At the end of the novel, Wright discovers that none are living a "human life." The blacks, as well as the whites, were lost about how humans should live, and because of this, both groups were miserable.
I agree with this to an extent. The blacks were certainly miserable. I can't judge how miserable the whites were. It's likely that many knew that what they were doing was wrong, but being raised that way for their entire lives would lull them into complacency. Many would be so convinced of the inferiority of blacks that they would truly believe that their behavior was acceptable-and it was in the time period. I don't think that the whites were miserable because as far as they were concerned, they were acting humanly. They didn't see the blacks as being as human as they, therefore, they felt justified in treating them poorly.
However, there is always the possibility of there being a few tortured, white souls who knew that they were doing wrong but continued to act. These are the people that Wright was discussing. They were trapped within their time.
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