Native Son
The Mirror of American Racial Discrimination and Class Conflicts
Seen from Richard Wright’s Native Son
【Abstract】Richard Wright’s Native Son is a brand-new page of the Black literature which is one of American “protest novels”. In this novel, the author uses the writing techniques of realism to reflect the fierce racial and class conflicts between the whites and the blacks. So this novel is very important for us to study American history in the 1930s.
【Key words】Native Son；Racial Discrimination；Class Conflict
I. Introduction In the history of Afro-American literature, quite a lot of black writers put up with the same question: how can Afro-American writers react to racial discrimination? To sum up, there are two totally different opinions coexisting— one is mild and the other is radical. As to those two opinions, black writer Richard Wright serves as a watershed. Prior to Richard Wright, the heroes in black writers’ works are very obedient and obsequious. In 1940, Richard Wright published Native Son which created a completely new image of black people being filled with violence and hatred. Native Son is just like a bombshell making a stir in American literature and American society. The new generation of black people would rather die for dignity than live in disgrace. The background of this novel containing three parts—Fear, Flight, Fate, was based on Chicago in the 1930s. The novel gives an account of a black youth named Bigger and his life experience. Shortly after Bigger is hired by the white man Mr. Dalton, he kills his daughter Mary in accident. In order to escape the punishment, Bigger, with great fear, tries to calumniate the Communist Jan. After the truth is exposed, he has to escape and is captured by eight thousand white policemen later. In the end, he is sentenced to death. The reason why Native Son can occupy the important position in American literature is that the author uses the writing techniques of realism to reflect the furious
Seen from Richard Wright’s Native Son
【Abstract】Richard Wright’s Native Son is a brand-new page of the Black literature which is one of American “protest novels”. In this novel, the author uses the writing techniques of realism to reflect the fierce racial and class conflicts between the whites and the blacks. So this novel is very important for us to study American history in the 1930s.
【Key words】Native Son；Racial Discrimination；Class Conflict
I. Introduction In the history of Afro-American literature, quite a lot of black writers put up with the same question: how can Afro-American writers react to racial discrimination? To sum up, there are two totally different opinions coexisting— one is mild and the other is radical. As to those two opinions, black writer Richard Wright serves as a watershed. Prior to Richard Wright, the heroes in black writers’ works are very obedient and obsequious. In 1940, Richard Wright published Native Son which created a completely new image of black people being filled with violence and hatred. Native Son is just like a bombshell making a stir in American literature and American society. The new generation of black people would rather die for dignity than live in disgrace. The background of this novel containing three parts—Fear, Flight, Fate, was based on Chicago in the 1930s. The novel gives an account of a black youth named Bigger and his life experience. Shortly after Bigger is hired by the white man Mr. Dalton, he kills his daughter Mary in accident. In order to escape the punishment, Bigger, with great fear, tries to calumniate the Communist Jan. After the truth is exposed, he has to escape and is captured by eight thousand white policemen later. In the end, he is sentenced to death. The reason why Native Son can occupy the important position in American literature is that the author uses the writing techniques of realism to reflect the furious
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