get him. Max,Biggers lawyer, has little contact with him during the trial and fails in his defense forBigger. At the of the story, Bigger stands alone and must accept the life he has made forhimself. Also, before his death Bigger says, What I killed for mustve been good! and Ididnt want to kill . . .But what I killed for I am!Native Son is a landmark novel that created important new directions in literature. Native Son was the first novel written by a black American writer achieve widespreadcritical and popular success. Many critics hailed the novel as a penetrating indictment ofracial persecution. For example, James Baldwin called Native Son, the most powerfuland celebrated statement we have yet had of what it means to be a Negro in America.Also, Irving Howe commented: A blow at the white man, the novel forced him torecognize himself as an oppressor. A blow at the black man, the novel forced him torecognize the cost of his submission.(Stine 415) However, some critics faulted the bookfor a lack of realism, claiming that its vision of American life was overdrawn and unfair. For example, David Cohn described Native Son as a blinding and corrosive study inhate. Another critic, Clifton Fadiman wrote: Wright is too explicit. He says manythings over and over again. His characterization of upper-class whites are paper-thin andconfess unfamiliarity. I think he overdoes his melodrama from time to time. He is not afinished writer. But the two absolute necessities of the first-rate novelist passion andintelligence-are in him. (Butler 12)Richard Wright was one of the first writers of his time to confront readers with thedehumanizing effects of racism. Most of his stories are centered around withdrawn,impoverished, black men who have been denied freedom and personal identity. Much ofhis fiction came from his own impoverished childhood in the South and his early adulthoodin the segregated communities of Chicago. In Wrights writi...
