Native Son: Analysis

NATIVE SON Richard Wright

Presented by: Narendran Sairam

About the Author  

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Richard Wright was born on September 4th, 1908. Being a prominent black author of his time, Wright wrote numerous powerful and controversial pieces of literature. Black culture and racism were major constituents of Wright's work. His work was extensively used to redefine discussions of race in the United States of America.

A Little More About the Author  

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Wright was born on Rucker plantation in Adams County, Mississippi. His childhood life, in the company of his brother and poor mother, was spent in being abandoned by his father and moving to a number of different places to try and settle down to a happy life. During this volatile phase of life, he was, on more than one occasion, forced by his grandmother and aunt to “find god” to try and find the zenith of his life through religion. This frustrated young Wright and he threatened to leave home and run away if forced to do so again. These early instances of disgust towards religion, left Wright in a mental state where he rejected the idea of using religion as a tool to solving life's most hackneyed and mundane problems.

A Tiny Bit More About the Author 

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Wright spent most of his early career in big cities like Chicago and New York. While at these cities he made ties with the Communist Party and did some significant work them. During this time, he wrote novels that captured the life of a Negro in a very concise and adept fashion. Although a lot his work was deemed controversial due to the obscene and graphic scenes he describes.

A Little About the Author's Style  

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Wright's style is a very unique mixture of dialog and description. Almost 90% of his writing in filled with descriptions of different things. Feelings, settings, physical appearances, impressions, fears etc. This type of writing makes, sometimes, for a sloppy read, but Wright is quite adroit at this and this style works out quite well for him.

A Little About the Book...Finally    

Native Son was written in 1940 and during this time, Wright lived in Harlem. This book was Wright's first novel. And it was extremely successful. The main character Bigger Thomas was one with whom the everyday blacks related. This book was also criticized for its violence and graphic descriptions and it also dug up the fear that the whites had.

WHAT IS NATIVE SON ABOUT?

STORY TIME!

Themes 

There are three major themes that are seen in this book:   

The effect of racism on the Oppressed The effect of racism on the Oppressor The Hypocrisy of Justice

The Effect of Racism on the Oppressed  

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The oppressed are always fed racial propaganda. They fail to see the whites as collection of unique individuals. Instead they see them as a force that is made up of millions of people that are exact clones of each other. Blacks are always under pressure therefore in a dangerous and unstable state of mind.

The Effect of Racism on the Oppressor 

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They, as well, fail to see the Black as a collection of individuals. Instead they see them as a less than human collection of clones. There are two types of oppressors: the kinda that stereotype the blacks and hate all equally and the kind that understands the the Blacks are individuals and that try to help them to try and dissolve their guilt. They don't understand that the reason the blacks are lashing out is because they are oppressed. Instead these lashing confirm their fears of the capabilities of the black population and this leads them to oppress them even more.

Hypocrisy of Justice 

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Wright exposes the unbelievable imbalance of the the American Judicial system in his book. He shows that most of the cases where Blacks are prosecuted, the outcome of the case is almost predetermined. Bigger's case was inspired by a true story starring Robert Nixon, a black man who was convicted for killing a white woman during a robbery

Motifs 

There are two very prominent motifs in the Native Son:  

Popular Culture Communism

Popular Culture 

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Many of cultural elements like movies, magazines etc. were used in Wright's day to, if not promote racism, at least, support it. These cultural elements are portrayed in Wright's work as well. In the film that Bigger watches with his friend, whites are shown as a superior race while the blacks are shown as savages and wild beasts.

Communism 

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Two of Bigger's biggest supporters are Jan and Max. Both of them belong to the communist party. The Party is portrayed as a positive, supportive and accepting entity. A sort of salvation for people that are oppressed. Originally this work was deemed extremely controversial for its extensive Communist content but people realized that there wasn't much propaganda involved in the book.

The End

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