Native Son & Richard Wright

1. Native Son& Richard Wright “The day Native Son appeared, American culture was changed forever…it made impossible a repetition of old lies.” -Irving Howe

2. “Of course I had an unhappy childhood. The happy childhood is hardly worth your while.”

3. Wright background • Born Mississippi 1908 • Father leaves • Abusive mother, grandmother, whites • Valedictorian of Middle school • Drops out after 8th grade • Moves North Life in Natchez, Mississippi

4. Wright background (cont’d) • Dead end jobs • Janitor • Post office • Federal Writers project • Communist Party - 1933 • Expatriate • Wrote Uncle Tom’s Children - Popular success

5. Goals for Native Son • Published in 1940 • Book of the Month Club • 3 weeks sold 215,000 • Based on a story of a real man • New version published 1993 “To write a book so hard and so deep that white America will have to face it w/out the consolation of tears.”

6. On Bigger Thomas • Anti-hero • Shows society its savagery • Searches for a desire to live • Despite a hostile environment • Despite white rejection of ever effort toward self realization

7. Wright’s Philosophy • All “Native Sons” victims of white caste ideology WHITE Black • Exist in HATE, SHAME and FEAR • Treated as less than human - escape into excess

8. Escapes Into Excess • Excess of : • Violence • Sex • Drugs/alcohol • Religion • Black person’s condition in America traced directly to treatment by whites