The Library Card

“The Library Card” by Richard Wright is a fictional story about an African American boy who stumbles upon an artical written about H.L. Mencken and is suddenly intrigued by the name. The essay takes place during segregation therefore he can not go out to a library and check out books on his own. Richard knew that the white men in his workplace have asked him to go to the library to check out books for them before, so he began to analyze each worker to see who he was going to ask for their permission to check out books under his name. Richard finally comes to the conclusion of asking Mr. Falk who is an Irish Catholic feeling that he would be the less judgmental and not question him to much as to why he was so curious to read books about Mencken. After Mr.Falk gives him permission he was free to check out books on Mencken, however once he read the first two he couldn’t stop wanting to read more and more books by him. Richard became passionate about reading and felt like reading had become his own personal drug. At his own risk Richard continued to check out more books despite being frightened what his fellow co workers both black and white would say about him reading such material. He felt that reading such books was like carrying a secret or “criminal burden”. After having read so much Richard noticed that he was starting to look at the world differently. He began to feel distant from the people he had once thought to be the same as him. He was intrigued by the new outlook he was starting to have but also sad and mad because he had finally opened his eyes to what the world around him truly was and felt like he had been lied to “to feel that there were feelings denied to me” he almost resented his new point of view. By reading so much Richard longed for a better life where he could become a professional a thought that once seemed so foreign to him. After obtaining so much new information from all the books he had read on books not only by Mencken, but books also by Sinclair Lewis; Richard felt like he had become so distant from the world around him and scared because the distance had only been increasing with each new day.
     I really enjoyed this story and how literature changed Richard’s life. I think its true that books once you start reading you become so intrigued that you just want to keep reading them. Once you start engaging your mind to new ideas like he did by reading Mencken you do start looking through a different point of view. I liked how he took reading and the knowledge it gave him used it as a weapon to use in the world and was able to take a lot out of it. I think that when a person reads like that and is able to take something back out his/her reading that’s when your truly becoming a good reader. However I felt that he should have not been scared despite the times he was growing up in because nothing should stop you from expressing what you believe in.