Native Son By Richard Wright: Poem Analysis

Throughout there are tons of motifs in the book. The most common ones are: famish, poverty, and segregation. These themes are all current for the duration of the book. Segregation is a big one The book is set in the early to mid 1900's, where discrimination was huge in the South were Wright was born and raised. For most of the tome, Wright lives in segregation and experiences what it is like to be black in the South. Eventually he does go to the Chicago later on in the book, where there is no segregation. Nonetheless, he is still wary and skeptical of whites because of his life in the South. All through Wright's life (in the book) he lives in poverty and sometimes penury. From the time he was a child in the South to the grown man in

Chicago. When he was young, he moved often to dingy apartments because his mother nor he could afford to rent nicer living quarters. In the beginning of the book Wright has a father, his father brought home the money and the food for the family, when he left the family, they struggled immensely to keep afloat and began impecunious. This meant that Wright's mother had to work, sometimes even more than one job, and that when Wright was of age, he would have to work to so he could support the family as the father figure. Being the father figure, he has to also provide food. In the book, Wright is often hungry, especially after his father leaves him as a young boy. When he was young he did not understand why he had to starve when the whites did not. The older he became the more he learned about what it was like in the world of the South, and that being black male in a white man's world meant he would often be hungry. Wright remains hungry throughout the entire book until the end. when he is abstemious in Chicago.