Arya on Literature Things

Richard Wright's Invisible Man entails overcoming illusions to reach the truth and at times, hiding behind your own illusion to deceive the world and further your own agenda. The first example of the narrator (the Invisible Man) using this "invisible power" is in the prologue, which is set in the future of the actual novel. The words of the prologue even start off with the words "I am an invisible man" (Wright 3). He goes on to explain how he is invisible in the sense that society refuses to see him and on the very next page, he employs this invisibility to beat up a random man on the street. He bumps into this man accidentally and the man proceeds to call him an insulting name, possibly a slur (it's not specified). Out of anger, the narrator beats the man. After almost killing him, he runs off into the dark of night, "laughing so hard [he] feared [he] might rupture [himself]" (Wright 5). This laughter may be a satirical way to undermine authority...

Richard Wright's Native Son envelops us in an intense narrative of Bigger Thomas, a scared, angered, and often violent African-American man. His motivations and impulses stem from his fear of the white world around him, leading him onto a dark and desperate path, one that is seemingly predetermined by his native environment.  Richard Wright immediately gives us a front seat view of this environment in the first few pages in the "rat chase" scene. While changing with his family in the same cramped room, Bigger chases and tries to kill a rat that starts to terrorize his mother and sister. Though the rat puts up somewhat of a fight, Bigger eventually manages to kill it. While this scene gives us an idea of the living conditions that Bigger has grown up in, it also provides us with a symbolic representation of Bigger's future struggles. Wright states, "The rat's belly pulsed with fear. Bigger advanced a step and the rat emitted a long thin song of defiance, its ...