Native Son Essays (Examples)

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Essay
Native Son -- Marxism and
Pages: 4 Words: 1411

(right, 1940, p. 334) Rather than Christian suffering and forbearance of societal ills, Marxism provides a clear contrast in its attempted explanation of suffering in the world as an economic as well as a racially-based class conflict. The chauffer and servant was placed near wealth, luxury, and a society that deemed him barbaric, and both hite and Black, wealthy and poor representatives of this unequal class and racial division were harmed as a result
hen right later renounced communism, he did so because he confessed that his infatuation with the ideology was more personal than economic. "It was not the economics of Communism, nor the great power of trade unionism, nor the excitement of underground politics that claimed me; my attention was caught by the similarity of the experiences of workers in other lands, by the possibility of uniting scattered but kindred peoples into a whole...In my concrete relations with…...

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Works Cited

Descorte, Damon Marcel. "To Blot it all Out: The Politics of Reason in Richard Wright's Native Son." Style. Spring 1998.  http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2342/is_1_32/ai_54019326/pg_8 

Railton, Stephen. "Third Wright Lecture." April, 19, 2005.  http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/enam312/lects/apr19.html 

Reilly, John M. "Giving Bigger a Voice: The Politics of Narrative in Native Son." New Essays on Native Son. Ed. Keneth Kinnamon. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1990. pp. 35-62.

Wright, Richard. Native Son. New York: HarperCollins, 1940.

Essay
Native Son the Fact That
Pages: 3 Words: 1175

"Hate and shame boiled in him against the people behind his back; he tried to think of words that would defy him...And at the same time he wanted those words to stop the tears of his mother and sister, to quiet and sooth the anger of his brother..." ith all that has happened and with his being incarcerated with little hope of surviving, he is able to think about the pain he has caused his mother and sister and brother, and this gives Bigger some depth in the mind of the reader.
The character Buckley, acting as state's attorney (prosecutor) in the courtroom, helps convey an impression for the reader of what life was like for an accused black man in the 1940s. Of course the evidence seems overwhelming against Bigger; and the lurid idea of a black man burning one woman, severing the head of another white woman is…...

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Works Cited

Wright, Richard. (1940). Native Son. New York: Perennial Classics.

Essay
Native Son Shards of a Man Bigger
Pages: 2 Words: 582

Native Son
Shards of a Man

Bigger Thomas was born from the recesses of the experience of Richard Wright, all throughout the varying stages of his life. The author encountered a number of individuals, beginning with his childhood in Mississippi, who were decidedly countercultural as well as antisocial, who thought only to do whatsoever they pleased, and who were fated to live with the consequences, whatsoever those may be. Oftentimes, these Bigger Thomas's who White would eventually base the protagonist in his novel Native Son upon, were African-American, and were reviled by and rebelled against the Jim Crow system that disenfranchised them. Later in the author's life, particularly when he spent some time in Chicago, he would contend that he met other Bigger Thomas's; these latter of which happened to be of a Caucasian nationality. Wright was able to make a composite for his protagonist out of all the Bigger Thomas's…...

Essay
Native Son by Richard Wright
Pages: 4 Words: 1360


The author does not include figurative language in this passage; instead, he uses descriptive language to get his point across. The language of this passage is lyrical and yet frightening at the same time. Wright uses this language to paint mental pictures of the Communists, but he also lays the groundwork for the two Communists that appear in the story, Max and Jan. Bigger does not understand Communism, but as his life disintegrates, he turns to two members of the Party for help, either by choice or by chance. These two men, however, do not understand him any more than he understands them. This indicates the gap between people that always exists, mo matter color or race, and it indicates that most people really do not take the time to understand each other. Figurative language would not have worked in this passage, because Wright was convening feeling and emotion, rather…...

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References

Wright, Richard. Native Son. New York: Harper, 1993.

Essay
Notes of Native Son by James Baldwin Phycological Effects of Racism
Pages: 7 Words: 2439

Native Son: The Psychological Effects of Racism
"Notes of a Native Son" is James Baldwin's true account of his experience as an African-American. ritten in 1943, it describes what society was like at that time and what place the African-American person had at that time. Most notably, the society of the time was one where African-Americans were separated from white people. Baldwin's essay describes his process of realizing his place in society and coming to terms with it. In short, it is an essay about a man realizing that he lives in a racist society and how this impacts him. As well as showing Baldwin's own experience, the essay also shows the experience of his father. It is also seen that there is a significant gap between Baldwin and his father, with this representing a division in the black community. By the combination of these three issues, "Notes of a…...

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Works Cited

Baldwin, J. "Notes of a Native Son." James Baldwin: Collected Essays. New York: Library of America, 1998.

Essay
Marxist Criticism Native Son a
Pages: 8 Words: 2152

Max is one of the central characters of the novel when it comes to the issues of Marxism because he blames capitalism entirely for the inequality of blacks; he believes that it is capitalism that has kept the black people oppressed. Max tries to show the jury that the case is not just about one black man and one black woman, but rather, it is about millions of blacks that have been kept down, all the while desperately trying to rise to the class status that white people have.
Marx and Engels speculated that literature reflects and sustains the material life of a society. To look at this idea and apply it Wright's use of the novel, we can see that the material conditions of igger's life -- what he ate, how he made money, what he did for work, determined his ideas. Furthermore, Mr. Dalton's material conditions determined his…...

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Bibliography

Cruse, Harold. & Crouch, Stanley. The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual: A Historical

Analysis of the Failure of Black Leadership (New York Review Books Classics).

NYRB Classics, 2005.

Cruse's book was published in 1967 and is blend of cultural history and the analysis of the relationship between African-Americans and society. He looks at black intellectual life beginning in the Harlem Renaissance all the way through the 1960s. He discusses the legacy of the likes of Paul Robeson, James Baldwin and Richard Wright among others.

Essay
Richard Wright's Native Son Written
Pages: 2 Words: 691

right therefore suggests that race and social class are intimately related.
In Part One of the novel, Bigger expresses his primitive understanding of class struggle when he states, "Sure, it was all a game and white people knew how to play it," (37). People with economic and political power are the main obstacles to racial equality; characters like Buckley also show how class conflict is even more important than race. Native Son is also a Marxist novel because Bigger demonstrates that class conflict is a deep problem in society. Poverty makes Bigger feel anxious, afraid, mistrustful, and powerless. The only reason why he accepts the chauffeur job is because he is poor. Bigger's unfortunate string of murders occurred as a result of Bigger's sense of powerlessness. The only characters who speak to Bigger as if he were an equal happen to all be communists: Mary, Jan, and Boris Max. Bigger…...

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Works Cited

Wright, Richard. Native Son. Cutchogue, NY: Buccaneer Books, 1940.

Essay
Richard Wright's Native Son That Character of
Pages: 4 Words: 1370

Richard right's Native Son, that character of Bigger is at times both a victim and a sacrificial figure. The horrible events of his life are shaped by the hopelessness and racism of his environment. As such, right manages to create a form of compassion for Bigger, a man whose life was largely predetermined by his environment. Eventually, Bigger realizes that a violent attack against white society was the only option available to him, in the overwhelming despair and hopelessness of the inner city. right manages to create a feeling of compassion and understanding, if not for the horrible acts of Bigger himself, but for the racism and hopelessness of his situation.
Richard right was born in 1908 in Adams County, Mississippi into a life of poverty and racial discrimination that would eventually color his writing. He was the eldest of two boys, and knew from the age of 15 that…...

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Works Cited

Haskins, Scott D., Sr. Autobiography of Richard Wright. 17 December 2002.  http://aalbc.com/authors/richard.htm 

Wright, Richard. Native Son. HarperCollins Publishers, 1986.

Essay
Bigger in Native Son Richard
Pages: 2 Words: 561

(21) In one scene, the men pretend to be making a business phone call and they speak like how they imagine white businessmen to speak. The game may seem insignificant but it is telling because Bigger and Gus are demonstrating that they are constantly aware that they are different and will never achieve some of the things that white men achieve. Bigger states, "They don't let us do nothing," (22), indicating a sense of hopelessness. This sentiment is further explained when Bigger states, "The got things and we ain't. They do things and we can't. It's just like living in jail" (23). This type of separation from the rest of society is the very thing that drives Bigger to behave the way he does. He feels a sense of loss even at being born and this frustration is released through violent behavior.
Bigger comes to be what others expect of…...

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Work Cited

Wright, Richard. Native Son. New York: Harper and Row. 1966.

Essay
Naturalism Native Son
Pages: 5 Words: 1694

Rem Edwards: "The naturalist is one who affirms that only nature exists and by implication that the supernatural does not exist... The natural world is all of reality; it is all there is; there is no 'other world' "
Literature works throughout the history have been influenced deeply by naturalism and its branches. Naturalism originally is a doctrine dealing with a definite force that exists and functions according to certain laws, is stable and keeps repeating its cycles all the time. The leading for according to this doctrine is nature. Every single thing should obey the laws of nature and there is no other way to exist except the way of following whatever is supposed to happen according the natural forces. Naturalism in terms of literature is a special perception of the reality of the world around us. Everything happening around us seems to be an experiment held by nature.…...

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Bibliography:

1) Augustine, Keith A Defense of Naturalism Article, available on web: http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/keith_augustine/thesis.html 

2) Jim Winn The Science of Determinism Article, available on web:

http://www.bluedojo.com/papers/determinism/

3) Butler, Robert Native Son: The Emergence of a New Black Hero Twayne

Essay
Native American Expressive Culture the
Pages: 15 Words: 4153

Black Elk utilizes his visions to create understanding of nearly all things he is later exposed to. The discussion in closing will further illuminate his utilization of vision, to ask for help for his people in a time of crisis.
To discuss the vertical model of artistic communication it is difficult to narrow the filed to just one example, as Native American literature, and to a lesser degree film have become somewhat prolific as genres. Two authors who build upon this tradition are Scott Momaday and Alexie Sherman as they are significant and prolific writers of Indian tradition. Each has written and published several works, including a variety of genres, that all attempt to translate the oral traditions of their nations into a written form that contains the expression of the oral tradition.

In Alexie Sherman's collection of short stories, the Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven he offers a…...

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Works Cited

Allison, Sherry R., and Christine Begay Vining. "Native American Culture and Language." Bilingual Review (1999): 193.

Bluestein, Gene. Poplore: Folk and Pop in American Culture. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1994.

A www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=104248317

Churchill, Ward. Acts of Rebellion: The Ward Churchill Reader. New York: Routledge, 2003.

Essay
Native American Captivity
Pages: 3 Words: 1051

Mary Rowlandson, Hannah Dustin, and Mary Jamison coped with captivity in their own way. The stories of their captivity revealed the great variety of customs among native American through the greatly different treatment afforded to the three women. Depending on the customs of the tribe that they encountered, or the specific political situation, each of the women was treated differently as either prisoners of war, slaves, or adopted as family members. Natives took captives in order to show their resistance to the settler's occupation of their land, as a custom to increase the members of their tribe, or even for monetary gain.
Mary hite Rowlandson, wife of Puritan minister Joseph Rowlandson, was captured by native Americans in February of 1676. During this time, King Philip, the leader of the ampanoag tribe of southern Massachusetts organized a rebellion against the incursion of white settlers on native land. In total 23 settlers were…...

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Works Cited

About.com. Mary White Rowlandson, Women's History. 12 April 2004.  http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blbio_mary_rowlandson.htm 

Cook, Tom. Mary Jemison. Glimpses of the Past, People, Places, and Things in Letchworth Park History.

12 April 2004.  http://www.letchworthparkhistory.com/jem.html 

HannahDustin.com. The Story of Hanna Dustin/Duston of Haverhill, Massachusetts. 12 April 2004. http://www.hannahdustin.com/hannah_files.html

Essay
Native American Boarding Schools of
Pages: 4 Words: 1454

Visits home were frowned upon and discouraged, and most Indian families could not afford to pay for the long journey home from the schools, so children remained there year-round until their schooling was complete in many cases.
However, many families did see the worth of a formal education for their children. Author Child notes, "Still, many Ojibwe parents, persuaded of the importance of an education or learning a trade for their child's future, would have agreed with the North Dakota father whose son and daughter attended Flandreau when he expressed his desire for their success in school and wish to keep them there, 'as much as we can stand it'" (Child 54). These parents often hoped their children would receive an education, but also learn a trade, so they could make their way in the world as adults. In theory, children attended school for half the day, and then learned…...

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References

Child, Brenda J. Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1998.

Coleman, Michael C. American Indian Children at School, 1850-1930. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1993.

Editors. "Native Languages of the Americas: Chippewa." Native Languages.org. 2008. 5 Dec. 2008.  http://www.native-languages.org/chippewa.htm .

Meyer, Melissa L. Ethnicity and Dispossession at a Minnesota Anishinaabe Reservation, 1889-1920. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1994.

Essay
Native American History in the Twentieth Century
Pages: 3 Words: 794

Elizabeth Bishop's, "Filling Station"
Elizabeth Bishops poem "Filling Station" is about the poet's ability to see something magnificent in the most ordinary of things. It is through the observation of a dirty filling station that Bishop is able to see an example of love. Bishop is known by her skill of employing imagery with attention to detail. (Lauter 2294) In "Filling Station,"she successfully transforms a greasy filling station into a place that displays expressions of love. By engaging the reader in the poem by posing questions, she is asking the reader to look beyond what is on the surface and search for something more.

Bishop has selected the perfect subject for the topic of her poem, as most people would not find a filling station attractive nor would most people stop to think about a filling station -- in one way or another. Although it is just a dirty, greasy filling…...

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Works Cited

Lauter, Paul, ed. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Lexington D.C. Heath and Company. 1990.

McClatchy, J.D., ed. Contemporary American Poetry. New York: Vintage Books. 1990.

Trilling, Lionel. Literary Criticism. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc. 1970.

Schmidt, Michael. The Lives of the Poets. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1999.

Essay
The Face of Between the Native American Pueblo Tribe and Conquering Spaniards
Pages: 12 Words: 4031

Native Americans- evisiting the Struggles of 1680
What were the causes of the Pueblo revolt of 1680?

In the year 1680, Native Americans known as the Pueblo revolted against their Spanish conquerors in the American South West (Calloway, 2003). The Spaniards had dominated their lives, their souls and their lands for over eighty years. The Spanish colonists conquered and maintained their rule with terror and intimidation from the beginning when their troops under the command of Juan de Onate invaded the region in 1598 (Countryman 2013). When the natives in Acoma resisted, Oriate commanded that for all men over the age of 15 one leg should be chopped and the rest of the population should be enslaved, setting the tone for what was to be a brutal rule for the next 8 decades. The Pueblo people then rose as one community united by their resolve to unshackle the chains of domination, and…...

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References

Bolton, H.E, ed. Spanish Exploration of the Southwest, 1542-1706. New York: C. Scribner's Sons; New YorkC. Scribner's Sons, 1916.

Bowden, H. W. "Spanish Missions, Cultural Conflict and the Pueblo Revolt of 1680." Church History, 1975: 217-28.

Brugge, David M. "Pueblo Factionalism and External Relations." Ethnohistory, 1969.

Calloway, Colin. One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West Before Lewis and Clark . University of Nebraska Press, 2003.

Q/A
Need Help with Essay Topics on Caged birds?
Words: 212

1. The symbolism of the caged bird in Maya Angelou's autobiographical work, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings."
2. The theme of captivity and freedom in Harper Lee's novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird."
3. Analyzing the oppression and confinement of women in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper."
4. The symbolism of the birdcage in Henrik Ibsen's play, "A Doll's House," in relation to gender roles and societal expectations.
5. Comparing the experiences of the caged birds in Richard Wright's novel, "Native Son," and Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel, "The Handmaid's Tale."
6. Exploring the theme of captivity and liberation in Jean Rhys's....

Q/A
Could you provide some suggestions for titles for my essay on Literature?
Words: 586

1000-Word Essay on Titles for Literature Essay

The selection of an effective title for a literature essay is a pivotal task that can significantly enhance the impact and clarity of your work. A well-crafted title succinctly captures the essence of your argument, engages readers, and provides a roadmap for the content to follow. Here are some suggestions for titles that effectively convey the purpose and content of your essay:

1. The Role of Symbolism in the Exploration of Identity in Toni Morrison's Beloved

This title clearly states the focus on symbolism and its connection to identity exploration in Morrison's novel. The inclusion of....

Q/A
I\'m looking for an essay book that is [description, e.g., research-based, persuasive, historical]. What options do you have?
Words: 379

Here are some essay books to consider based on different themes:

1. "The Case for Reparations" by Ta-Nehisi Coates - a persuasive essay arguing for reparations for African Americans for centuries of slavery and discrimination.

2. "The Souls of Black Folk" by W.E.B. Du Bois - a historical essay collection exploring the experiences of African Americans in the United States post-Civil War.

3. "Bad Feminist" by Roxane Gay - a collection of essays that are both personal and critical, exploring the complexities of modern feminism.

4. "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot - a research-based essay exploring the ethical implications of....

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