In order to achieve success, you must be independent, have dignity, and be willing to take the needed risks. In both Black Boy and A Raisin in the Sun, many characters take risks in order to get the things they want out of life. By not acting like the typical African
American would, these characters have diverged in life from the norm both emotionally and physically. From the early days of Richards childhood, Richard was always alienated from his environment. Even though he tried to distance himself from the prejudice all around him, the white people still tried to turn him into the stereotypical southern black person. However, throughout the story Richard is also alienated by his own people and perhaps even more then from the white people. Richard was always a rebel, from his boyhood to his older teenage years. Richards grandmother was always excessively beating him.
From the beginning, Richard would not subdue himself to the white man like the other black people around. The white people knew that he was different from other black men. Whites were scared because Richard challenged the system that they had created to insure white supremacy. They feared Richard, and some of the white people felt it necessary to act out their racist feelings in order to cover up their fear. White co-workers beat Richard because his boss was kind to him. Richard later had to leave a good job because those racist co-workers would kill him. When the principal at Richards school had asked Richard to give a speech to a large audience of white and black people, Richard refused to read the principals prepared speech.
By reading the principals speech, Richard was saying what the white power wanted him to say and to Richard this would be giving in to the very thing he hated so much. Richard was willing to leave school without a diploma instead of this. White people alienated Richard from his environment because he did not accept the way of life that other black people did. Richards relatives never understood Richard and because of this he was alienated from his family and his own people. Shorty is the young black boy who gets beat by the white people and jokes about it. Richard hates Shorty because he accepts what Richard finds so disgusting. Richard goes over in his mind the different choices he can make to deal with the feelings he has. Richard does not want to give in and be a slave to the white people. He would never give in and become a slave because he has hated that idea since day one.
Richard contemplates transferring his hatred and frustration out on other blacks, but knows that will not aid the situation. He decides not to act like his abusive father and care about nothing other than sex and alcohol. Richards peers and relatives are distanced from him because they accept white rule over their lives, and he does not. Richard himself alienates himself away from his surroundings. He is always asking himself questions trying to find a way out of his situation. He asks himself why white people are out to destroy him, why does he have fear of whites, why cant he just leave? Richard asks himself these questions even though he knows that there are no answers to hopeless questions. Richard tries to distance himself from his environment because there are no answers in his present situation, and he wont find those answer until later in life.
Like Richard, Beneatha from A Raisin in the Sun tries to break free from the stereotypes that are holding African Americans back. Beneatha is anything but the typical African American. She has an ambitious goal of being a doctor, a goal that is never expected of a colored person. Although discouraged, even by her own brother, she still pursues her dream. Beneatha didnt want to marry a man, such as George, for his money. She wanted more. Many black women of her time would jump at the chance to marry a wealthy man and have the stable future that his money would bring. Beneatha always wanted to know more about her familys history and about Africa. It became a real obsession of hers to question Asagai about her native land. Beneathas non-stereotypical ways helped to move the African Americans of her time forward.
