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Article: Native Son.(Review)
- Article from:
- The American Enterprise
- Article date:
- January 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 The American Enterprise, a national magazine of politics, business and culture (TEAmag.com). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Native Son By Richard Wright, 1940
On last summer's Modern Library list of the 100 greatest English-language novels of the twentieth century, the first two by black authors were Invisible Man (1947) by Ralph Ellison and Native Son (1940) by Richard Wright.
The plots of the two books are similar, at least in broad outline. In each, a young black male flees the South for a big city up north, where he becomes involved with Communists and, ultimately, winds up outside of society. Both take place principally in urban settings and are written exclusively from the perspective of the protagonist (the nameless narrator in Invisible Man, Bigger Thomas in Native ...