Happy Reading

I've joined a reading challenge for the summer!  It's to read 8 books by the end of August 2012 in different categories.
The first book I read is Native Son by Richard Wright.  This book reminds me of my childhood (category #6 in the challenge) because so many of my friends carried this book around at school (in the '70's).  I'm pretty sure they were required reading for one of their classes and I thought I would get assigned to read it eventually, but I never did. 
The book was published in 1940, so the historical aspect of it was very interesting to me.  It was written by an African-American man, back when they were called Negroes.  The book was full of the word "nigger," which is completely frowned upon today and probably why this book was also on the banned books list.  Which is a real shame, because this book helped me to gain some new insight into the experiences of African-Americans, at least in the early part of the 20th century.  I'm sure a lot of it is still valid today, although I hope that we have progressed as a country in that respect.
The main character is a young 20-year-old African-American man, Bigger Thomas,  living in Chicago.  He is poor and lives in the South Side, at a time when housing was deliberately racially segregated.  He is angry and hates white people.  In the forward by the author, Wright says that he met many Bigger Thomases in his life and wanted to tell their story. 
Bigger gets a job from the "relief," which we would call "welfare" today, with a rich white family.  The 23-year-old daughter, Mary, tries to be kind to Bigger.  She and her boyfriend shake hands with him, ask him about his life, and eat at a restaurant with him.  These actions make him extremely uncomfortable, embarrassed, and even full of hate toward them.  Interesting!  I found myself caught between the two sides:  I empathized with Bigger because his character was so well-drawn and explained, but with the white people as well.  It seemed that it didn't matter what they did or how they acted toward him - he hated them no matter what. 
Bigger ends up committing a very serious crime - I'll try not to give it away in case you want to read the book - trying to run away, getting caught, and going to trial.  In the trial, his lawyer and the prosecution give summaries that I think are the author's arguments for each side of the racial question.  I've always thought that America was the land of the free and people could take advantage of their opportunities, no matter what race they were.  But the arguments in this book that Bigger could not help his actions because of the oppression he experienced were very strong.  Here is an example:  the rich man who employed Bigger, Mr. Dalton, was a philanthropist.  He bragged that he loved the Negro people and had given $5 million to help them.  But he was giving his money to organizations that provided activities for African-American youth, like ping-pong.  Bigger thought that he had no use for ping-pong when he couldn't get a decent education or job.  Also, Mr. Dalton was the landlord of the small, rat-infested apartment where Bigger lived with his mother and two siblings - in one single room.  Mr. Dalton charged more for this apartment on the South Side than he did for the same size in the white areas of town.  He felt that it was fair because of the law of supply and demand - there wasn't enough housing for African-Americans, so his apartments were always full.  But he and the other landlords would not allow African-American families to rent in the white areas of town.  His excuse was that the African-Americans liked it that way, and wanted to live among their "own kind."  So Mr. Dalton came across as a complete hypocrite.
Bigger had had hopes of the military, or getting a job flying planes.  But he learned that there was no good career in the army or the navy; Negroes were given the grunt work and not allowed to rise.  And the aviator schools were not open to black people.  He was so disenfranchised that he actually felt freer and more powerful after committing his crimes than before.  This is a very strange attitude to have - I couldn't relate, but it was believable in this book.
Besides being such an interesting commentary on race relations, the book was full of action and excitement.  One caveat - there was lots of strong language, which I suppose it would need to make it more authentic to this young man's life.  A powerful read.