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, Wright's powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America.

"This new edition gives us a Native Son in which the key line in the key scene is restored to the great good fortune of American letters. The scene as we now have it is central both to an ongoing conversation among African-American writers and critics and to the consciousness among all American readers of what it means to live in a multi-racial society in which power splits along racial lines."-Los Angeles Times

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published: 08/02/2005
ISBN: 9780060837563
Pages: 504
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.30w x 1.00d

Review Citations: Ingram Advance 08/01/2005 pg. 67
Black Issues Book Review 09/01/2005 pg. 61

Accelerated Reader Quiz #/Name: 5992 / Native Son (the Original 1940 Text)
Reading Level: 6.1 / Interest Level: Upper Grade / Point Value: 24