On Racism And Its Vicious Double-edged Effect In Native Son

Richard Wright is one of the most acclaimed Afro-American authors, and is praised as"father of Modern Afro-American Novel"in the Western critical world. He has made an indelible contribution to the maturity of American black literature, and to the development of American literature as a whole. Such an accomplishment that Richard Wright has achieved should be attributed to his great novel Native Son which was published in 1940. This novel, concerning the American racial relation in 1930s, has aroused great controversy and real contemplation by shocking the sensibilities of both whites and blacks. Beneath the bloody story portrayed in Native Son, there indeed exists a more profound message Richard Wright is endeavoring to convey—indictment of American racism. The present thesis expounds and analyzes clearly the various embodiments of"modern"racism that have been depicted in Native Son, and explores deeply the deleterious effect racism has on the psychology of both the white oppressors and the oppressed blacks, all intending to reveal and emphasize the major point of this thesis: the vicious double-edged effect of racism.