Wright’s “Native Son”: Capitalist Or Communism? Essay, Research Paper

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 .