About this title: Bigger Thomas, a young black man in Chicago, murders two women and is condemned to death. Bigger, whose crimes escalate as the story takes its sad and terrible course, feels--like Dostoyevsky's Raskolnikov in CRIME AND PUNISHMENT--that the act of murder is a kind of existential act, and is the only kind of freedom he has ever known. Wright deliberately avoided making his protagonist a sympathetic character, wishing to accurately depict the dehumanization of blacks in American society, as well as his belief that Bigger, as a product of his environment, is not truly guilty of the murders he ...
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Description: Good. Minor wear on cover, minor wear on corners and edges, some highlighting on a few pages. Ships within 24 hours, Satisfaction Guaranteed. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Perennial
Date Published: 1987
ISBN-13:9780060809775ISBN:0060809779
Description: Good. 1987 Paperback Good condition. Thanks for looking at our books we ship fast and we guarantee books we sell. Bigger Thomas is doomed, trapped in a downward spiral that will lead to arrest, prison, or death, driven by despair, frustration, poverty, and. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780060533489ISBN:006053348X
Description: Very Good. First printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1. Slight cover wear with minor scuffing to edges. Minor marking on bottom page edges. GoodwillnyBooks is committed to providing each customer with the highest standard of customer service. You may return new items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Perennial
Date Published: 1987
ISBN-13:9780060809775ISBN:0060809779
Description: Very Good. Slight cover wear with minor scuffing to edges and creasing on spine. GoodwillnyBooks is committed to providing each customer with the highest standard of customer service. You may return new items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. read more
Description: Fine. 158663450X Slight cover & edge wear. Inside book is clean, pages tight. No remainder marks. Shipped with delivery confirmation inside US. Selling books since 1979*p/AA1-49. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Harpercollins Publisher
Date Published: 1942
ISBN-13:9780060830557ISBN:0060830557
Description: A good reading copy only. A former school book with the usual identifiers. Book has tanning or browning due to normal aging process. -, Hard Cover, Good / read more
"The novel Native Son By Richard Wright was a very interesting novel. This novel was very interesting because it was a very intense book which grabbed my attention and caused me to read more and more about it. I found Native Son a great novel because it is coming straight from the authors perspective. Richard Wright also let the readers see not only just his perspective but peoples point of views as well such as, communists, whites, and blacks. By him letting readers see other points of views and not just his was really intelligent because we as readers can look in the minds of whites and see where they are coming from. Not only did it help to look in the minds of whites but also look deep into the communist minds as well. For me personally it helped me to view the novel in many different ways. It helped me to view the novel differently because usually racism is always reflected on blacks and not other race ; but in this novel I seen that many people was being mistreated and it made me feel good because everyone in that novel knew what it meant or even knew how it felt to be put into a category and be mistreated because of what they believed in or either the color of their skin. What i learned from this novel is that anyone can be mistreated not just blacks and a person always doesn't have to be mistreated because of the color of their skin."
"The novel Native Son written by Richard Wright during the 1950's touched base on a lot of things, for example race, love, respect and equality. Bigger, the protaginost, characteristics are simular to modern day black families. This book made me think a lot about how race plays a big factor in some peoples life. It even gets to the point where people want to kill just so that they could live an simular life to white people. Bigger had many characteristics, but most of his characteristics wasnt the way he truley was, it was the way he had in order to deal with his enviorment and society. It also made me notice how unfortunate some people are. Bigger made choices that had consequences that came with him, and after getting away with a murder once he decided to do it again, but after these two murders there was nothing else for him to say or do so he had to plead gulity in front of a trial. Bigger had a lot of anger and eagerness in his body because he couldnt quite talk about issues at home i think he did this for some sort of attention and also to take some anger out."
"Overall, this was a good book. The dialogue, however allowed for readers to easily foreshadow what would happen further on in the book which made it a bit bland. The three books within the whole book gave a clear pavement as to what the book will contain. The protagonist Bigger Thomas is an allusion to the conflict between man vs. man, along with man vs society, which causes him to engage in trouble throughout the book. Being known as the low class working-man, Bigger is not allowed to fulfill any aspirations he had held, for example his dream of being an Aviator. He also shows no emotion because he fears of how people will react to him, but he only gives off a negative connotation after killing his bosses daughter, Mary Dalton. In the end , Bigger finally understands himself and accepts all the mistakes he's made. After a long trail, Bigger is finally killed by the death penalty. I would recommend this book to Higher Order thinkers because this book gives readers a lot to think about and wrap their minds around how society can mold people."
"Native Son is a novel that opens up the perspective of others who do not know what it feels like to be treated unequally. Bigger's environment shaped him to be the person he turned out to be because his society wasn't untied. Bigger acted tough to hide his fears from the world but when his feeling of freedom was captured, his future shattered. Bigger began to doubt his own thoughts because he was said to be scoundrel; Bigger's environment made him confront the conflicts of man vs. man, man vs. society, and man vs. himself. The best part about Richard Wright's writing style is that he makes the reader feel as if they were experiencing the occurring scene. Wright's descriptions and dialogues makes one visualize what is happening in the book. This is a skill that makes the reader think about being in the situation; once an author has made the reader question them self about the cause and effect, the author has succeeded in assuring that the reader has gained insight into the experiences of the characters. Toward the end of the book, Max, Bigger's lawyer explains to Bigger that he's not the only one that feels as if the things he did were justified in order to get where he wanted. Whites had to make themselves feel superior to blacks in order to feel that they controlled the world but what they don't realize is that regardless of skin color, they felt the same way and wanted the same things. Overall, Native Son by far has been one of the best books due to it's ideas, voice, and word choice."
New York Times Book Review, 03/03/1940 "Mr. Wright does spoil his story at the end by insisting on Bigger's fate as representative of the whole Negro race and making Bigger himself say so. But this is a minor fault in a good cause. The story is a strong and powerful one and it alone will force the Negro issue into our attention. Certainly 'Native Son' declares Richard Wright's importance, not merely as the best Negro writer, but as an American author as distinctive as any of those now writing." -- P.M. Jack
Nation, 10/21/1991 "Mr. Wright has chosen for his 'hero,' not a sophisticated Negro who at least understands his predicament and can adapt himself to it, but a 'bad nigger,' a 'black ape,' who is only dimly aware of his extra-human status and therefore completely at the mercy of the impulses it generates....One gets a picture of a dark world enclosed by a living white wall....Bigger and his friends are resentful; all feel powerless and afraid of the white world, which exploits, condescends to, and in turn fears the race it has segregated....Mr. Wright has laid bare, with a ruthlessness that spares neither race, the lower depths of the human and social relationship of blacks and whites; and his ruthlessness...clearly springs not from a vindictive desire to shock but from a passionate--and compassionate--concern with a problem obviously lying at the core of his own personal reality....It is not pleasant to feel at the end that one is an accessory to the crimes of Bigger Thomas; but that feeling is impressive evidence of the power of Mr. Wright's indictment with its cutting and accurate title of 'Native Son.'" -- Margaret Marshall
Contemporary Authors "The most powerful and celebrated statement we have yet had of what it means to be a Negro in America." -- James Baldwin
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