Why is Wright Hungry?

Wright is really hungry because he is black and his family is so poor that food is often a scarce commodity. There is no opportunity for his parents to get ahead as they have no skills or education, and in addition, they live during a historical period where blacks are discriminated against. Furthermore, Wright’s father deserted his family for another woman after moving them to a tenement in Memphis. Without a father, the family has no income so they have no food. His mother has to find work as a cook, but she cannot make enough money to feed the family so Wright and his brother are sent to an orphanage where once again there is little to eat.

Although Wright is glad to be rid of his lawgiving father who was a stranger and seemed “alien and remote,” once his dad left and did not come home, Wright was always hungry. It took him awhile to figure out that the reason why he was hungry was because his dad was gone and was no longer bringing money home. He associates being hungry with how his life became worse and harder. He says that the image of his father became associated with his “pangs of hunger”, and whenever he felt hunger he thought of him “with a deep biological bitterness”. Wright’s father felt no obligation to help support his family. Wright has to learn how to care for himself and he grows up early with no childhood. He has to deal with gangs, he becomes familiar with bars, and he starts learning what bad words mean. He starts to see that there is a difference between how whites and blacks live. Whites can beat blacks and not get punished and blacks seem to always be hungry.