“They hate you not because of what you have done but because of who you are; you are different from who they are, and you are occupying the ground they want for themselves”-Bangambiki Habyarimana. Humans tend to judge those that are in a different group, class, or race and link all the people in one specific category as the same. Treating people like this dehumanize them and damaging their confidence. The novel Native Son, by Richard Wright, and the play A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, both addresses this major issue in their piece of literature, but with a vastly different approach of regarding the issue. Both pieces of literature addresses the theme that racism and oppression could lead to mental breakdowns and lose contact with society.
Throughout Native Son, Wright the themes reflect off of issues that are prevalent in his time period and still is an issue to this day. The issues highlights the theme that racism and oppression can break someone’s will or damage someone’s self confidence. The novel is from…show more content… Wright was born on September 4, 1908, which was a time period where racism was a major issue, being only a few decades after the civil war. Being African-American, he most likely desire to open the eyes of the white audience, leading to the subject of the novel and the character traits. Through Wright’s life, he lacked a father figure. He was mostly raised by his single mother, who later fell ill. This reflects off of Bigger’s mother, who herself is frail and is forced to raise three children without a father to be seen or even mentioned. During his lifetime, he dabbled in the communist party due to their affiliation with his wife. During the time of writing Native Son, Wright was still part of the party but later had a fall out and left. This explains the personalities of the characters associated with the communist party, to break the conception that they are deplorable
