Native Son (Perennial Classics) | Richard A. Wright | A Profoundly Thought-Provoking and Deeply...

Native Son (Perennial Classics) | Richard A. Wright | It gives you a lot to think about.

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Native Son (Perenn...

	Native Son (Perennial Classics) Richard A. Wright, 1998 - 528 pages average customer review:based on 186 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Profoundly Thought-Provoking and Deeply Disturbing Magnum Opus

Richard Wright's Native Son is by far the most disturbing and thought-provoking novel I have read in my entire life. I had no idea what to expect when I picked up a copy of the book to read for my AP English Lit. class. Certainly, 450 pages later I emerged as a changed person.

Richard Wright opens the reader, through the story of a young African-American male "existing" (not living) in Chicago's "Black Belt" in the 1930's who committs two heinous murders, to the shocking reality of the seperate world black individuals in America lived in before the Civil Rights movement--and to a certain extent still do today. The real "monster" in the story is not its protagonist and murderer, Bigger Thomas, as you would expect, but the oppressive and ruthless white society that spawned him.

Bigger, and all African-Americans, had been so debased and deindividuated by the horrors of segregation that, in fact, Bigger's most meaningful moment in his entire short life was killing two people. That was his act of defiance against the fear imposed upon him and the only moment in which he truly "lived" his life as his own. Society left Bigger, and so many others like him, no other choice. No summation of Richard Wright's magnum opus, Native Son, can do his argument and story justice--so I urge you to read the book. You won't regret it. It might just change the way you see history and the world around you.

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It gives you a lot to think about.

As soon as my son is old enough to read and understand this novel, I am going to challenge him to read it one summer. I feel that every young person, especially young black males should read this novel. It accurately reflects how we are all products of our environment, and even sometimes caught up in situations beyond our control, but it is our response to these circumstances that is key. But the largest lesson to be learned and to understand is that there are always consequences to our actions, whether our actions are intentional or not.

The novel brings up the interesting dichotomy that exists between nature and nurture. I eventually came to the conclusion that faced with some of the same challenges that Bigger Thomas had to deal with (racism, stereotypes, and himself...perhaps his own worse enemy), I could have made some of the same decisions. Even more troubling at the end of the novel is my conclusion that any of us could have been 'Bigger' because at the end of the novel, Bigger wasn't even the issue, it was Society and their response to Bigger.

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Excellent until ...

Wright's novel had my full attention until midway through the final third when this formerly gripping read dissolved into grandiose speechmaking. The story of Bigger Thomas is, until that point, one of the more involving stories I've encountered in some time. It's especially notable that Wright is able to make us feel for a character who would have, in other hands, been flat-out unlikable.

Bigger's situation and flight from the Dalton home is, from the outset, hopeless but despite the futility, I kept hoping that Bigger would prevail somehow, that somebody would be able to understand his situation. That person really isn't Max, his defense attorney. Alas, even Bigger disappears behind Max' overlong speech that takes up too many pages.

I would recommend the book highly, and suggest that you read it through but I wouldn't feel badly if your attention starts to wander toward the end.

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