A Critical Review of Native Son

17 Pages 4279 Words

e on in America.
Richard Wright was supported by the Federal Writers Project, part of FDR’s “Second New Deal” which produced a series of state guilds for writers. Although Wright had moved to New York City at the time the novel was written, the story line of Native Son takes place in his former home of Chicago, Illinois.
Although the Harlem Renaissance had taken place nearly two decades before, it is a nessicary factor in Richard Wright’s writing. The Harlem Renaissance helped encourage Wright to begin writing despite the way society attempted to hold him and other African Americans back. As more African American produced literature, it became accepted in all levels of society, thus enabling Wright to get the fame from his novels that he holds.
Writing about family live in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright captured the time period’s cynicism and despair as the depression waged on. During this time of economic depression, the Communist party attempted to gain power to show that if all levels of society were balanced, then we could reach out of the depression. Wright was intrigued by the Communist party and eventually became a member, which is displayed in his writings. Also displayed were the segregation and racism of the time. Wright writes with a style that easily places you in the time period, so that an adolescent girl from the 21st century could picture herself in a world torn by prejudice, unemployment, and the mindsets of the people who lived it every day.
3. The story of Native Son takes place in Chicago in the 1930’s. The main character, Bigger Thomas, lives in what is known as the ‘Black Belt’, or the South-side of Chicago, where all African Americans are basically “belted off” and not allowed to live or rent anywhere else in the city. This is the time of the countrywide (as well as worldwide) economic depression, so it’s hard for most African Americans to find good work, simply just to pay rent. This ...