thomas, bigger (fictitious character)

Provides in-depth analysis of the literary work Native Son, as well as its importance and critical reception. Includes a chronology of the life and works of the author.

Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic. Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Richard Wright's novel is just as powerful today as when it was written -- in its reflection of poverty and hopelessness, and what it means to be black in America.

Presents twentieth and early twenty-first-century critical essays on Richard Wright's "Native Son" and includes a chronology, a bibliography, and an introduction by critic Harold Bloom.

Trapped in the poverty-stricken ghetto of Chicago's South Side, a young African-American man finds release only in acts of violence.

Trapped in the poverty-stricken ghetto of Chicago's South Side, a young African-American man finds release only in acts of violence.

Trapped in the poverty-stricken ghetto of Chicago's South Side, a young black man finds release only in acts of violence.

Trapped in the poverty-stricken ghetto of Chicago's South Side, a young black man finds release only in acts of violence.

Presents the abridged 1940 version of Richard Wright's novel in which a young African-American man trapped in the poverty-stricken ghetto of Chicago's South Side accidentally kills a rich white girl and finds himself on a path to self-destruction.

Presents a selection of critical analyses of Richard Wright's "Native Son," and includes a brief biography of the author, thematic and structural analysis of the work, an extensive bibliography, and an index of themes and ideas.