CONCLUSION
On the whole, the study of Richard Wright's existentialism has
brought us as far back as his childhood years. ln the first part of our study,
we have tried to trace the basic elements of existentialism. Along with this
line, historical evolution and existential principles have been dealt with.
Existentialism is a twentieth century philosophy which begins in the ninetieth
century with the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, andfhas special echo
during the Second W orld War period. The chiefs exponents of modem
existentialist literature include Jean-Paul Sartre Albert Camus. The
existentialists believe that the individu al is isolated in a world
(
and
of indifference, suffering and general hostility : alllife is
meaningless and absurdo He exists purely in terms of his own will and reason,
and wrings his destiny out of himself.
The other interest of our work focus on Richard Wright's
illustration of existentialism in Native Son and The Outsider.
An in-depth analysis of these novels reveals the existentialist trends in
Bigger Thomas)'historical rebellion and
Cross Damon's metaphysical rebellion. Bigger rebels against
religion, against his
c---
, family, against his family, against his companions and
black life in general, and against the white society that oppresses him. The
specific form that this rebellion
takes are rape and murder, crimes of which Bigger is and is
not guilty of. Cross Damon is a black intellectual caught in a web of dreadful
accident, but he seizes a fluke of fate to create the kind of life he wants and
begins a new existence. He is a thinking man whose existence made him grapple
with the ethical and metaphysical problems in the perplexing society.
The last part is concemed with the assessment of Richard
Wright's existentialism. Through a critical study, we have brought out the
limits of his
existentialist heroes. That leads us to Wright's
existentialism which is, in fact, a very ambivalent one. The dominant
characteristics of his heroes are crimes and
violence provoked by revoIt. They always stand on the verge of
violent impulse to their problems. Their inner world react to an outer hellish
world of violence and hatred. We discem in them a high frustration, a tendency
of aggressivity, an emphasis on physical insecurity and a doubtful identity.
Closely related to their violence is a deep sense of alienation from the
society in general. Besides, they are not guided by morallaws or legal
implications of their misdeeds. An understanding of Wright's existentialism
goes with an examination of the peculiar hardship that confronted him in his
childhood. As a matter of fact, his existentialism grows out ofhis painful
youth and is mixed with his philosophical reading. To understand his
existentialism, you need to understand the man and his psyche fraught with
anger, ambivalence, alienation, and aberration.
Richard Wright writes Native Son and The Outsider
more to expose man's inexorable struggle to survive in an unfavourable
social environment than merely depict existential ideas. Wright's abiding
concem through his existentialism is the conflict between the individual and
the society. Ris works lay bar man's suffering and longings. The message Wright
sends us is quite simple: facing life problems, show indestructible will and
determination. Row does the writer himself emerges from the fearful and
alienated world described in Black Boy? What are the predominating
forces that aIlow him not only to survive, but also to achieve literary
distinction? It is certainly his indestructible will and determination.
Throughout his existentialism, Richard Wright is seeking to
answer vital questions: the philosophical question of Being or the Idea of God
and the Nature
of Man, questions of love and freedom, justice and truth. The
real significance of Wright's existentialism lays in the world of his ideas
placed in the context of his times and his human condition. Ris body of works
reflects his buming desire to make a real contribution to our culture and to
aIl mankind. It is in the world of
ideas, in the history of ideas and culture, in contemporary ideas
of this ending century, that he has made his immortal contribution.
A-Works by Richard Wright
Wright, Richard. Native Son. 2nd ed. New
York: Harper & Row, 1940 Wright, Richard. Black Boy.
New York: Harper & Row, 1945 Wright, Richard. The
Outsider. New York: Harper & Row, 1953 Wright, Richard.
"The Man Who Lived Underground" reprinted in
Eight Men. New York: W orld Publishing Co, 1961
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