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Feb 28, 2011

Ben rated it:

My older brother Larry, who is extremely well-read, recently came to town for a visit. He had with him a copy of Native Son. I asked what prompted him to re-read it. He explained that he had actually never read it before, which he confessed was really odd, given that the book is an undisputed classic.

Well, here is Larry's two-word review of the book:
Holy shit.

I concur.

Those who have studied the Harlem Renaissance know that Richard Wright was a passionate, angr More...

4 comments like (27 people liked it)

Aug 11, 2010

Esteban rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

23 comments like (27 people liked it)

Oct 20, 2009

Ryan rated it:

Richard Wright's Native Son is without a shadow of a doubt one of the most powerful books that I have read, ever. This nightmarish story packs such an overwhelming amount of emotion and controversy that it is hard to pull away from much like the sight of a gruesome car crash on an interstate, you don't want to look but you must look. If you're looking for a competent, confident example of verisimilitude in literature then you need not look further.

Upon reading this piece, I wondered More...

5 comments like (11 people liked it)

Mar 25, 2008

David rated it:

1993 by Harper Perennial
Title: Native Son
Author: Richard Wright 624 Page paperback
ISBN-14, 979-3-17-148411-6,
Native Son is a third person narrative that intimately revolves around an African American named Bigger Thomas in the 1930's. He lives in poverty with his family and is a delinquent. To aggravate his poor life even more, Bigger also lives in a racist society where white people despise black people.
One day, Bigger is admitted for a job, which is to be the cha More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

May 14, 2008

Andrew rated it:

Native Son

The story Native Son written by Richard Wright has been banned, its success has been vandalized, and many people who enjoy the experience of taking life and converting it to ink have yet to flip through its pages because of the on going rumors that suffocate libraries and bookstores. Yet it still remains one of the greatest works of literature in its era. I enjoyed reading this book from cover to cover, but I must admit that when I first picked it up I had no interest in More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 22, 2008

Kelly rated it:

I had been wanting to read this book for some time and just got around to it recently while on maternity leave with my third baby. Throughtout my reading of this book I found myself really appreciating the complexity surrounding Bigger's judgement and consequent actions. It really made me think about the ways in which the world has changed since Native Son was written and the ways in which it has not. These themes apply to so many of our behaviours and it reinforces why we route for the underd More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 02, 2010

Toyin rated it:

Native Son is a good novel with a compelling story about the racial division in America society. When I began reading the novel I contemplated that it was an hideous portrayal of African Americans; structuring them as murderers. However, upon reading the last book ,Fate, I began to understand Wright's gist on the racial biases. He uses Bigger to represent the predicament of all blacks during his time by exploring racism and its results on the oppressed. Bigger, the oppressed, does not see white More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Oct 07, 2011

Nailah rated it:

Native Son compelled me as a reader to want to read more about action, drama and racial problems of the early 1900s. The plot created sequential drama packed and “on the edge of your seat reading”, keeping me wanting to read more. Native Son is a story about an ignorant African American man who succumbed to the stereotypical black male in the 1900’s, resulting in the murder of a Caucasian woman, whom was the daughter of a wealthy man. Though the topic is of semi-irrelativeness to today’s soci More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 28, 2008

Joel rated it:

Fascinating. I finished this book minutes before Barack Obama gave his nomination acceptance speech. What a different world today than it was when Wright wrote it. That's not to say the creation of Bigger Thomas isn't still happening around the country today, but advancements have happened and are worth celebrating.

I'm not in love with Wright's writing style. I read Black Boy in college and felt like it suffered from the same problems: overly preachy and wordy, with long drawn out sp More...

9 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 30, 2008

Kerin2010 rated it:

What makes a book great? A book that catches your attention from the very begging and never lets it loose. A book that is so well written that makes you feel as if you were siting there watching a movie as you read. And of course a book that has a story line that keeps you guessing. I can honestly say that Native Son by Richard Wright is one of these books. It was one of the best books that i have read. From the first page through the last it had my attention and i didn't want to put it More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 15, 2008

Stephan rated it:

I hated this book! It was not interesting and I could barely stay focused to the book while I was reading. That's what I thought of the book when I first started reading it. The book was funny at times and gruesome at others but over all the book was swell.
I didn't like the book because I wasn't interested in a boy killing a mouse or a boy scaring his little sister with a mouse. It just didn't appeal to me. I felt as though I wasn't the attended audience the book was written for.
I More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jan 12, 2009

Demisty rated it:

I was always afraid to read this book because of the inevitable murder. I would get to the point of the pillow in Bigger's hands, then stop. But I'm so glad I read it. It was really relentless throughout. Really, my heart was racing. It was as brutal as I imagined, but it was a good brutality. Ahem.

I read Black Boy over and over and over again. I love Wright's writing. My only complaint about the book was the over-explanation offered the readers with Bigger's lawyer Max. It More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 12, 2009

Kristen rated it:

I first read this book in high school.
I just re-read it for the first meeting of an occasional book club.

This time it was a little more poignant for a couple reasons. First, I now live in Chicago, so I can relate to some of the physical surrounds that Wright describes. Secondly, after going through college's social systems courses I understand the traps that society sets better.

Though I can't directly apply the plot of this book to my life, it is an interesting More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 18, 2010

Avery rated it:

Richard Wright, an amazing African-American writer, has created a book that has really caught my eye. Bigger Thomas, the protaganist out of Native Son, is caught in between fear and angry when he realizes that many African-Americans are unable to get opportunities; and, in which, he commits horrible crimes that cause lead to his death. I believe that Richard Wright, during his time period, was forced to write such a book because this information was meant inform people on how they were being tre More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 26, 2011

D'andre added it

I see this book as an inspiration for people leading down the wrong way in their lives. In expresses despair and tribulations that help connect the reader to the faults in their lives and in various ways shows how to think things over. For example, after murdering Mary, Bigger experienced the thrill of being caught for this. In reality, complying with regular people's lives, this thrill is an extreme rush and a terrifying feeling because of the thought of getting away or being imprisoned. Bigger More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 29, 2009

Samantha rated it:

If you're a fan of any of James Baldwin's works you'll definitely enjoy reading this novel by Richard Wright. From the start of the novel, the sound of the alarm clock symbolizes the urgent call in 1940 to America to wake up from its self-induced slumber concerning the reality of race relations in the nation. Native Son serves as a critical wake up call not only to Bigger and his family, but to America as a whole.

Situations with the novel's protagonist Bigger, simply move from bad t More...

0 comments like

Mar 17, 2009

Whitney rated it:

This is a deep book. I agree with the New Yorker quote, "A deep experience." This is a book that questions a lot of deep and hard issues about race and society. I thought it was especially important to realize that in the situation that Bigger Thomas was in, as a young black man in South Side Chicago in the 1930's, he had little choice in his situation. Yes, he had choice, and the choices he made (often very gruesome-don't read this late at night kind of gruesome) reflect the fact that More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 16, 2011

Jordan rated it:

Old school novels are sometimes some of the greatest pieces of writing a person may ever read in there lives. I love to read books that show some sort of growth in the character or are a critique on the society they live in In this case I will be talking about Richard Wrights brilliant master piece is titled Native Son. Richard Wright use the main character Bigger Thomas as a way to express his anger with the society he lived in at the time. Richard Wright is able to convey his anger with so More...

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Nov 02, 2011

Paige rated it:

Native Son by Richard Wright was a very interesting book. It had unexpected and baffling twist and turns. When Bigger killed Mary in the beginning of the book I was shocked but I was even more shocked to see how he disposed of her body. That was the part that was interesting to me the most because I felt as though there were unnecessary and violent things that Bigger did. In the beginning of the book I was on Bigger's side because I felt that it was an accident because he was scared but after he More...

0 comments like

Nov 02, 2011

Catrina rated it:

The book Native Son was a great book that I read so far this year. Native Son gave me a lot of information about how black people were treated in the early 1900's. One of my favorite characters was Bigger Thomas because of the decisions that he made because of society. In the 1900's black and white people were not able to interact with each other because of racsium. Bigger Thomas became a murder because society lead him up to his behavior. Bigger had a job as a shofer and was around white people More...

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Nov 02, 2011

Nora rated it:

I believe this novel was enjoyable and I did not want to put it down. This book showed two sides of Bigger, the tough one and the scared one. It also explained how society has a great affect on the decisions he made. Bigger just wanted a chance but, because of the color of his skin he was limited on what he could and could not do. I do not believe that Bigger should have been put to death because he did not have a fair trial. Bigger was automatically accused of raping Mary Dalton, although he ac More...

0 comments like

Nov 01, 2011

Olivia rated it:

Native Son was an amazing book because it allowed the readers to think deep about the true meanings. I loved that Richard Wright used Bigger as a figure to represent the feelings, thoughts, and actions of a lot of Black males who are like bigger. The book was intersting because it showed how society could have an affect on a perons actions. It rasied the quesion of can society even be blamed for perosn's actions or are a person's actons based soely on themselves? There are many diffrent argume More...

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Nov 01, 2011

Sumaiyyah rated it:

Native Son is by far the best novel I have ever read in my entire life. It gives such profound insight into the human mind, particularly of those of oppressed and impoverished background. I have become an adamant fan of Bigger; not because I approve of his actions, but because I understand them. Native Son is, in my opinion, the best novel to look into when interested in the psychology of man. I really sympathize with Bigger,as well as his family, because his actions were indirectly done by soci More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 25, 2011

Jesus rated it:

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0 comments like

Oct 20, 2011

Mattie rated it:

This book should be read alongside Ellison's superb "Invisible Man". "Native Son" employs much the same idea - namely, that it is difficult to NOT become what others want to force you to become.
Bigger, the focus of this novel, is a good man. He's not the best, or the smartest, or the oldest, or the wisest, but he has a good heart. He wants to become a better person - he wants to BE 'bigger' in a real sense of personal growth. Not that he would think of it in these term More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 06, 2011

James rated it:

In bare-bones outline, the plot seems simple enough: A young hoodlum takes a job, commits manslaughter on the job, commits a premeditated murder in a futile attempt to cover up his first crime, gets caught, and waits for the consequences. In fact, the story of the hoodlum's crimes and capture is jammed with enough suspense to put most detective novels to shame.

But the wayward protagonist, Bigger Thomas, happens to be poor and black in the middle of 20th century America, years befo More...

0 comments like

Sep 28, 2011

Doug rated it:

I was ready to put this book down, I thought that Bigger was just a fool meeting a fool's end, but Parts 1 and 2 were pretty thrilling, so I had to keep reading to see what would happen. It's the latter parts where he tries to explain the life he lived and what he was up against that made this book so fantastic. I didn't think that there was anything that he could say to make me sympathetic to him at all, and there was nothing that could justify what he did, but at the end of the day I felt li More...

0 comments like

May 15, 2011

Brooke rated it:

This is not an easy read, but definitely an interesting and illuminating one. Rough in places, it is an unflinching look at life from the view of a young African American in the 1930's who is not just accused of murder, but is guilty of not one but two murders (one accidental, one intentional). As his lawyer presents a passionate plea for the judge to spare Bigger's life he argues that "His entire existence was one long craving for satisfaction, with the objects of satisfaction denied; and More...

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Apr 26, 2011

Eric rated it:

I read this book 11 years ago in my junior year of HS for AP English. Although it was the school with the highest property taxes supporting it in the whole county, they didn't have enough money to buy books for everyone. This turned out to be a blessing because I went to buy this book at the local bookstore. And discovered that, tragically, the version the class had was heavily edited. As we read in class, I raised my hands and told my teacher that I couldn't follow along anymore because my More...

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Apr 06, 2011

Sarah rated it:

A novel about how a young man responds to oppression, fear, and hatred based upon race. Bigger Thomas, a hard, tough, black man is constantly demoralized by not only society but also his family, is constantly scared of his feelings and rage, and lives through an unhappy lens. When he accidentally kills a white woman, his already horrible life spins completely out of control. His actions are unfathomable, but at the same time completely understandable. He feels alive and as if he is important More...

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