Native Son

Fictional Analysis

1. Author and Title: Native Son by Richard Wright

2. Biographical Information About the Author: Richard Wright was born in Mississippi to a family of slaves. He was born on September 4, 1908. His family moved to Memphis in 1913 and the father left them. After his father left, his mother started to have a series of strokes and could no longer take care of him and his siblings. His family moved to live with other family and then had to flee because his uncle was murdered by a white mob. Richard Wright transferred from Aunt Addie’s Seventh Day Adventist School to Jim Hill School where he skipped 5th grade. Richard Wright moved to Chicago to escape the Jim Crow laws. He moved to the south side Ghetto. He became a part of the John Reed club. He also took part in the Communist party. He was involved in a riot about 9 black boys accused of raping a few girls. 4 of the 5 guys were left off.

3. Historical Context of the time Period: The book takes place in Chicago during the Great Depression in the 1930’s. Many families crowded the south side ghetto in Chicago during the Great Migration because they wanted to escape the Jim Crow Laws of the South. When families moved to Chicago they expected to escape the discrimination but realized soon that there was still discrimination and economic hardship.

4. Characteristics: During the time period there was the Red Scare when America as a whole was afraid of communism because of Hitler and Stalin and China and Japan. In the book, there is a group of “communists” who want to help the African Americans in America. Jan is a Communist, Mary is/was an aspiring Communist and Max who is Bigger’s lawyer.