Rating: 
Summary: great story; a beautifully written propaganda effort
Review: The introduction got me worried. Here was a gorgeously realized essay that basically outright states that the effort of the book was to cause a change in society. That is fine, I suppose, as a means to an end when a skilled writer takes up a cause and seeks to expose the world to his home truths, but in a novel, which historically needs a great story to sustain its relevance, such a nobel or ignobel (depending upon your persuation) goal might ruin a potentially thrilling narrative.Parts one and two are marvelous; searing, insightful long passages of identity, understanding and crisis, wrecked by social considerations and two-way prejudices that force all scenes of life to become mutual misunderstandings. The story is vivid and told with an uncommon force, growing and expanding in range and vocabulary as the situation tightens and all hope boils into steam and breaks up . . . And then . . . part three. Here is an attempt at justification, complicating the situation (most particularly in Bigger's mind) by imposing political explainations and making suggestions of possible reasons behind the acts of horror that frankly come across as vapid excuses. And while humanizing the oppressed and the criminal in a nobel manner, giving insight into character and the personal anguish caused by shame, guilt and rage, the explainations also seek to excuse individuality by stating that people can never make choices and are only forced to live the lives they struggle to lead. At the time this was written, just prior to WWII, many of the concerns were far more on the front line and opportunities weren't as plentiful for anyone. The evolution of society has made Wright's powerful story more prophetic than valid. The imposition of such a blaring interruption as a twenty-page lecture on the reasons the Socialists are right that ultimately seeks to exploit the cause of racism to justify its own denial of individual humanity is a tiresome, ponderous mistake that subtly undermines the psychological insight of everything that comes before. It is a shame Wright seemed more moved by politics than the genuine passion and realities of his riveting character. He claims otherwise in his introduction (which, frankly, contains some of the finest passages within the entire book), but he appears to have become distracted by partisan consideration when telling the story of someone who couldn't possibly care about his concerns, no matter how much we seek to pity him.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't judge a book by it's cover
Review: I first got this book because it was a required read for English III. I didn't think I would enjoy the book and I didn't know much about it until I read the first few pages. The story got me hooked when the main character, Bigger, gets involved in a crime he trys desperately the cover up. Richard Wright is an amazing author and this book has got me interested in reading his other works. If you enjoy books that keep you on the edge of your seat you would love Native Son.
Rating:
Summary: Should be required reading!
Review: Native Son is one of the best books ever written. I know that is a bold statement, and I love books so I say that a lot, but I really mean it! This was required reading when I was in college studying social work and it really should be used as a text book in High School classes. Can you imagine the world if every kid growing up got a little "wake up" to the hardships of the world and a deeper understanding of the lives of people other than themselves. Wright does such an amazing job of helping the reader experience the life of Bigger Thomas, I think everyone could learn from this book.
Rating:
Summary: What does it take to live in an unjust world?
Review: Native Son is one of those books that stunned me. I was reading along and had a physical reaction to parts of the book-- I was nauseous, anxious, sad and enraged, and ultimately, it was a catharsis that made me want to change the world. This is a political manifesto of sorts-- the language is strong, bleak, and well-crafted. What happens when life goes out of control and the world only sees you in one set way? This book will change your life. Read it, but be prepared for weak knees.
Rating:
Summary: Must read for white america
Review: I'm a young white male, and this was a great eye-opening book. We know that blacks are/were treated unfairly, inhumanely, and unjustly, but this book really shows us how bad. The writing is fabulous. THough, the end drags a bit, overall very worthwhile.
Rating:
Summary: The path from oppression to outrage
Review: Richard Wright's "Native Son" is one of the boldest novels ever written. It is a perspective on race relations in America in the 1930's -- how whites treat blacks and how blacks react -- and it rings true today louder than ever. It is about black resentment against the white establishment, but it has emphathy for all its characters and presents several different points of view about the roles of victim and aggressor. The protagonist is a 20-year-old black man named Bigger Thomas who lives with his mother, brother, and sister in an abject one-room apartment in Chicago's South Side. He normally spends his days and nights stealing, shooting pool with his hoodlum friends, and hanging out with his girlfriend Bessie. The novel begins on the day he is to start a new job as a chauffeur for the Dalton family, white millionaire philanthropists whose mischievous daughter, Mary, is a progressive liberal and a Communist sympathizer. If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the Daltons are working the jackhammer. The first night on the job, Mary instructs Bigger to drive her and her Communist boyfriend Jan around town while they get sloshed. When they get home, Bigger feels obligated to take the drunken Mary up to her room and, to avoid being discovered in her room by her mother, accidentally smothers Mary with a pillow to keep her quiet. To cover up this accident, which he is sure the white world will consider a case of a black man raping and murdering a white woman, he stuffs her body into the Daltons' furnace. (...) Bigger's predicament after the murder ironically gives him a certain freedom and control for the first time in his life. He feels the white establishment has been oppressing and restraining him for so long that it was inevitable that one day he would seize a position of power with an incredible act of violence. He knows that the whites will never understand the real reason he killed Mary, so there is no point in trying to convince them. Because he feels that he's always been hated by white society, it fulfills a kind of persecution fantasy to listen to the angry shouts of white mobs looking to lynch him. A prevalent motif in the novel is the American paranoia towards Communism in the 1930's, which creates a striking parallel to Bigger's paranoia towards whites and also reflects Wright's interest in Communism at the time and his belief that it would provide racial equality. That a novel filled with such angry, hateful characters, both black and white, could be written with such compassion and intelligence is indicative of a great writer, and the legacy of this novel maintains Wright as one of the great chroniclers of the history of American society.
Rating:
Summary: Imminent Doom?
Review: Native Son explores the concept that society determines our earthly course more than we are willing to admit. More precisely, Wright forces us to experience the apparent helplessness of Bigger Thomas, a black man whose life takes a terrible turn when he attempts to exert some control over it. But the plight of Bigger rises above race, and his message applies to all oppressed people. Those in power dangle the carrot of freedom before us, yet our struggle toward it only reveals their ability to keep it just out of reach.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: Like most young men Bigger Thomas is tearing off the chains of adolescence and vying for independence. If only he was not poor and black in 1930s Chicago he may have found it. His situation is bleak and certainly not preferable for someone young and full of energy. Bigger is penniless. All occupational opportunities offered to him are menial. His father is dead. His mother is poor, overemotional and obtuse. White radicals such as communists will only get him into trouble. White philanthropy does not understand him and provides only the tritest comforts. His peers are as trapped as he is. The white ruled world has established high walls between him and the gentler aspects of society. He is growing furious in a societal cage too small for him. He is bound for trouble and finds it in the murder of a young, white woman in a moment of haste. Leading African-American novelist, Richard Wright, sets himself a considerable challenge with Native Son. His protagonist is the type of young, black man who is often despised. Bigger is an unemployed urban dweller who is full of rage and guilty of an atrocious crime. Nevertheless, readers deeply care about him. Bigger is basically good-natured, yet completely conflicted and confused. In an attempt to outrun the inevitable he commits dreadful, yet utterly, logical acts. The series of dilemmas he faces is inexcusably unjust and gravely challenging, yet perfectly realistic. By understanding both the prejudices and truth surrounding African-American society Wright brilliantly antagonizes even the most intellectualized presumptions and prejudices about minorities, while leading his readers down a path of aching sympathy and nail-biting suspense. Wright's narrative skillfully places readers behind Bigger's eyes. Despite being, on the surface, the type of black man on which whites often base their prejudices, his thoughts are not unlike those of any young man from any race, including, to my surprise, my own.
Rating:
Summary: Baldwin, Ellison and Wright
Review: Richard Wright's "Native Son" is a towering work of creative and troubling American fiction. Its realism shocks the reader into a state of empathy that one wouldn't understand when first meeting Bigger Thomas. While the novel was written in 1940, like all great works on the troubling topic of race in America, it is timeless. Any serious reader of 20th century American fiction who has not read this should do so. I waited far too long thinking, quite erroneously, that to read Wright would somehow dilute the wisdom that I found in James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison. This book will never leave me.
Rating: 
Summary: CRAP
Review: well.. someone who murders anyone..out of panic either (which is a really stupid, irrational reason) does not deserve any sympathy. I felt the book was mainly about black people hating white people..as usual. now, tell me anyone....if there was a book about a white person facing discrimination in Africa..or being killed because stones are thrown at them, then everyone would look down on them. poorly written.
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