Native Son
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Reading and Writing Workshop
Confronting Power, Race, and Identity: Reading Native Son
Overview
This workshop explores Native Son by Richard Wright through close reading, historical context, and thematic analysis. Students will engage with public domain works that shed light on the novel’s exploration of systemic racism, urban poverty, fear, violence, and moral complexity. The workshop ends with a session on why the novel was banned and the broader implications of literary censorship.
Session 1: Introduction to Native Son and Richard Wright
Focus: Author background, historical context (1930s Chicago, The Great Migration), and an overview of naturalism and protest literature.
Reading Activities:
How does Wright use Bigger Thomas’s environment to explore race, fear, and determinism?
Session 2: Systemic Oppression and Urban Space
Focus: The role of systemic racism in shaping Bigger’s psychological world. Housing segregation, economic disparity.
Reading Activities:
In what ways does Bigger’s fear reflect the structural barriers around him?
Session 3: Violence and Media Representation
Focus: The portrayal of crime and its sensationalism in the media. How race influences public perception.
Reading Activities:
Compare the public reaction to Bigger’s crime with the racialized violence described by Wells. How does the media distort justice?
Session 4: The Courtroom and Ideology
Focus: Book Three: Fate – Wright’s critique of the criminal justice system and philosophical arguments about freedom and responsibility.
Reading Activities:
How does Max’s speech in Native Son compare to Darrow’s argument against capital punishment and determinism?
Session 5: Why Native Son Was Banned
Focus: Censorship, racial discomfort, and sexual and violent content in literature.
Reading Activities:
Should literature that makes readers uncomfortable be taught in schools? Use Native Son and another public domain work to support your position.
Session 6: Final Project – Rewriting the Narrative
Focus: Reimagining Bigger’s story or an alternate perspective using creative or analytical writing.
Reading Activities:
Write a short story from the perspective of Bessie or another side character, using poetic language or journal entries.
Writing Prompt (Analytical Option):
Compare the emotional and societal “mask” Bigger wears with the one described in Dunbar’s poem.
Overview
This workshop explores Native Son by Richard Wright through close reading, historical context, and thematic analysis. Students will engage with public domain works that shed light on the novel’s exploration of systemic racism, urban poverty, fear, violence, and moral complexity. The workshop ends with a session on why the novel was banned and the broader implications of literary censorship.
Session 1: Introduction to Native Son and Richard Wright
Focus: Author background, historical context (1930s Chicago, The Great Migration), and an overview of naturalism and protest literature.
Reading Activities:
- Read selected chapters from Native Son (Book One: Fear).
- Read excerpts from:
- Richard Wright’s How “Bigger” Was Born (available in the 1940 edition).
- W.E.B. Du Bois, “The Souls of Black Folk” (Chapter I – “Of Our Spiritual Strivings”):
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/408
How does Wright use Bigger Thomas’s environment to explore race, fear, and determinism?
Session 2: Systemic Oppression and Urban Space
Focus: The role of systemic racism in shaping Bigger’s psychological world. Housing segregation, economic disparity.
Reading Activities:
- Continue Native Son (Book One: Fear).
- Public Domain Reading: The Housing Problem in Chicago, excerpt from The Negro in Chicago: A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot (1922):
https://archive.org/details/negroinchicagost00commrich/page/n7/mode/2up
In what ways does Bigger’s fear reflect the structural barriers around him?
Session 3: Violence and Media Representation
Focus: The portrayal of crime and its sensationalism in the media. How race influences public perception.
Reading Activities:
- Native Son, Book Two: Flight.
- Ida B. Wells, “Lynch Law in All Its Phases” (1893):
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14975
Compare the public reaction to Bigger’s crime with the racialized violence described by Wells. How does the media distort justice?
Session 4: The Courtroom and Ideology
Focus: Book Three: Fate – Wright’s critique of the criminal justice system and philosophical arguments about freedom and responsibility.
Reading Activities:
- Native Son, Book Three: Fate.
- Clarence Darrow’s “Plea for Leopold and Loeb” (1924):
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23866
How does Max’s speech in Native Son compare to Darrow’s argument against capital punishment and determinism?
Session 5: Why Native Son Was Banned
Focus: Censorship, racial discomfort, and sexual and violent content in literature.
Reading Activities:
- Excerpts from censorship cases involving Native Son (teacher-provided).
- Read Mark Twain’s “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (to contrast banned vs. widely accepted literature):
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/91
- Why has Native Son been banned or challenged in schools?
- What does censorship reveal about a society’s values?
Should literature that makes readers uncomfortable be taught in schools? Use Native Son and another public domain work to support your position.
Session 6: Final Project – Rewriting the Narrative
Focus: Reimagining Bigger’s story or an alternate perspective using creative or analytical writing.
Reading Activities:
- Paul Laurence Dunbar, “We Wear the Mask”:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18338
Write a short story from the perspective of Bessie or another side character, using poetic language or journal entries.
Writing Prompt (Analytical Option):
Compare the emotional and societal “mask” Bigger wears with the one described in Dunbar’s poem.