NATIVE SON

Richard Wright

Presented by:
Narendran Sairam
 About the Author
 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
 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
 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
 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
 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
 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
 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
 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
 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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