Richard Wright is a black boy in the Jim Crow South. He is intelligent and fiercely independent. He struggles between both the black and white worlds for his place. Richard refuses to be defined by simply the colour of his skin. Richard is often tormented by white racists. Richard eventually makes his way to Chicago where he comes into his own as a writer. If Richard had not moved to the more progressive north, his creativity would have been stifled and his individual spirit crushed.