Essay/Term paper: Wright's "native son": capitalist or communism?

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Literary Essays

Wright's "Native Son": Capitalist or Communism?


Was Richard Wright's Native Son a story about his views towards
Capitalism and Communism ? Did Richard Wright want to show the good and bad
points towards Capitalism and Communism ? Or was this novel just about how a
young man went through life and how society made him. Richard Wright's Native
Son shows that he used the Dalton's, Thomas's, and Jan Erlone to represent
Capitalism and Communism .
After reading Richard Wright's Native Son, many believe the author
purposely placed the Thomas family in a small, run-down home . The book shows
this right from the start . Bigger and his family had to sleep in the same room,
and big rats were running around the house . This shows the Thomas family
represented the lower class, a trademark of Capitalism . I could not even
imagine living there, especially with that huge rat .The house must have been
very dirty and disgusting by today's standards . The author wanted to show how
some families live under these severe conditions. He made us see vividly how
they lived with this quote . "A huge black rat squealed and leaped at Bigger's
trouser-leg and snagged it in his teeth, hanging on." This showed how broke they
were by showing that there were giant rats living with them and how it had no
fear of them .
Richard Wright did not just not just want to show the con sides to
Capitalism, he also wanted to prove the Capitalism has its good sides to it also
. For instance, Richard Wright purposely placed the Daltons in a spectacular
house and made them very rich and famous . Another trademark of Capitalism, the
upper class. The author showed how some of the Capitalist folks lived . The
upper class is very wealthy and basically gets what they want . Mr. and Mrs.
Dalton had it made. They had chauffeurs, a huge house, and cars . They had too
much money . They were giving away things to the needy, though they were giving
away useless things to the needy like Ping-Pong tables. Richard Wright wanted
to show that the upper class were afraid of the blacks . Not afraid of their
individual physical strength, but afraid if they gained too much power. The
upper class had the power and they did not want anything or anyone to take some
of it away . The author also wanted to prove another point here also . How the
rich take advantage of the poor . Mr. Dalton was in the real estate business .
He sold overpriced apartments in a bad area to the poor . Wright was trying to
show that the rich were getting richer, by rent the blacks paid, and the poor
were getting poorer, by paying the rent .
On the Communist side, Richard Wright used Jan Erlone to show some
aspects about Communism . A good example of this is when Jan first meets him and
tries to make him feel like he was equal to him . The trademark of Communism,
equality . Like in this quote "Jan smiled broadly, then extended his an open
palm toward him." He wanted to show that Communist try to make everyone equal .
Jan did not want there to be a black-white relationship. He wanted Bigger to
feel like he was Jan's equal .
Mr. Wright was not trying to condone nor condemn Capitalist or Communist
. He was just showing what he saw through his eyes of the two types of
government .