Native-born

Author: Richard Wright
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-06-01
Features: This book, which is hailed as a milestone in African American literature, is written by one of the most celebrated African American writers. Western critics generally believe that African American literature gained a position in American literature only after the publication of the author's Native Son. It can be said that this book brought African American literature to a peak. The protagonist of the novel, Bigger Thomas, lives a life of hunger and cold. In the eyes of white people, he is a "bad nigger," and he harbors both hatred and fear towards white people. Later, he accidentally kills a white girl and is arrested. When he is sentenced to death, a white Communist lawyer, Max, defends him in court, revealing the root of Bigger's crime—social injustice—but it still cannot change Bigger's fate of heading to the gallows. The book is filled with a sense of urgency and oppression from beginning to end, reflecting the inner struggles of the oppressed people at the bottom of society and highlighting the cruel nature of the protagonist, who has been shaped by this environment.