Customer Reviews

Rite of Passage

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I read this novella for a project in college. I am doing a project on gangs for my pedagogy class (I am a future English teacher). Once I began Rite of Passage, I could not put it down. The character of Johnny is so real and believable and, unfortunately, the situation of run-aways is very real, also. I recommend Rite of Passage to all, and especially to any teacher to teach to a junior high/high school class. I saw some connections in this book to The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton (which I also love). A very rewarding read!

Rite of Passage is a short book that takes place over the period of one day. Johnny, a fifteen year-old goes from goody-goody two shoes teacher's pet momma's boy to knife fight"don't mess with me or I'll cut you up" gangster boy. The story started with Johnny getting straight A's in school, walking home to his bowl of soup waiting for him. When he gets there, he finds out his parents aren't his real parents. He is going to go to another foster home. His "parents" were supposed to tell him a year earlier, and they never did. He waited in disbelief and anxiousness until his new parents arrived, then he had no other choice in mind and ran. He ran to his best friend, Billy, who let him join his gang, that Johnny never knew about. He had stolen some candy bars to live off of and Billy's gang let him join after he spared their leader in a death fight. He later went out mugging people for money, and it ended when he went to sleep. It ended very abruptly, and went very fast. It was kind of hard to follow, and had some strange moments. I would recommend this book to people that like a book with a very realistic look on life. It was a good book, but I wouldn't have wanted to read it if I didn't have to.

In Rite of Passage by Richard Wright, Johnny Gibbs has a wonderful life: he gets all A's in school, has great friends, and he loves his family. But his whole life changes in an instant. Rushing home with the thought of his mother's delicious stew in mind, he finds out that the family he had known and loved his entire life, were not his own. They were his foster family, and he is shocked to find out, too, that he is being sent away to live with another, brand-new, family. Johnny has no other choice but to run. In one single day his life seems to take a wrong and drastic turn, and his world becomes an inescapable bad dream.

I recommend reading Rite of Passage because of its simple but involving story, exciting events, and the lessons it teaches the reader about life, family, and love. You feel like you're right beside Johnny as he goes through his "rite of passage." You get close to him, understand his character, and feel his pain.

Hi my name is pedro sainz. I am from Crawford High School. I choose this book because there is a boy that lives with a foster home and he has to live their home and live with other parents. He runs away from home and has to live his own life and he joins a gang. I recommend this book to everyone because it's about a kid that has to live his own life in the outside world and has to know how to survive.

the book is amazing and the book got to my house so fast. i love it and i will definitely order from Amazon.com much more often :]

The book rite of passage by Richard Wright I thought was interesting and easy to follow. It was adventursome and was exciting. It was also short and easy to comprehend. the book was very discriptive and gave me a good picture of what each caracter was like. there was a ten-page fighting passage that was suspensful because the caracters kept on trading off winning. the book made me relize how good i have it, a family,a good school, and a good place to live.Overall I would recamend this book to kids 14 or yunger because it was easy to read.Also to people who like aventursome books this is a good one.

I have read one of theother books written by this author, and loved them, so I thought I would read this one as well. The story was very good. The wording was put a little too simply, but it was an overall good book. It kept me interested, and I didn't put it down until I was done. The only problem was that it was very short, and ended too abruptly. The story didn't exactly end. I would have liked to hear more about what happens to The Moochers. Seeing some sort of conflict would have been nice.

I thought that this was an excellent book. I loved the fact that this was taken place in the ghettos of New York. I also loved the excitement it builded up in me. I couldn't take my hands off of the book. The only one thing that I didn't like was the ending. I didn't like it because I was hoping for him to go back with his family.

I thought that Rite of Passage was definately not one of Wright's best works, and certainly wasn't of comparative quality to the rest of Wright's works. Rite of Passage has an excellent plot, but lacks in-depth character development and description; the book isn't very substantive. If the book were longer and more developed, it would be a worthwile book to read. If your looking for a good Richard Wright book to read, try American Hunger, or native son.

This strange story published after the author's death is about Johnny, a 15 year old boy, who runs away from his foster family to join the streets of Harlem in the 1940s. It was a time of segregation and hard lives. Richard Wright writes about the roughness he had as a child through Johnny, and how scary things could be. It all makes the book more meaningful and well written. I think this book is a good read because it is based actually times in history. Although this book is very short, (it includes an Afterwords) it is packed with emotion and feelings that make you think and wonder. IMO, this is a well-written book, that could be a bit longer, and a bit more into detail like other books written by Richard Wright.
Its worth reading and buying, 4 stars! -D.T.