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Native Son (Abridged)

by: Richard A. Wright

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Binding: Paperback
Edition: Rev Abrgd
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Perennial
Manufacturer: Perennial
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 432
Publication Date: October 01, 2003
Publisher: Perennial
Studio: Perennial

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Editorial Review:
Bigger Thomas is doomed, trapped in a downward spiral that will lead to arrest, prison, or death, driven by despair, frustration, poverty, and incomprehension. As a young black man in the Chicago of the '30s, he has no way out of the walls of poverty and racism that surround him, and after he murders a young white woman in a moment of panic, these walls begin to close in. There is no help for him--not from his hapless family; not from liberal do-gooders or from his well-meaning yet naive friend Jan; certainly not from the police, prosecutors, or judges. Bigger is debased, aggressive, dangerous, and a violent criminal. As such, he has no claim upon our compassion or sympathy. And yet...
A more compelling story than Native Son has not been written in the 20th century by an American writer. That is not to say that Richard Wright created a novel free of flaws, but that he wrote the first novel that successfully told the most painful and unvarnished truth about American social and class relations. As Irving Howe asserted in 1963, "The day Native Son appeared, American culture was changed forever. It made impossible a repetition of the old lies [and] brought out into the open, as no one ever had before, the hatred, fear and violence that have crippled and may yet destroy our culture."
Other books had focused on the experience of growing up black in America--including Wright's own highly successful Uncle Tom's Children, a collection of five stories that focused on the victimization of blacks who transgressed the code of racial segregation. But they suffered from what he saw as a kind of lyrical idealism, setting up sympathetic black characters in oppressive situations and evoking the reader's pity. In Native Son, Wright was aiming at something more. In Bigger, he created a character so damaged by racism and poverty, with dreams so perverted, and with human sensibilities so eroded, that he has no claim on the reader's compassion:

"I didn't want to kill," Bigger shouted. "But what I killed for, I am! It must've been pretty deep in me to make me kill! I must have felt it awful hard to murder.... What I killed for must've been good!" Bigger's voice was full of frenzied anguish. "It must have been good! When a man kills, it's for something... I didn't know I was really alive in this world until I felt things hard enough to kill for 'em. It's the truth..."

Wright's genius was that, in preventing us from feeling pity for Bigger, he forced us to confront the hopelessness, misery, and injustice of the society that gave birth to him. --Andrew Himes
Richard Wright's powerful and bestselling masterpiece reflects the poverty and hopelessness of life in the inner city and what it means to be black in America.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating:

Rating:

- Unnerving
As many reviews document, some readers like this book while other dislike it. The reality of the situation may not be whether one likes the book so much as whether the book has the ability to disturb you. It is tough to like the main character. Yet most will have trouble identifying with the rich class that manipulates the system and Bigger's life. The story may be best described as unnerving.

"When men of wealth urge the use and show of force, quick death, swift revenge, then it ... Read More

Rating:

- A jarring cautionary tale
Performed by Peter Francis James, Native Son is an unabridged audiobook presentation of African-American author Richard Wright's well-known tale of cultural oppression and human psychopathy. Set in 1930s Chicago, Native Son follows Bigger Thomas, a black man who has grown up amid extreme racial prejudice and persecution all his life, and matured into an utter sociopath. He commits the second-degree murder of a white woman and is eventually taken to trial for his crime; he remains completely unrepentant ... Read More

Rating:

- Compelling Novel
Richard Wright's Native Son is a compelling novel focusing on racial barriers between the black and white communities of Chicago in the 1930's, which is explored when a young, poor black man, Bigger Thomas, is put in an awkward situation and accidentally murders a rich, white woman from a powerful family. From this the devastating effect of racism on not only Bigger, but also on both of the communities is shown from the perspective of the black side.

I rated this novel as four out of five ... Read More

Rating:

- Life Changing
I first read this book about 20 years ago. Frankly, I was reading a number of Wright's works at the time and was greatly influenced by him. I saw myself reflected in Bigger's life - not that I have done anything approaching the things that he did but, as a black man, I could and indeed still can identify with the precariousness of Bigger'a existence. Even though I am a successful professional, I still always think that there is some set of unavoidable predetermined race-related disasters lurking out there ... Read More

Rating:

- There are still resonances of the Bigger Thomas in American society
This is one of Wright's most important novels. It tells the story of the short life of Bigger Thomas, perhaps as an allegorical prototype of the typical life of a Black Chicagoan, or indeed maybe the archetype for all young black men in America, where the forces of society press upon them to live fast and die young, or live long and end up in prison or be ignored and live a social death on the outer margins of American life.

Bigger seemed to have had no redeeming qualities, and never showed any ... Read More

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