ng he often embracedcommunism, black nationalism and existentialism. At the center of all his work were theinsistence on the purity of the individual imagination, but it is often tempered by his visionof black peoples collective destiny. Evelyn Gross Avery wrote: The writer most frequently credited with making the Negro visible isRichard Wright. . . Offering historical and sociological, as well aspsychological insights into the American character, Wright examines therebel, his behavior and motivations, his background. Products of alower-class black environment, Wrights rebels are well acquainted withhunger, disease, poverty. They learn quickly from frightened mothers andbeaten fathers not to expect much from America. Their dreams of powerare undercut by the reality of Jim Crow and more subtle discrimination. Ambition is discouraged; impotency reinforced. All entrances and exits areblocked. Trapped, Wrights black man may choose to suffer his fatepassively; he may reluctantly accept his status as a victim. But not forlong. Wrights victims are generally minor characters or else they evolveinto sullen rebels(597).Richard Wright, is considered a naturalist writer. By naturalist we mean hiswriting is defined through his own experiences. Naturalistic fiction provided Wright witha means by which he could better see himself and his work. Wright considers hisnaturalism as just another version of American realism. Wrights attraction to naturalismcomes from his instinctive recognition that his own life as an American black man was soclosely reflected in naturalistic fiction. The use of naturalism was useful to Wright in anumber of ways. First, it gave him a literary style that was a useful tool for honestlyprobing into the world around him. Also, he was able to use his naturalistic style toobjectively record his own experience without distorting it to suit conventional moralityand standard literary tastes. Critics debate whether W...
