by Shari Barrett • Apr 24, 2019
NATIVE SON, a novel written in 1940 by Richard Wright, tells the story of 20-year of Bigger Thomas, an African American youth living in utter poverty in a poor area on Chicago's South Side in 1939. While not apologizing for Bigger's crimes, Wright portrays a systemic inevitability behind them, making the case that there is no escape from his destiny since he is the inevitable product of the society in which he has lived since birth, faced by expectations imposed upon him by others tasked to teach him the proper way for a Black man to live in society. It is often said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. This is certainly the case in Wright's original story which could have been written today, given the similar news stories filling the airwaves right now involving police beatings of Black men and gun violence leading to senseless murders.