Native Son

Native Son* by Richard Wright is a challenge. Wright challenges your sense of right/wrong, he challenges your understanding of race in America, and he challenges your attention span, because his book is too long and overly repetitive.

Wright’s main character, Bigger Thomas, commits a crime; the novel goes on to indirectly excuse the crime, arguing that the systemic racism of Chicago in the 1930's made the offense inevitable. Wright’s painting of a racist, segregated Chicago is valid and powerful. The idea that Thomas is not entirely responsible for his crime is hard to swallow. Like when you accidentally swallow a full ice cube and your throat feels like a cavernous abyss that just betrayed you and you turn to your mom and cry because you don’t think you’ll ever be able to swallow properly again. Kinda like that.

Truly, Bigger Thomas is an unlikeable narrator. I really, really did not like him. But I appreciate why Wright wrote him that way (lol *wright wrote*). If a likeable character commits a crime, we might try and exempt him. If an unlikeable character commits a crime, it’s easy for us to label him as guilty-- he’s a criminal and he sucks. Wright shows us: Bigger Thomas is unlikeable, he’s guilty, and he’s a victim. As readers, we’re forced to confront the subtle reasons for why we might not like him/not have empathy for him.

Native Son asks important questions but that does not mean it is a good read. The first portion is riveting; it has crime, drama, suspense, and horror. The second half is subdued and tedious; it belabors the point. I can’t in good faith strongly recommend a book that I believe is 150 pages too long, even if the content is historically (and presently) significant and necessary. So, Native Son receives 2 out of 5 camel humps.

*Wright, Richard. Native Son. New York: HarperCollins, 1940. Print.