NATIVE SON / 3000

- Bigger has much in common w/ W - Kinnamon 15 in butler anthology

- w worked for white fam w friendly daughter who reprimanded him when she was dressing -
k15
- bigger based on five prototypes - k15
- influenced by trial of robt nixon; papers carried false accusations of rape - k16
- newspaper articles in ns close to those in nixon trial - k16
- inquest and trial scenes often close to nixon trial - k17

- bad nigger made from human material that might have become something else - canby23 in
butler
- no sentimentalism: bigger on occasion thief, liar, bully - c23
- swift narrative; staccato dialogue; rapidly mounting suspense - c23
- deadly satire in portrait of young radicals; pol pity more offensive than color prejudice - c23

- biggers articulateness implausible - poore 25 in butler
- furious yet skillfully controlled pace - p25
- w is champion of a race, not defender of individual wrongdoer - p25
- method dreiserian; firm prose; chars devd; story well told; effective dialogue, drama - p26

- impact of novel fades after a while - jones 27 in butler
- employs simplest of narrative methods: straight-line - j28
- no chars except bigger, whos inconsistent: poor colored boy, amoral monster - j28
- for most of novel he seems immoral; at end hes presented as victim - j28

- racism of the newspaper article reflects reality of nixon trial - kinnamon in gates 113
- novel based in large part on nixon case - k114
- bigger reacts emotionally to trial; max provides intellectual understanding - k114
- revisions promoted clarity, precision, economy - k115
- typically uses standard Eng speech, then changes spelling to reflect dialect - k116
- revised lengthy opening to emph confrontation with rat - k117
- ms revised to delete passages concerning sex and politics - k119
- ms altered to de-emph sexual response when bigger carries mary to bed - k120
- Ws original conception of bigger as highly sexed was highly original - k121
- changes resulted in a softened, less threatening, more victimized bigger - k121
- revisions slightly toned down the political message of book 3, but also make it speedier - k121
- W risked confirming white prejudices of blacks, offending Coms and blacks - k124
- most of the 423 contemp reviews emph the power of the work, searing emotional force - k124
- novel compared to grapes of wrath, crime & pun, am trag - k125

- novel offers radical critique of narrative conservatism often attributed to it - tanner in gates132
- narrator disguises and transforms biggers consciousness in very act of reping it - t132
- narrators comments provide symbolic gloss that leads us away from material substance - t133
- narrs comments abstract, metaphorical; often confused w/ biggers own reactions - t134
- narrs tone often condescending, even racist - t135
- narrs voice often echoes that of the daltons and max - t136
- narrs voice often in conflict with biggers own reactions - t137
- narr uses master lang; implicates him in system bigger defines himself against - t141
- maxs account of bigger no less limited than those of media and frightened whites - t142
- max and narrator both provide narrow, limited account of bigger - t143
- maxs speech deconstructs the very rhet it employs; also undercuts narrators voice - t143
- maxs final shocked silence shows limits of his understanding - t145

- bigger takes his values from society dominated by media - pudaloff in gates 157
- refs, allusions, images of mass culture - p157
- biggers interest in newspapers shows infl of mass media; seeks identity in newspapers -p161
- bigger reflects tough guy of 1930s melodrama - p162

- deep excitement and intense interest - canby in reilly 39
- shows how a bad nigger might have become something very different - r39
- W shows no sentimentalism - r39
- swift narrative style, staccato dialogue, mounting suspense - r40
- depth and subtlety, talent for organizing full-length novel - r41
- consummate psychological skill; analyzes dim compulsions of spiritually sick young man - r43
- we question the authenticity of biggers ability to discuss wider implications of his trag dest -
r44
- notably firm prose; char development; influences on char - r44-45
- concrete and inescapable images; crackling dialogue - r45
- bigger the only memorable char - r46
- employs simplest narrative techniques - r46
- wavers betw bigger as poor colored boy and amoral monster - r46
- whatever his race, his nature wd have compelled him to act as he does - r47
- W too explicit and repetitive; char of upper-class whites paper-thin; overdoes melodrama -r50
- terror; utterly compelling - r50
- eventually the preaching comes; the tract emerges; pace slows; nearly sentimental at end - r51
- novel doesnt beg; it indicts - r53
- sometimes guilty of melodrama - r53
- bigger too articulate; romanticized and rationalized; romantic nonsense; not representative-r55
- W past heroes were virtual saints; bigger an improvement - r56
- exciting manhunt - r57
- novel shows murderous potential of who U.S. negro problem - Ws bigger story - r58
- biggers crushed existence is part of a larger pattern that also includes whites - r58
- Max and Jan the only chars who make bigger aware of his dignity as a human being - r59
- we accept w/out question the convention that makes bigger aware and articulate - r61
- more difficult to identify w bigger than w clyde in am trag - r62
- maxs speech a wholly unnecessary pointing of the moral - r62
- double tragedy that bs victim wants to be his friend - r62
- W often ascribes to bigger thoughts of which hes plainly incapable - r66
- some passages too bookish; suggest self-educated writer - r66
- Ws flair for the melodramatic sometimes needs curbing - r66
- maxs speech best and worst part: best when he pleads for blacks in gen, worst when for
bigger-r68
- maxs speech unlikely to convince many readers - r68
- novel effective bec W addresses US in terms they understand - r71
- bigger wrongly exaggerated into symbol of whole black people - r73
- many reactionaries will seize on Jan and Mary as typical communists when they arent - r74
- Max represents kind of legal defense communists wd repudiate - r75
- real communist not really presented in the book - r75
- some reviewers found the bk pro-com, some anti - r80
- reactions among com reviewers differed - r81
- conflict over interping bigger deliberately part of plot in book 3 - r83
- early scenes of jan more memorable than later, when hes more mature; unfortunate - r85
- Maxs speech ineffective: restates issues, as if W uncertain meaning has been communicated-
r85
- novel will confirm some in prejudiced belief that blacks are primitive, bestial - r88
- novel flawed bec it openly states moral rather than making it implied by action - r88-89
- bigger unlikely to be so conscious and articulate; thus improbable - r89
- many people have had to contend with worse conditions than bigger but didnt murder - r90
- bigger just a small hitler or stalin; justifies violence by conditioning - r90
- W shows as much skill in transcribing black dialect as Louis Pau, who is white - r90
- biggers situation is that of the poor anywhere, regardless of pigmentation - r92
- W has learned nothing from jewish history; jews have faced worse, longer prejudice -r92
- novel will have the effect of spreading, deepening distrust of blacks - r94
- if W is correct, every healthy young black male should be suspected - r94
- why the beheading if the novel is meant to be representative? Gratuitous melodrama - r95
- W is trying to prove a normal thesis thru an abnormal case - r95
- uses devices of symbolic novel; verisimilitude thus sometimes sacrificed - r97
- hiding of body, delay in discovery, ease w/ wch kidnap note delivered not all convincing - r97
- b igger shd have been much more; Maxs speech profound - r97
- bigger wronged, but also wrongs; pitiable, warped, but not tragic - r98