When I saw this on my school reading list I was like 'ugh, I HATE autobiographies!' But as I read this, I was utterly blown away by the raw emotion of this book.

This maps out Richard Wrights life as a black person in the south in the early 1900's and its just so interesting to see how divided our society truly was, how black people viewed white people visa versa.

Richard Wright's story is heart breaking and at times this book was hard to read. I'm going to share some of my favorite quotes kay :)

"I stood in the middle of the sidewalk and cried. A 'white' policeman came to me and I wondered if he was going to beat me. He asked me what was the matter and I told him I was trying to find my mother. His 'white' face created a new fear in me. I was remembering the tale of the 'white' ma who had beaten the 'black' boy."

'After I had outlived the shocks of childhood, after the habit of reflection had been born in me, I used to mull over the strange absence of real kindness in Negroes, how unstable was our tenderness, how lacking in genuine passion we were, how void of great hope, how timid our joy, how bare our traditions, how hollow our memories, how lacking we were in those intangible sentiments that blind man to man, how shallow was even our despair.'

I just recommend this book to everyone because it is so so so good.