“(The essence of the irony of the plight of the Negro in America, to me, is that he is doomed to live in isolation while those who condemn him seek the basest goals of any people on the face of the earth. Perhaps it would be possible for the Negro to become reconciled to his plight if he could be made to believe that his sufferings were for some remote, high, sacrificial end; but sharing the culture that condemns him, and seeing that a lust for trash is what blinds the nation to his claims, is what sets storms to rolling in his soul.)”
In this passage, Wright reveals another one of his deep and groundbreaking thoughts. This is that, not only are the African Americans resigned to be shunned from those around them while the White people chase after material goods, but that this treatment torments the African Americans soul. Wright believes that if the African American population were to be told that they were suffering for a reason or cause (for example, that their suffering would somehow help their kids) then they would be able to accept this kind of discrimination more readily. However, they are not told this and do not believe this and as a result they see themselves pushed aside and left the bare bones while those that had oppressed them chase after material wealth (the “trash”). This sheds a great deal of light on the plight of the African Americans but it is not made clear if he realized this while he was still in Chicago or until much later.
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Seth—I really liked that you chose this particular passage. I agree with the fundamentals of the irony, but I don’t think that anyone would be told specifically outright that his or her suffering has meaning. One knows if one suffers for a reason or not, depending upon the circumstances of the suffering. Overall, very good blog. I do, however, become a little confused with your explanation of deciphering suffering as either meaningless or meaningful. 5
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