Native Son

1. Native Son by Richard Wright; 1940 2. At the halfway point of this book, I find myself amazed at the segregation and racism going on. Never have I read a book that has so clearly accounted for the African American’s feelings towards white people. The hate that brews inside of the African Americans is unbelievably strong, yet quite appropriate. I am enjoying trying to see the racism from the African American’s point of view, rather than the “white view” I think I have had all along. The stark contrast in living conditions between the Dalton family and the Thomas family is undeniable. Mr. Dalton says he supports African Americans and gives them money, yet he owns a real estate company that only sells houses to blacks in certain areas, and charges them more money than whites for dirties places. Bigger Thomas is going to be caught. The authorities will not let him escape. By leaving the house after the bones were located, Bigger basically announced his guilt to all of Chicago. The fact that he is black will not help either. That just makes him that much worse and that much guiltier. The white society already has him condemned and sentenced for life. What he did certainly was wrong, but it was accidental. He cannot run like this, because running makes him look worse. Right now he is trapped by his own inner fears and really has no other choice but to continue running until he gets caught. Nobody will spare him any mercy now. Actually, had he admitted right away to killing Mary, and had he not burned her, he probably wouldn’t have been spared any mercy anyway. That is really hard for me to understand. I cannot understand why whites hate blacks with such passion that they force them to live in subhuman condition for outrageous prices. Bigger just has to keep going and not look back. Eventually he will be caught, and I only hope that he isn’t hurt in anyway when he is caught. 3. (A) The protagonist of The Chosen is Bigger Thomas. He is from the lowest rung of the American social ladder of Depression-era Chicago: he is black, and he is poor. He has been trapped his whole life by the white society, and he has a burning, eternal hate for them. White people made him live the life he lived. By not letting him become anything but a servant, they led him to a life of crime and hate. For so long, too long, the whites saw every black the same. They were all bad and d...

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...ee to it that he gets his way. Bigger’s complicated, twisted, emotional life is without a doubt going to come to an end… right when he decides it is worth living. 3. (F) Native Son is a wonderful book. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone, especially white people. This book allowed me to experience racism from the African American’s point of view. Wright has done an excellent job of conveying the feelings of the African American to his reader, although the book seemed to be a little long and drawn out at points. After he killed Mary, I thought at least a day or two had gone by before he killed Bessie because of everything that had happened. Reporters came to the house, a newspaper was published about her disappearance, Bigger left work and went back one or two times, he planned the ransom note, a private detective was hired. Highly unlikely is it that those events would all occur in one day, but that didn’t really take away from the novel too much. The inner feelings presented to the reader by Wright will make me think twice before I ever accuse anyone of something again. He has made me realize that it is really unfair to do that, because you never know

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