Book Review: Native Son

A Predestined Path of Life

Stars: 5/5

Author, Richard Wright, weaves a fictional tale of Bigger Thomas, a 20 yr. black male living, striving in the Black Belt of Chicago. The story takes place sometime ago when the world seemed to be a lot different, but make no mistake about it, most of us know that Bigger Thomas still exists today. Early in the first chapter, Fear, Wright describes Bigger as:

"...a strange plant blooming in the day and wilting at night; but the sun that made it bloom and the cold darkness that made it wilt were never seen. It was his own sun and darkness, a private and personal sun and darkness. He was bitterly proud of his swiftly changing moods and boasted when he had to suffer the results of them. It was the way he was, he would say; he could not help it, he would say.... And it was his sullen stare and the violent action that followed that made Gus and Jack and G.H. hate and fear him as much as he hated and feared himself."

The more one becomes familiar with Bigger, the more one realizes that a tragedy will befall Bigger; a tragedy that is a result of his own doing. Bigger's instincts, honed by the pressures of being black and poor, will lead him down a path of ill-fated acts. In the second chapter, Flight, the reader shadows Bigger's every move as tries to evade the inevitable. In last chapter, Fate, watch as Bigger seals his fate; his destiny coming to fruition.

If you want to experience oppression, race relations, poverty through the plight of a young black male in the early 20th Century, then this is one of the books to read.

As a final note, I couldn't help but notice the Du Boisian references, where on occasion, Bigger is portrayed as being "...behind a veil" or "...behind a curtain".


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Richard Wright

What a coincidence!! As I was about half-way through Richard Wright's Native Son, I stumbled across this feature which I thought was very interesting. I said I would post it once I finished the book, so here it is. This is just an excerpt, please read the full article here


The Enduring Importance of Richard Wright
by Milton Moskowitz

Richard Wright, who would have been 100 years old this year, was, arguably, the most influential African-American writer of the twentieth century. He stood astride the midsection of that century as a battering ram, paving the way for the black writers who followed him: Ralph Ellison, Chester Himes, James Baldwin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lorraine Hansberry, John Williams. Today, 48 years after his death, his legacy remains strong; his daughter, Julia Wright, is helping to keep it alive. She succeeded in getting HarperCollins to publish the unfinished novel her father was working on in the weeks before his death. It was published in January under the title, A Father’s Law. And she will host a series of seminars this year that will discuss her father’s work.

Wright was born on September 4, 1908, on a Mississippi plantation 22 miles east of Natchez. All of his four grandparents were slaves. He would find it ironic that today there is a plaque in Natchez marking his birth, for his upbringing in the South was a bitter, fearful experience, not something he looked back on with any fondness. His father deserted his family when Richard was five years old. He was shuttled to different family homes in Mississippi (Jackson and Greenwood) and Arkansas (Elaine and West Helena) before moving to Memphis. There was rarely enough food in the house.

Click Here to read the full article.