Hayley R. Mitchell, ed.
Readings on "Native Son": Literary Companion to American Literature
San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2000. Pp. 176. $19.95

Reviewed by Charles Sarvan

Native Son (1940) remains a nightmare work in that the reader is compelled to proceed and confront the unfolding, pitiless inevitability. Bigger Thomas, both an individual and a representative, is one of those fictional characters who, once encountered, remains forever in the imaginative memory. Apart from the specifically cruel African-American experience, the deeply disturbing novel is, of course, relevant to situations of group prejudice and pain. Such a work is widely studied (I taught it at the University of Zambia many years ago) and enabling --perhaps Albert French's Billy (1994) is one of its "children"?

Coming within the "students' study-notes" category, Readings has "young adults" in mind. Its purpose is not to send readers to the text for the first time, but to help students who have already read the novel and are trying to come to terms with the novel. The edition is structured as follows: a biographical note on Wright, an introduction to the characters, an outline of the story, five chapters, a chronology of Wright's life and, finally, a section titled "For Further Research." The book is a compilation of excerpts from articles published by different critics in the 1960s, '70s, '80s and '90s. The main body is divided into four chapters--the art of Native Son, characters, the power of place, and themes. Each chapter in turn consists of excerpts from five different articles (chapter 3 has only three). In length, the abridged essays range from two and a half to eleven pages, the average being about eight. A very short summary of the argument heads each contribution: deriving a notion of what the essay is about, the student can decide whether what follows is of interest. Having work by several different critics results in a variety of approaches, ranging from a detailed focus on, say, imagery to broad overviews on theme. It commences with the right focus, that is, on Wright's art, rather than on the political, more specifically, the "color" content. (The term "racism" is not helpful). The contributors come from the field of African-American literature and bring with them knowledge, pedagogic experience, and a personal engagement with the text. They shed light on aspects that may be missed by the uninitiated, such as the pattern of "call and response" (109) and the use of "Black English Vernacular" (150).

However, since these are excerpts from previously published works, several of the essays summarize the same parts of the story, and repetition threatens tedium. (Also, the same quotations tend to appear in different essays.) And there are inconsistencies. The term lumpenproletariat (109), for example, is glossed but not the concept of the Gothic (120-24). One deplores the absence of footnotes: there are references to Native Son, to Wright's other works, and to observations and statements made by other critics, but since the source is nowhere given, the student cannot pursue these independently. "Alice Walker has said…" (91)--but where? Almost inevitably, the quality of the excerpts varies. For instance, the first essay in chapter 4 explicates the obvious, and then goes no further, while the fourth takes a full measure of the ugliness of Bigger's actions, and yet transcends it to reach an understanding of violence in the wider world: it combines perception, honesty, and compassion.

Nevertheless, the few criticisms above do not detract from the value of this volume. Some of the excerpts counterpoint one another, for example, on the portrayal and role of women or on the presence or absence of "community"; there is no facile, comfortable, closure. The variety of insights and perspectives challenges and stimulates, and students will read the critics so as to arrive at their own reading of the text. The book will be of considerable help to them, pointing at and pointing out, but not getting in the way of, Native Son.