Richard Wright 's Native Son

The first aspect began the adventure and established sociology within America, occurred from “The Chicago school”. Here, American sociology officially became established in 1892, by Albion Small, who lead the groundwork for many students with an interest in sociology to be capable to study accordingly. The school

What is black, white, and red all over? A sunburned zebra, of course! These three colors also describe events that occur in Richard Wright’s novel Native Son. While a great deal of importance is placed on the color black, white remains present throughout the novel. The colors combine in many instances to lend great significance to characterization and setting. Through symbolism, Wright uses the colors black and white to illustrate the major problem of the era: the separation of black and white Americans. Furthermore, Wright utilizes "communist" red to emphasize the novel's overwhelming black and white imagery.

In Richard Wright’s Native Son, the book is split into three books. The first 2 books focus mainly on the suspense and tensions rising within Bigger’s life and finally in the last book he dies. The dramatic conflict of Native Son takes place chiefly within the mind of Bigger Thomas, who lives in a world of whites, blacks , or reds. To Bigger all of life is conflict and issues that is defined by the color of your skin with the whites being higher up. The tensions within the book can be comparable to fire and ice as each element possess traits which can be seen as metaphors within the novel Native son by Richard Wright and his essay of “How Bigger was Born”.

After reviewing the article titles given for this first assignment, I believe they indicate that Sociology, generally speaking, is not only a study of diversity or commonality in traits among people; it is also a science about factors in a person’s life and how these factors culminate responses. Interestingly enough, its topics of concern seem to be directly determined by current and common events of the world. Through the invention and expansion of new ideas, popular trends and fashions through time, Sociology adapts to responsibly to service the very subjects of interest it studies; for, even the slightest change of a person’s daily experience can have an insurmountable impact on attitude, personal growth, family

Richard Wright, wrote the fictional novel Native Son, using three intellectual forces, which include: Naturalism, Existentialism, and Communism. He uses these forces, along with racist ideology, to shape the life of a young black male, Bigger, living in the ‘Black Belt’ of Chicago in the 1940’s. Wright refers to the ‘Black Belt,’ as a ‘black world’ where violence is directed towards other American Americans, and warns that this violence will be aimed at white people. Bigger, is used to depict the criminal actions that come along with living in racial confinement under the fear of white people during this time.

The sense of agency is formed through the responsibilities and interaction with others. It is essential in life, but how is one’s life different if they do not have that sense of agency? Native Son is written by Richard Wright. The protagonist named Bigger Thomas is a poor, uneducated, and 20-year-old black man. He lived in a one-room apartment with his mother, little brother, and little sister. Bigger was originally part of a gang, but then he left and got the opportunity to work for Mr. Dalton. However, on the first day of his job, he accidentally killed the daughter of Mr. Dalton named Mary Dalton. In my opinion, Bigger portrayed as a person who does not have agency over his life. The factors that formed Bigger into a person with no control

"Whenever I thought of the essential bleakness of black life in America, I knew that Negroes had never been allowed to catch the full spirit of Western civilization, that they lived somehow in it but not of it. And when I brooded upon the cultural barrenness of black life, I wondered if clean, positive tenderness, love, honor, loyalty, and the capacity to remember were native with man. I asked myself if these human qualities were not fostered, won, struggled and suffered for, preserved in ritual from one generation to another." This passage written in Black Boy, the autobiography of Richard Wright shows the disadvantages of Black people in the 1930's. A man of many words, Richard Wrights is the father of the modern

In Richard Wright’s Native Son, alienation, the state of being isolated from a group or an activity to which one should belong or be involved in, is a major theme presented in the novel. The protagonist, Bigger Thomas, faces alienation repeatedly from society due to his identity as a young African American boy living in Chicago. Because of his skin color, in different places, he felt inferior to everyone around him and felt like he had no purpose in his life because of society’s expectations: African Americans ending up in a jail cell for the rest of their lives, making them feel worthless. As a result, he went looking for that power without knowing it. When he killed both Mary and Bessie, he felt that power rush to him. However, Bigger does end up in jail because of his wrong doings. Even though justice was served for the killings of Mary Dalton and Bessie, he did not deserve such a harsh sentence just because he is a darker skin tone compared to the Whites.

The authors state “One problem for many contemporary sociologists, as for most classical sociologists, is that they do not develop a moral perspective that goes substantially beyond the confines of the nation-state in which they live and work” (Vera and Hernan pg. 243). One might not understand how deeply ingrained this notion is in one’s self. The perspective shrinks down not only from nation-state but can reach the level of immediate family. The ideals that our families become part of ourselves, and it is not always easy to remove ourselves from these ideals (Feagin and Vera 2008). When these ideals are reaffirmed in the mainstream media, it becomes nearly impossible for individuals to question them (Feagin and Vera 2008). How can we as society expose youth to ideas such as liberation sociology when they are not being exposed in the home? When oppressed groups attempt to educate those in power, it is easy for the powerful to disregard what the oppressed are saying (Feagin and Vera 2008). Let us say we were to institute liberation sociology in schools. Who would teach it? Would they have background in sociology? It is important to expose youth to broader concepts, yet there are many obstacles, such as their teachers and parents (Feagin and Vera 2008). For liberation sociology teachings to be successful, they would have to be so powerful that youth would grasp their

As an African-American writer and poet Richard Ward was born on September 4, 1908, in Roxie, Mississippi. Richard published his first short story at the age of 16, while gaining employment with the Federal Writers Project, he received acclamation for Uncle Tom’s Children. He was well know for his bestseller Native Son and for his 1945 autobiography. As a young child he was the grandson of slaves and son to a sharecropper. After his father left his family, when Wright was merely five years old, his mother raised him as a single parent. Richard attend school in Jackson, Mississippi, although he only managed to get a 9th grade education, talented in reading and writing. With a passion for American literature, sometimes he went as far to forge

Actions considered inherently immoral are seen only as inherently immoral. Sympathy is not considered as an option to a person who commits a heinous and undesirable act. The acts of murder as committed by characters such as Bigger in Richard Wright’s Native Son and Guitar in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon are first seen as immoral, evil, and irrational. However, as the books progress and characters express the rationale behind the deaths and crimes committed, the reader develops an understanding, if not sympathizes, with the logic and motives behind committing the distinguished crime.

When analyzing Bigger Thomas, Richard Wright’s protagonist in the novel Native Son, one must take into consideration the development of his characterization. Being a poor twenty-year-old Black man in the south side of Chicago living with his family in a cramped one- bedroom apartment in the 1930’s, the odds of him prospering in life were not in his favor. Filled with oppression, violence, and tragedy, Bigger Thomas’ life was doomed from the moment he was born. Through the novel, Bigger divulges his own dreams to provide for his family and to be anything but a “nobody.” Although Bigger struggled to fight through obstacles to pursue his dreams for the future, his chase for a better life came to an abrupt

In Richard Wright’s 1940 novel Native Son the murder of two young women shock the city of Chicago. Mary Dalton, a white millionaire heiress, and Bessie Mears, a working class Black woman are both killed by Bigger Thomas, a young African-American male. Although equally gruesome, the deaths of Mary and Bessie do not elicit the same responses. While a right ensues for Mary before and after Bigger is caught, there is no mention of what happens to Bessie. However, the lack of attention to Bessie’s murder is not an anomaly. Throughout Native Son, readers are consistently informed and reminded that Bessie does not occupy the same space or status as Mary in their society and in the mind of Bigger. The women are only positioned as equals is during

At the beginning of the semester, I knew very little about sociology or even what it was about. I just knew I needed to take the class for my degree plan to transfer to a four-year university and that I would be doing a lot of reading about different terms and theories of society. However, this first month of class has helped me improve my understanding of what sociology is about and shown me how my personal society has impacted the way I view society. Not only did I learn about the relationships between society and myself, but I have also learned different concepts that have helped me gain a better understanding of how society works. There are three specific sociological concepts that has helped me improve my understanding of the relation

Richard Wright’s novel, Native Son, depicts the life of the general black community in Chicago during the 1930’s. Though African Americans had been freed from slavery, they were still burdened with financial and social oppression. Forced to live in small, unclean quarters, eat foods on the verge of going bad, and pay entirely too much for both, these people struggled not to be pressured into a dangerous state of mind (Bryant). All the while, they are expected to act subserviently before their oppressors. These conditions rub many the wrong way, especially Bigger Thomas, the protagonist of the story. Though everyone he is surrounded by is going through all the same things that he is, growing up poor and uneducated has made Bigger angry at the whole world. You can see this anger in everything he does, from his initial thoughts to his final actions. Because of this, Bigger Thomas almost seems destined to find trouble and meet a horrible fate. Wright uses these conventions of naturalism to develop Bigger’s view of the white community(). With all of these complications, Bigger begins to view all white people as an overwhelming force that drags him to his end. Wright pushes the readers into Bigger’s mind, thoroughly explaining Bigger’s personal decay. Even Wright himself says that Bigger is in fact a native son, just a “product of American culture and the violence and racism that suffuse it” (Wright).