native son critical quotations

Question 1

marxism - andrew warnes

Answer 1

“traditional marxist determinism… still repels many american and americanised readers”

Question 2

bigger as a product of his society (social determinism)

wright, warnes, park, smethurst

Answer 2

• “bigger does not choose his crimes so much as they choose him.” (andrew warnes)
• “there was not just one bigger, but many of them” (richard wright)
• “certain social conditions produce certain human personalities” (robert e. park)
• “bigger, then, is a monster created by a murderous society” (james smethurst)

Question 3

oppression of women - angela y. davis

Answer 3

highlights “the inhumanity and misogyny of male batterers”

Question 4

symbolism of white women, scapegoating of Black men - phipps

Answer 4

“colonialism also created a circuit between Bourgeois white women’s tears and white men’s rage”

Question 5

grewander - crime

Answer 5

“crime is a pervasive constant” in american fiction

Question 6

wright - violence

Answer 6

“violence is a personal necessity for the oppressed”