A BHM BOOK REVIEW.

Reading is to me not just a school requirement, but rather, an exploration. A novel being the “time machine” and reading being the key to this machine that allows you to travel. To travel with the characters and themes of the book, I feel as though you must not only read the words, but feel a connection with them. Therefore, most books that I enjoy reading are ones that deal with social injustice, racism, and sexism. One of the most important things in my life is preserving my culture in all of its forms; and to be able to connect with other people who feel the same struggle through literature is to me, a beautiful thing. I am able to connect to how situations affect black males versus black females, men versus boys, and women versus girls. To see this connection helps me to be able to understand and come to terms with the racism that faces the black community in today’s day.

I decided to read Native Son, written by Richard Wright. Native Son is a book that carries you along the journey of Bigger Thompson, a young black man who kills a white woman, Mary Dalton. Bigger lives the stereotypical life of the inner-city black male who is raised by his single mother. He, his mother and his two siblings live in a rundown apartment owned by a affluent white man, who later gives him a job. Since he was young Bigger struggled to come to terms with the way that the “white man” treated african-americans in society. This struggle to come to terms left Bigger with deep-rooted anger that haunts him throughout the course of the book. After the accidental murder of his boss’s daughter he cannot accept this as an accident and Bigger begins to convince himself that this is what his life has lead up to. That this was his way of defying the white man in the most severe way possible.
It was a trial that helped make Bigger see white people as people and not as a force constantly competing against him. It pushes Bigger out of his comfort zone and shows him that he cannot just group together all white people as being the “bad guy” in society. Just like there are bad white men there are bad black men as well. Bigger is eventually sentenced to death, a fate disappointing, but not foreign to him. In his sentencing his lawyer, Max, was able to question racism and to try and show that killing Bigger will only further enrage the rest of the african american population. That killing Bigger has not shown blacks what not to do but it will only further enrage the black community to pin more deaths on the white man. This concept is one that is visible in our country today. Denouncing both races does not create equal peace, but only more disarray. This is something that Bigger’s lawyer tried to preach in his closing words. Racism is something that may haunt America forever however, the more and more light that is shed on it through literature the more we are able to face it. That is why I loved Native Son because it approaches racism in a way that is not the traditional “the white man is wrong” type of way while still bringing up the topic of racism.