Richard Wright's 'Native Son'
Richard Wright
Born a black boy in Mississippi in the 1908, Richard Wright could not have expected to gain much education or achieve any greatness in his life. His mother was a school teacher and his father an illiterate sharecropper. Yet, at the age of 16 he was published in a newspaper, at 32 wrote his bestseller Native Son, at 33 married a white woman, and, shortly before his death, moved to Paris, France. As a child, Wright was forced to move around constantly because his mother was forced to take domestic jobs away from home after her husband had left her. Despite moving, Wright graduated from ninth grade as valedictorian and aspirations to become a writer. He was overjoyed when his short stories were published in a Souther African-American
newspaper. However, his grandmother saw fiction as the work of the devil, so Wright kept further aspiration in writing to himself. After dropping out of highschool, Wright struggled to find his path. In order to read books, he forged notes from a white coworker so that he could check out books on his library card, blacks could not use Memphis’ public libraries. He also worked various odd jobs until he had enough money to leave Jim Crow Memphis. At the age of seventeen, he escaped his despicable south. Once in Chicago, Wright fell into poverty due to the depression. This lead him to join the communist party. In 1937, the aspiring author moved to New York, hoping for better success publishing his books. He succeeded. In 1938, Uncle Tom’s Children was published in four parts. In 1940, Wright became the first African American author to have a bestselling book: Native Son. In this novel he showed whites the product of their actions in the form of Thomas Bigger. Despite his literary success, Wright was experiencing personal turmoil. In 1939 he had married a Russian-Jewish ballet dancer. In 1940, they divorced. A year later he married a white communist member. He ended up having two daughters with her. One a year after their marriage, the second in Paris in 1949. Disillusion with the communist party and the continuing racism in America, Wright permanently moved to Paris after a visit there.
Born a black boy in Mississippi in the 1908, Richard Wright could not have expected to gain much education or achieve any greatness in his life. His mother was a school teacher and his father an illiterate sharecropper. Yet, at the age of 16 he was published in a newspaper, at 32 wrote his bestseller Native Son, at 33 married a white woman, and, shortly before his death, moved to Paris, France. As a child, Wright was forced to move around constantly because his mother was forced to take domestic jobs away from home after her husband had left her. Despite moving, Wright graduated from ninth grade as valedictorian and aspirations to become a writer. He was overjoyed when his short stories were published in a Souther African-American
newspaper. However, his grandmother saw fiction as the work of the devil, so Wright kept further aspiration in writing to himself. After dropping out of highschool, Wright struggled to find his path. In order to read books, he forged notes from a white coworker so that he could check out books on his library card, blacks could not use Memphis’ public libraries. He also worked various odd jobs until he had enough money to leave Jim Crow Memphis. At the age of seventeen, he escaped his despicable south. Once in Chicago, Wright fell into poverty due to the depression. This lead him to join the communist party. In 1937, the aspiring author moved to New York, hoping for better success publishing his books. He succeeded. In 1938, Uncle Tom’s Children was published in four parts. In 1940, Wright became the first African American author to have a bestselling book: Native Son. In this novel he showed whites the product of their actions in the form of Thomas Bigger. Despite his literary success, Wright was experiencing personal turmoil. In 1939 he had married a Russian-Jewish ballet dancer. In 1940, they divorced. A year later he married a white communist member. He ended up having two daughters with her. One a year after their marriage, the second in Paris in 1949. Disillusion with the communist party and the continuing racism in America, Wright permanently moved to Paris after a visit there.