Black Boy by Richard Wright and A Brief Introduction To The History Of The Deep South :: Black Boy A Brief Introduction To The History Of

Compare the two texts an extract from Black Boy by Richard Wright and A Brief Introduction To The History Of The Deep South for: 1) Tone 2) Use of Language (Style) 3) Register (Degree of Formality or Informality) Black Boy by Richard Wright is a personal recountive piece while A Brief Introduction To The History Of The Deep South a piece of expository writing. In Black Boy, the narrator recalls and describes 2 incidents that occurred on the same day which impacted his life and let him better understand the Whites’ thoughts and how to react to them. The purpose of the author is to let the reader understand situations that went on at that time from the first-person point of view such that the reader can comprehend the severity of the problem, and gives a few insights. On the other hand, A Brief Introduction To The History Of The Deep South illustrates briefly how Black slavery began and progressed in the South. The purpose of the author is probably to inform the reader on how racism progressed on a whole as a whole area, the south, rather than to show real life situations that went on within the community. In Black Boy, the tone is rather dissatisfied and has hints of complaints, such as in â€Å"My face must have reflected my silent anger, for the boss slapped me reassuringly on the back.† In this passage some disgust of the narrator is also shown through even the eclipses right after ‘ â€Å"Here have a cigarette,† he said.’ However, in A Brief Introduction To The History Of The Deep South, the tone is a-matter-of-factly as the narrator is merely presenting a set of historical facts, with little bias or emotion, such as in â€Å"The Southerners got very rich from these plantation farms making lots of money.† In a way it becomes a more reciting tone as the history of the Deep South is reported. In Black Boy, words, especially adjectives and adverbs are used to colour the writing, such as in â€Å"every fleeting expression† and â€Å"hot, dusty road†. However, in A Brief Introduction To The History Of The Deep South, adjectives and adverbs are used for precision of information, as shown in â€Å"ruined plantation† and â€Å"brutal system†. Another case would be â€Å"The Yankie Northerners beat the Southerners and burnt and destroyed many of their beautiful big plantation houses†, where â€Å"beautiful† is used not so much to colour the writing but to show the massive contrast of before and after. Black Boy is rather informal, as the narrator tells you the events of a day in his life.