Why do people write memoirs?

What power is there in telling our own stories

Throughout history, people have been telling the stories of their life experiences. There are two main reasons why people do this. First is for personal reflection. By telling their own stories, people can learn things about themselves. Expressing emotions and events on paper is extremely helpful in comprehending the events in one's life and why they are significant. Also, memoirs are used for people to create a legacy. Writing about one's life gives a person a feeling of place in the world, as well as a sense of importance that their story can be read and remembered forever. Even after a person has left the world, their story remains and their own words can be remembered forever.

A memoir of a person's life is extremely powerful. It is significant for both the writer and the reader. The writer can express emotions and experiences that will now live on forever. It is extremely powerful to think that even once you are gone, people can still read your words and know your stories. Memoirs are also very powerful things for the readers. Not only do you get to visit events in history or just in a person's life, but you get to do it through their eyes, as if you are inside their head, experiencing what they do. This is a very personal way to see a situation and very powerful for a reader.

Post #2

Richard's main struggle throughout Black Boy is his hunger. Hunger in Black Boy means both the literal and figurative sense of the word. Literally, Richard is hungry due to the fact that his family is so poor. This hunger has a negative effect on Richard. For example, when his father first leaves, Richard is consumed with physical hunger and pain. He laments, "Whenever I would begged for food now my mother would poor me a cup of tea which would still the clamor in my stomach for a moment or two; but a little later I would feel hunger nudging my ribs, twisting my empty guts until they ached." (14-15) The lack of food makes Richard miserable and has a negative effect on his relationship with his family. The hunger Richard feels because he is so poor represents all of his physical suffering
While Richard literally is hungry, he is also hungry in the figurative sense. From early on we find that Richard is hungry for knowledge. Even as a young boy we see that Richard is very bright, however he does not have access to many resources. He grasps at any opportunity to find knowledge. When Richard finds out that Ella was reading a novel he presses her to share literature with him (38). This is quite astonishing that at such a young age, Richard is so curious and hungry to learn. However the learning is suppressed when his grandmother finds out about him reading books and once again he is left hungry. Though it is not physical pain, his deprivation from education leaves Richard hungry.
Finally, Richard is also hungry for freedom. After becoming valedictorian, Richard discovers he must give a speech. However, he is not allowed to give the speech he wrote. While people become more critical of him, Richard becomes fed up with the endless literature and desperately craves freedom. He is so hungry for that freedom that he declares, "I was hating my environment more each day. As soon as school was over, I would get a job, save money, and leave"(177). Richard finds that it is necessary to find freedom in order to cure his endless hunger. While Richards hunger is both physical and emotional, it all causes him terrible pain that must be ended.

Is Richard a "bad" boy? When should behavior be blamed on the person and when should it be blamed on the environment?

At the young age of 6, Richard is still very susceptible to his environment. He can not yet evaluate for himself that what he is doing is "bad". Because of this, Richard is not a bad boy. He simply lives in an unstable environment that has a negative influence on him. For example, the boys at his school who taught him inappropriate language were the ones to blame for Richard repeating the words around the city. Richard recollects, "On the playground at noon I attached myself to a group of older boys and fallowed them about, listening to their talk, asking countless questions. During that noon hour I learned all the four letter words describing physiological and sex functions...Yet when the school let out that first day, I ran joyously home with a brain burdened with racy and daring knowledge...I went from window to window and printed in huge soap-letters all my newly acquired four letter words" (25). We see clearly here the cause and effect of Richard's environment and Richards’s behavior. He was eager to learn and express himself, however unfortunately his environment had caused him to learn the wrong things. This is a continuing trend throughout the novel. For example, Richard runs away from the orphanage because he was hungry and miserable (31). Though running away may be considered bad, under these circumstances, he is simply reacting to his environment. Richard is not a bad boy. He is simply a good boy in a bad environment.
There is a fine line between when bad behavior becomes the fault of the person instead of the environment. Bad behavior is the fault of the person when they make a conscious decision to do wrong. This would occur without any outside influence. Bad behavior is the fault of the environment when a person is not making a choice, but simply reacting to the environment or has been molded by their environment to a great extent. For example, Richards’s father orders his son to kill an annoying kitten. Richard remembers, "I fount a piece of rope, made a noose, slipped it about the kitten's neck, pulled it over a nail, then jerked the animal clear off the ground" (11). In this case Richard was just reacting to his environment to smite his father. If he had strangled his kitten for his own enjoyment, Richard would really be a bad boy. Many times a person makes the conscious decision to do wrong, but in Richard's case, the environment is the culprit.

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