2 - Giving Bigger a Voice: The Politics of Narrative in Native Son

Summary

TO a greater extent than we usually care to admit, our reading of a novel like Native Son has been framed by prior experiences that urge us to anticipate, even to seek, confirmation of information we already possess. Its character may be vastly different for us today than it was for readers fifty years ago, when Native Son became the first work by a black American author to reach the best-seller list, but despite the evidence that the book reached a large biracial audience in 1940 and continues to do so today, there is reason to believe that readers are unprepared to appreciate how much real news Native Son will bring them.

The first-time reader of Native Son may be said to be unacquainted with Bigger Thomas and unaware of the direction the plot of the novel, his life's story, will take; however, the same thing can be said about a first reading of, say, a detective story. We do not yet know the traits of the sleuth, or the way the criminal puzzle will be solved. But we have a pretty good idea, because experience has taught us that by and large crime and mystery stories are about the same thing. It is anticipation of the secondary details of detection methods, setting, or ingenuity of plot that attracts us to read the newest thriller.