Adventures in Literature

After the narrator’s confusing and traumatizing experience at the paint factory’s hospital in Invisible Man , he is sent to speak with “the director.” There, this director tells him that he must find a new, “easier, quieter” job to support himself (246). Once again, the invisible man’s potential bridge to a more “normal” lifestyle (as widely defined by society), has been torn down just as quickly as he found it. This experience and feeling of having to start over once again is probably another confusing and frustrating moment for the narrator, who is growing increasingly lost and disillusioned with the society around him. I found that the most fascinating aspect of this section, however, was the particular manner in which the invisible man’s life seemed to change after this interaction. Rather than simply feeling lost and more desperate as I would have expected, the narrator remarks that he “was no longer afraid” (249).  But why? Within the conversation with the director, one of t...

One of the details in Native Son that I found myself paying attention to was the weather… which sounds pretty boring. But, Richard Wright’s details and descriptions in this regard fascinated me, particularly the presence and role of snow throughout Bigger Thomas’ story.  What makes snow unique and significant is both its color and how once it falls, it seems to almost “take over” the world around us and blankets all that it touches. While reading Native Son , I began to see it as a metaphor for the entire “white world” around Bigger. Throughout the novel, there were two white storms approaching him. For instance, I find it interesting that the first time snow appears in the novel is when Bigger is getting a tour around the Dalton home by Peggy, the housekeeper (Wright 58). Arguably, this would later be the location where his future is defined and Bigger essentially becomes trapped by the white folks of Chicago. The possibility of snow is only beginning to appear at this moment and...