摘 要

种族歧视在美国历史与现代社会中一直是敏感话题，自殖民时代奴隶贸易兴起，黑人便处于被压迫的境况中，与此同时，黑人为改善自身处境的而进行的反抗努力也未曾间断。除此之外，很多黑人作家借助自己的文学天赋来展示黑人民族与文化的特色，同时揭示黑人所受的痛苦与压迫，反映出黑人在种族歧视背景下生存的艰难。理查德·赖特就是其中之一，其作品多涉及美国19世纪晚期至20世纪中期的种族主义问题，本文以理查德·赖特作品《即将成人》中的黑人青年大卫为例，以白人社会对黑人的态度，黑人民族对自己身份的认知，以及在这样两方面因素的影响下主人公大卫从男孩到成人的成长心理为脉络，探究黑人在种族压迫中争取社会认同与尊重的挣扎。

关键词：种族歧视；成长心理；社会认同；挣扎

Abstract

Racial discrimination has been always a touchy issue in American history and even modern society. The black have been in a dilemma of oppression since the slave trade, at the same time, the resistances of the black to take themselves out of dilemma have been underway. What’s more, some writers reveal the blacks’ hardship and suffering by describing the black’s distinctive culture and living situations with their gifted words, which presents the slim chance for the black individuals to attain respect. The paper will take the black young man Dave as an example, the protagonist of The Man Who Was Almost a Man written by Richard Wright whose works are mainly concerned with the plight of African Americans having suffered from racial discrimination in the South and North in the course of the late 19th to mid-20th century. The paper tries to show the black’s struggle for social identification and respect under the shadow of racial oppression by analyzing the white’s attitude towards the black, the black’s cognition to their social identity and the protagonist’s growth psychology and response to the two above-mentioned factors.

Key Words: racial discrimination; growth psychology; social identification; struggle

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Introduction of the Man Who Was Almost a Man 2

1.2 Literature Review 3

2 The White's Attitude Towards the Black 4

2.1 The Historical background 4

2.1.1 American Segregation 4

2.1.2 Insecurity Faced by the Black 5

2.2 Analysis of the White’s Attitude of the Black................................................................6

3 The Black’s Cognition to Their Identities................................................................................8

3.1 The Self-cognition of Saunders.....................................................................................8

3.1.1 Self-cognition of Mr. Saunders...........................................................................8

3.1.2 Self-cognition of Mrs. Saunders.........................................................................9

3.2 Self-cognition of the Group of the Black..................................................................... 10

4 Dave’s Respons 12

5 Conclusions 13

References 14

Acknowledgements 15

A Black Young Man’s Struggle---A Case Study of Dave in The Man Who Was Almost a Man

1 Introduction

Although with the increasingly intensive attention to the dilemma of the African Americans and efforts of both the black people themselves and the excellent leaders like Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln having devoted their endeavors to improving the black people’s oppressive situations, the black people are still having a hard time in terms of their education, justice and election system (Jiao, 2006). It is universally acknowledged that America is a multinational country as a melting pot with multicultural factors. It can not be ignored that almost all races of citizens have made great contributions to the development of American society since the founding of U.S.A as an independent nation (Song amp; Ren, 2004). “ All men are created equal” is written in The Declaration of Independence, nevertheless, it can be said that the exciting declaration has not been achieved in such a democratic country that advocates human rights all the time because the racial discrimination against the citizens except the white is still a serious and touchy issue even in modern America.

What’s more, racial discrimination against the black people attracts more attention due to certain special historic reasons such as the black being originally transported to America as slaves through human trafficking. Besides, they suffered from apartheid and could not enjoy equal rights with the white even after the slavery was abolished. They really have a hard time struggling to obtain respect and social identity from the white and even the black themselves. Accordingly, there are always resistances occurring where there is oppression. Besides the above-mentioned excellent leaders, some authors presenting the blacks’ hardship and suffering try to appeal to more people to concern the blacks with their gifted words such as Toni Morrison, Langston Hughes and Richard Wright. Richard Wright is an American author of sometimes controversial novels, short stories, poems, and non-fiction(DB). Much of his literature is concerned with racial themes, especially related to the plight of African Americans who have suffered from racial discrimination in the South and North in the course of the late 19th to middle 20th century(Toming. A, 2008). It is believed that his works including Black Boy, The Man Who Was Almost a Man have helped alter race relations in the United States in the mid-20th century(Michel, Fabre). The Man Who Was Almost a Man written by Richard Wright is one of the typical works concerning racial discrimination. The short story sets Dave Saunders, a young African American farm worker as the protagonist and tries to present Dave’s struggling to obtain his identity under the background of racial discrimination in the the rural South.

1.1 Introduction of the Man Who Was Almost a Man