Books with title NATIVE SON

Bigger Thomas' violent acts gave him a sense of freedom and identitySet in the 1930's, the portrayal of poverty and feelings of helplessness experienced by people in the inner city is as meaningful today as when it was written.Native Son is the story of Bigger Thomas, a black youth whose tragic life was drawn from Richard Wright's own experiences and memories of the Chicago ghetto. Although segregated, Wright held that the noisy crowded physical aspect of the urban environment, with its stimulating sense of power, fulfillment, and possible achievement brought forth a more obstreperous reaction than in the South. Vivid, unforgettable and heartbreaking, Wright's masterpiece forces us to witness the inhumanity of our society.The power and compassion of James Earl Jones' performance of Native Son sears this classic work into our memories forever.Richard Wright (1908-1960) left Memphis at 19 to live in Chicago where he became a writer. He grew to be considered not only the leading black author in the United States, but also a major heir of the naturalistic tradition. Wright spent his last years in Paris, where he died in 1960. James Earl Jones is one of this country's greatest artistic resources, as his acclaimed performances on stage, screen and television have proved. He has starred in such films as Dr. Strangelove, The Great White Hope, The Man, Cry the Beloved Country, and A Family Thing, and on Broadway in Othello and Fences, for which he won the Tony Award.

Since its publication in 1940, Native Son has become a classic of African-American literature and one of the most important books of this century. A stark and troubling account of murder, guilt, and racial hatred, it was among the first works to sound the alarm for the impending social violence that would explode during the 1960s. Bigger Thomas, a 20-year-old black man, is uneducated, unsophisticated, and unemployed. When a wealthy family offers him a chauffeur’s position, Bigger is torn between gratitude for the job and anger over his subservient status. On his first evening, the family’s daughter orders Bigger to spend a drunken night on the town with her and a gentleman friend. But events spin out of control and, by morning, the young woman is dead. Divided into sections entitled Fear, Flight, and Fate, Native Son tells a story that is still repeated in court cases involving black men across the country. This powerful narration by Peter Francis James marks the first time Wright’s landmark work has been available unabridged on audio CD.