Native Son

“Violence is a personal necessity for the oppressed...It is not a strategy consciously devised. It is the deep, instinctive expression of a human being denied individuality.”

2.75 STARS I always take classics with a grain of salt: often I either fully support the decades of hype or I completely disagree with it. For this novel I found myself straying from the path of common perception. I think perhaps because Bigger is such an antithesis of human morality or maybe just because it's uncommon in common literature to come across a through and through antihero story without redemption I had such a difficult time working through this book. I found myself either disgusted physically or morally with Bigger's actions, though there are many wonderful points to this book, don't get me wrong. I love Wright's process of describing Bigger's world, introducing the reader into a dark, dank, and unforgiving world that many people then and now brush under the rug and turn a blind eye to. His words have a way of gripping you and refusing to let go until you understand the true tragedy of what has happened to Bigger and so many people like him. This book is not about redemption, not about some glorious fulfillment of a quest, but about revelation. Bigger's morals are tied up and knotted under the shadow of a society that never cared to look past the color of his skin, and it's this complicated web that enthralls readers and will for decades to come. After the events of the book and Bigger's crimes, the end is bleak, but there is an inner peace and enlightenment that Bigger was truly craving for the length of the text. Will he ever truly regret his crimes? We will never know, but what is most important is that through this ironic destruction of another to create a new life for himself, he found a religion inherent to his situation. Wright's comments on the social structure of the world in the 1930s, and well into the present as well, is one that will fascinate me for some time, and I'm sure I will remember in many research papers in the future, with such a carefully written destruction of prejudice so that not only the characters but the readers as well break through the wall of discrimination inherent to even the most acceptant of people. The writing and storyline, however, is what drew away my higher rating for this book. The first book of this novel was fast paced, engaging, and interesting to the reader, though at times highly disturbing, but I feel this devolved heavily in the later sections. I found myself slipping easily from the text, or even finding myself bored in the final book until the court scene came into play, but I think this may have also just been the situation I was reading in under stress for exams. The writing itself was adequate, but no particular lines stuck with me like so many classic novelists have a tendency to do, even YA books of late, and I found myself wanting more than repeated metaphors in the contrast of white and black objects and people and overused phrases. However, it was by no means poor writing, quite the opposite, it just didn't work the best for my style. All in all it was a decent read, with several moral questions and social problems raised and encouraging the reader to think and act on, but I couldn't connect with any characters so this left me feeling detached and floating through the pages. Other than that, a highly intriguing (if stomach-turning) classic to try. Share your thoughts!