the United States. He then paints the image of the treacherous journey that the black ancestors had to endure in the hands of the white slave masters as they were transported to Europe and America. This explanation he does in prose. In the prose narration, the writer explains how slavery had been a significant impediment to the social development of the black community in the north. Not only are they still marginalized, but they are left to live in the worst corner of the community. He states that “our black children were born… in our one-roomed shacks.” This explanation shows the extent of poverty in which the blacks lived in the 1930s in the United States. Importantly, it is prudent to note how Wright interchanges the prose explanation with the pictures of their houses and ‘shacks’ and their low status in society. According to Gutierrez, Puello and Galvis, the use of images in a narration helps in capturing the message and passing it to an audience faster without having to read the entire story[1]. Therefore, the accompanying pictures act to show the visual representation of the narration.

One significant aspect that the book points out in the first chapter is the resilience that the people in this book lived with. The first chapter begins with a painting of a society in which its members were supposed to live their lives in silence and servitude. Richard Wright tells of how the system in place limited their access to basic social amenities, including education. Children, for instance, would only go to school for six months in a year and would only progress until sixth grade. This assertion by Wright is also emphasized by Kelly who asserts that during this period of the Great Depression, blacks suffered the most as they were pushed out of the unskilled jobs that were initially scorned by the whites[2]. Therefore, they also faced unemployment. However, Wright paints a picture of a community that was held together by religion and family bonds. He states that what they did not feel from the Lords of the land they felt in the church. In addition to that, the blacks could sleep soundly despite the exhaustion since they had hope in an exhaustible source of happiness. He called this the courage of faith in simple living.

Robert Wright assumes a universal literary voice that is quite compelling in its simplicity. Throughout his narration, the writer assumes the first-person perspective to explain the history of blacks. According to Thein and Sulzer, a first-person narrative puts the reader inside the mind of the narrator[3]. This allows the audience to get an intimate portrayal of the narrator’s emotions and thoughts. In this case, Wright’s choice to use the first-person narration gives the reader the raw feelings of disgust, desperation, sadness, happiness, and even some times hope. In so doing, he is able to communicate effectively with the reader how he experiences each moment and how he feels all through his prisms. It is, therefore, rather easy to identify with the narrator and experience the events with him. This is just one of the ways that he appeals to the pathos. Besides, he appeals to the audience in the simple diction that he uses to narrate the experiences of the African Americans through the Great Depression. Simplicity in his book is also seen in the organization of chapters that help in drawing in the reader and guide them through the story.

Perhaps the most outstanding aspect of this book is the use of literary devices. From the beginning of the book to the end, Richard Wright is able to draw the picture of the society just by the use of words. Even without the photos, the use of imagery is enough to paint the image of a community living in squalor and poverty amid a crisis. There is a constant repetition of the fact that the black folk of the period are children of the first sharecroppers and that they were born in cultural devastation. This repetition emphasizes the generational oppression that the black community had to suffer throughout the Great Depression of the 1930s.

In conclusion, Richard Wright’s book captures a side of the Great Depression that may not be widely spoken. This was a time before the Civil Rights Movement, and as such, racism was still rife. The blacks that lived through the Great Depression, therefore, not only had to fight the economic devastation but also the challenges of racism as well. Wright uses simple yet compelling language to draw the picture of a community living in squalor during that time. Significantly, he accompanies his prose with images from several photographers of the period to help in telling a story of a grim moment in the history of the United States.

[1] Gutiérrez, K.G.C., Puello, M.N. and Galvis, L.A.P., 2015. Using Pictures Series Technique to Enhance Narrative Writing among Ninth Grade Students at Institución Educativa Simón Araujo. English Language Teaching, 8(5), pp.45-71.

[2] Kelley, R.D., 2015. Hammer and hoe: Alabama communists during the great depression. UNC Press Books.

[3]Thein, A.H. and Sulzer, M.A., 2015. Illuminating discourses of youth through the study of first-person narration in young adult literature. English Journal, pp.47-53.