I would have to agree with Richard Wright because American people always speak of how much freedom we have but we really never see it. In my own personal travels to Europe no one speaks of how free they are or what rights they want. The problem that Richard Wright targets is how flawed the American government is. In his quest to receive an American passport he was denied twice. Through further investigation by getting lawyers involved Mr. Wright found that the government had no right not to distribute an American passport to him. As the piece further developed he explained another problem with America and freedom and that is America's age. Even in today’s time we are still a young country with not much history at all. In Mr. Wrights travels to France he explained in detail how much more sophisticated and proper the people are.
Americans lack the true definition of freedom and do not strive to live up to what freedom really is. Freedom is the power to exercise choice and make decisions without constraint from within or without. We leave these choices up to our government which has corruption inside of it. All governments have corruption but with America being such a large nation it is hard to see where it hides. This further explains why Mr. Wright had so much trouble receiving his passport. With corruption in mind people will choose personal interests over interests that help the whole public or even business. Another example he gives us is when he is trying to purchase the house in New Hampshire thinking there will be no issues that he is a black male. After waiting for a few days with no response he asked his friend to find out why there has been no response. It was exactly what Mr. Wright feared of and it was because he was black. Later on it’s the same issue but the white man in France sells him the apartment.
Overall in "I Choose Exile" the point Richard Wright is getting at is that America is still to young and naive to reach for such a high goal of true freedom.
Interesting response. I'm not sure if I agree or what you mean about people leaving choices up to the government, however. What choices do you think this is true of? Is this how Wright expereinced his lack of freedom?
ReplyDeleteYour responce was well written and I agree with alot of what you had to say about the U.S. and its flaws at that time period.
ReplyDeleteI agree with some things you said. The bigger the government gets- the more we allow them into certain aspects of our lives -the less freedom we have. On your comment about America being to young, or its history too short: I feel that yes its is young but in its short history it has had very significant events that had a world wide effect. American history is due a certain amount of respect, yes America may not be Rome but no other nation has accomplished what we have in so short a time. Also, America is not such a big country to see where corruption hides- all it requires is a little digging. Anyways, great comments, I really enjoyed reading them!
ReplyDelete@ Sweets - What aspects of life do you think the government is intrusive of?
ReplyDeletePeople sometimes talk about 'freedom from' versus 'freedon to' Americans tend to speak a lot about freedom from external constraints. But what does it mean to have 'freedom to'?