Ralph Ellison declares in Shadow and Act that in Richard Wright's fiction, the Negro has a choice of one of three roles to assume...

The latest edition is a reprint of the original 1940's novel which tells the story of 20-year old Bigger Thomas, an African-American living in utter poverty.

Not often is a black man the protagonist in American literature, but in Native Son, there is fiery, dramatic conflict in the story of Bigger Thomas, the man who wages a war between himself and the outside white world. Wright has given us a dramatic and impassioned look at life in the oppressed Black America.

Gripping and furious, "Native Son" follows Bigger Thomas, a young black man who is trapped in a life of poverty in the slums of Chicago. Unwittingly involved in a wealthy woman's death, he is hunted relentlessly, baited by prejudiced officials, charged with murder and driven to acknowledge a strange pride in his crime. "Native Son" shocked readers on its first publication in 1940 and went on to make Richard Wright the first bestselling black writer in America.

“Ralph Ellison declares in Shadow and Act that in Richard Wright's fiction, the Negro has a choice of one of three roles to assume: he can assume the role of passivity designed for him by the southern whites and resolve his personal conflicts through the emotional catharsis of religion; or he can strive for and establish his own middle-class society and thereby consciously or unconsciously become the white man's accomplice in oppression; or he can reject the entire southern white ideology and assume the role of a criminal, which will inevitably erupt into physical violence.” (Excerpt from page one)

ISBN: 978-0099282938
Paperback: 480 pages
Publisher: Vintage; New Ed edition (6 Mar 2008)