Native Son

      I would like to start off by saying, by the end of book three, I was a fan of Native Non, however, up until that point, I was not. The reason I say this is because personally, I found the plot of both books one and two, fairly predictable. In book one, the main character Bigger is introduced and a majority of the book is dedicated to giving perspective on his life and his fears. When Bigger gets his first job working for the Dalton family, Richard Wright makes it very apparent that Bigger has some pretty negative mixed feelings about working for a white family. This made it very easy to predict something bad would happen. Although what did happen was quite a shock, I was not completely unprepared for it.
      Book two was rather similar to book one in my opinion. Book two is primarily about Bigger being on the run and trying to get away with his crime of murdering Mary Dalton (on accident). Much like book one, in book two things slowly got more and more irrational and chaotic until something bad happened, Bigger got arrested. Just like book one, I was shocked by some of the events that happened, but again, I wasn't unprepared for them. In summary, in book one and two I could sense something bad was going to happen all along, and therefore I was waiting for it through the entire reading, which made the two books rather unenjoyable for me.
      On the bright side, my opinion on Native Son completely changed in book three. Not only was book three completely unpredictable (for me at least), but it was extremely insightful on just how cruel racism was, and still is today. Max, Bigger's lawyer, towards the end of book three gave a speech that really stood out to me. He said that Bigger could not have been sentenced to death because his existence was not even recognized. He also said jail would be a better option for Bigger considering he would at least have an identity there. I found those two points in particular to be extremely heart breaking, and because of that I finally started to get a better perspective on just how much segregation effected African-American people. On top of all, I really enjoyed the ups and downs, the heart breaks and the triumphs, and the ending (although very disappointing, I feel the book would not be the same if it ended differently) of book three.