Native Son

Rating:
Summary: A rich and insightful story
Review: Wright's Native Son is a rich and insightful look into a Black man's struggle with the overwhelming racism that surrounds him. One should not look at this work as a justification for crime nor a generalization on the Black experience in the United States. I believe Wright exposes the struggle between majority and minority groups and the repercussions it has on the actions of its members. We don't justify Bigger's crimes, but we can certainly follow the logical path that took him there. His crimes are an empowerment tool - a reaction to the White-dominated world in which he lives. It was a way for Bigger to take control of a situation and dictate his destiny, after many years of "...beign someone who knows how he is supposed to behave." What I truly value about this book is the breath of characters and feelings Wright puts into the racial equation. Bigger is the result of adding his mother as the eternal martyr, Bessie, as the opressed woman who is just trying to get by with what she is provided and making the most of it, Mary as the rich sympathizer who relishes in her liberal ways, Jan as the ultra leftist whose vision rises above his own experience, Mr Dalton who wants to help Blacks progress through labor and his wife who thinks it is more education, and finally the detective who injects the blatant alienphobias inherent in the vast majority.

Rating:
Summary: near perfect
Review: Wright brilliantly portrays how the racial struggles of this century are not as simple as our generation likes to believe. It's a complicated mess molded by years of abuse. A vicious attack on racism, Native Son is a must read because it redefines its definition. In fact, perhaps the most dangerous racists in the novel are the self-professed "colored benefactors". All accusations of the novel promoting communism are absurd. Wright simply presents the reader with an interesting condradiction that an atheist communist defends an obviously christian principle unsupported by the white Christians in the story. The one weakness of the novel, however, is the fact that Bigger does not represent the average consequence of the years of predjudice. Still Richard Wright creates a graphically honest masterpiece describing the racial tensions decades after the removal of slavery.

Rating:
Summary: A Frightening Reality
Review: I enjoyed reading this novel. The beginning and end were interesting but the middle was a little slow, it was almost over explained. I thought this book was a good depiction of how unfair the justice system can be for a poverty stricken, young, black man. This book was about a black man who murdered and burned a rich young white woman, that was the daughter of the man he worked for. Then, terrified because he killed a white woman (but not remorseful) he ran after an attempt to pin it on someone else failed. The story then goes into this man's capture, trial, and heart-wrenching conviction by an obviously racially influenced judge. The defense attorney goes into his ideas of why this man killed a white girl, and that it could be the result of years and years of a people being oppressed. I reccomend this book to people who are interested on the theories of why some black men, living in poverty, seem to lean towards a life of crime instead of prosperity. Over all this was a very good and interesting piece to read, and the language used wasn't challenging at all.

Rating:
Summary: Its a matter of responsibility
Review: All the customer reviews so far have seemed to overlook the fact that the book is very simply an argument of social determinism versus personal responsibility. Bigger murders Mary, and although it was accidental he refuses to take responsibility for it. Later he goes on to kill Bessie in order to protect himself. He goes to trial and Max uses the Communist based argument of social determinism. Wright shows us his Communist colors and beliefs vividly during this portion of the book. It is obvious that he was a member of the Communist Party when he wrote this novel. And at this point I think it isn't because he really feels responsible or remorse but because he wants Max to realize that he really doesn't care either way. Bigger had known from the time that he was a young black boy that he would probably end up in jail or dead.

Rating:
Summary: One of the worst books I have ever read
Review: This book was the most boring book that I have ever read. There are one or two scenes in the book that are interesting, but overall the book is boring. BORING. BORING. BORING. Oh yeah, its about a black dude who accidentally murders a white girl. Things like that happen every day. He murdered the girl out of fear, just like many people in the world today who do things out of fear of something. I don't understand why so many people like this book. How they can like this book is beyond me.

Rating:
Summary: AP English
Review: The content in the book would keep people of all races talking for decades. The text was written in a way to throw off reality in one sense or another. I do not really agree with certain plots of the novel. The idea of Mr. Dalton and his wife Mrs. Dalton both millionaires in the 1040's forgiving Bigger Thomas was very shocking to me. Bigger Thomas killed the Dalton's only flesh and blood in Mary Dalton's very own room. The novel made it seem like to the reader that Bigger did not have a brain. He burnt Mary's body in the furnace of the Dalton's home. The novel moved in a very fast pace. The novel has 594 pages, but the actually reading not counting the introduction, explanation of the novel from Richard Wright and Richard Wright's chronology consists of 502 pages. The events of the book probably only took five days. It started with Bigger's home life in a one-room home with his mother, Brother Buddy, and Sister Vera. Bigger's father was killed in a riot. The book ended not in a happily ever after conclusion, but in a sense that Bigger was waiting for his sentence to his death for two murders in two days. There are many parts of the book that are so unpredictable. I guess this is what a good book is all about. To my understanding Richard Wright wrote many books. I read, "Black Boy" which was one of Richard Wright later work after "Native Son". I enjoy reading his writing. It brings reality to different people of different races. The laws are unjust for two hundred years during slavery and he is speaking to make things as just as possible.

Rating:
Summary: dissappointing
Review: I read it over 20 years ago and after reading it again I come to the realization that only stories that portray Black men as psychopathic, rapists,women beaters and/or murders make it to the publisher's shelves. The story is a ficticious portrayal of a psychopath under the guise of racism. NO amount of racism anywhere in the world can excuse this type of behavior. It is a pity that we continue to portray this type of story as an example of true Black Literatue.

Rating:
Summary: a reader from wyoming
Review: I first read this book two years ago during my sophomore year of high school. I am now a senior and am writing a report on Richard Wright, and I have read several of his books. This story, however, I will always think of as one of the most heart wretching accounts of how racism can emotionally effect any person, even a "tough" young man.

Rating:
Summary: surrealistic plot and unsympathetic characters
Review: Native Son describes the plight of a black man whose accidental crime makes him a target of white society. Given this, it would appear that the reader would sympathize w/ Bigger's plight and feel outrage during his trial. Bigger, however, is difficult to sympathize with. While his first murder is accidental, his second is not. He rapes his girlfriend and beats her head in with a brick. The trial is biased. Again, the sympathy ought to go to Bigger when they unjustly accuse him of raping the white girl. However, if the trial were fair, he would be found guilty of raping and murding the black girl, so it is hard to be sympathetic from that angle. The communist slant of the book appears outdated to me, but some readers may find it interesting. I found the entire sequence between the suffocation and cremation to be surreal and difficult to swallow. Not that it couldn't have happened, but that the way it is described seems like something out of a dream. This book clearly reveals racism in American society, and for that it has its merits, but I found Bigger to be unsympathetic and to get no worse then he deserved, despite the injustice of the system. You might as well pity Camus' the Stranger for killing because the sun was in his eyes, even if his trial focused on unrelated events. Books such as To Kill A Mockingbird create more pity by demonstrating injustice to an innocent man. It is much more difficult to pity the guilty.

Rating:
Summary: Native Son is a novel about a young black negro.
Review: Native Son is a novel about a young black negro (Bigger Thomas)who finds himself in lots of trouble when he accidentally kills a young white girl. He burns her body out of panic and tries to go on with his life. In my opinion, the most exciting part of the book was when Bigger killed Mary (the young rich girl) and Bessie (his girlfriend). Not only did he suficate Mary, but he also chopped off her head so he could be able to burn her in the furnace. Bessie was killed with several severe blows to the head with a brick. The most boring part of the story is in the beginning when Bigger and Gus, his friend, are pretending to live lives of white men. Overall, this book was a very interesting and outstanding novel. Native Son is a novel stating the consequences when a black man tries to make a life in a white society. In conclusion, I rate this book with four stars.