Native Son by Richard Wright: Richard Wright Biography and Literary Criticisms of Native Son

Bibliography and literary biography.

Biography including Native Son background from Authors and Artists for Young Adults.

In the following essay, Ramadanovic maintains that Native Son is a tragedy in the classical sense of the term, demonstrating the central role of fate in Wright's novel and the manner in which Bigger rises to the level of a tragic protagonist.

In the following essay, Redden counters three prevailing assumptions about Wright's Native Son: one, that "vengefulness" on the part of the author is a key element of the text; two, that Book III is strictly didactic and a platform for Wright's Communist beliefs; and three, that the book "allocates blame to and threatens punishment of white society.

In the following essay, DeCoste questions the common reading of Native Son as a realistic text and, as such, a work that is socially and politically conservative, contending instead that it is "a novel about realism.

The rape and murder of two women, one black and one white, by the character Bigger in 'Native Son.' are acts caused by social oppression. Richard Wright seeks to illustrate how social forces confused Bigger and made him turn his aggression against women.