Native Son

Native Son is a powerful story that will move you and make you question what truly makes a person evil. Native Son is split into 3 books, the first 2 focuses on Bigger Thomas who struggles with his internal fear of white people and the his murder of Mary Dalton. The 3rd book focuses on racism on a whole and shakes the foundations of our society. At the beginning of the book Bigger believes that white people keep him from succeeding at life until he is hired by Mr.Dalton to be a chuffer. Mr.Dalton shows Bigger extreme kindness which makes Bigger question if his impression of white people is correct. He the murders Mary Dalton out of fear of being accused of rape. He then feels that Mary's murder was justified because he felt that he finally snapped from being oppressed by white people, and he then murders Bessie. After reading Bigger murdering Mary and Bessie the reader begins to dislike Bigger and hopes he gets caught. It isn't until Max, Bigger's lawyer gives a very long speeches that tackles racism, In his speech, Max states that the reason Bigger murdered was because he was edged on from living in a corrupt society where white people segregate black people. If Bigger hadn't live in such horrible conditions he wouldn't have murdered. Max's speech is very moving and it completely changes the reader's opinion on Bigger. It puts the reader on the edge of their seat, anxiously waiting to see if Bigger if Bigger will get death penalty. Bigger does get the death penalty and this makes the reader very upset. In my opinion this is one of the best ways to write a story, to create a character and a story that makes the reader feel upset when something horrible happens in the book. The fact that this story is very realistic, it makes the reader reflect on the society they live in right now, and I think that was Richard Wright's intention.