Bible Belt

            Richard Wright is taught morality through severe and sustained beatings during any act that broke moral standards. In a way he was left to himself all the way up until Grammar school and had largely existed in the world on his own. From going to bars and interacting in town life on his own, he had developed his own consciousness long before he went to school. His family taught him through church and the violence it enacted upon him whenever he acted out of line. In this case, it was once again fundamentally bible thumping southern religion that educated his family. This and societal pressures of being black in the South strongly controlled what material and upbringing he was exposed to. He predominantly learned through social interactions, but many of these interactions were through ethical god fearing people. All of his reactions and interactions were dictated in some way by people who were taught by the bible or church. Those who were not taught by the church were self educated. It was these people who went to great lengths to obtain material and expand themselves on a more basic social level rather than turning to the spiritual.