Right from the start Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or
petty larceny by chance it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young
black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of
panic. Set in Chicago in the 1930s Wright's powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the
poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country
and of what it means to be black in America.
