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Native Son

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Native Son & Richard Wright The day Native Son appeared, American culture was changed forever it made impossible a repetition of old lies. – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Native Son


1
Native Son Richard Wright
  • The day Native Son appeared, American culture
    was changed foreverit 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 (contd)
  • Dead end jobs
  • Janitor
  • Post office
  • Federal Writers project
  • Communist Party - 1933
  • Expatriate
  • Wrote Uncle Toms 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
Wrights 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 persons condition in America traced
    directly to treatment by whites
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