Insights on African American Literature

Invisible Man, written by Ralph Ellison, and published in 1952, follows an unnamed narrator through his life, beginning at college in the deep south, then moving to New York City. The narrator comes to find that New York carries many of the same racist qualities he thought he left behind in the south. The narrator’s life is written by Ellison in such a way that because of his sense of invisibility, feels surreal to the reader. One of the first jobs he obtains is with a company called Liberty Paints, famous for their “optic white” paint. While at first glance “Liberty Paints” may appear to be a seemingly normal title for a paint company, it carries a lot of symbolism throughout the chapter.  The name of the company, “Liberty Paints” and their slogan “Keep America Pure with Liberty Paints” allows for much interpretation. Not only does the name itself push the rhetoric that whiteness and liberty go hand in hand and therefore insinuating that black individuals will never experience the...

   Native Son by Richard Wright tells the story of 20-year-old Bigger Thomas, a black man living in Chicago in the 1930s. Readers are introduced to a life-changing portion of Bigger’s life through a series of situations that change Bigger’s perspective on life forever. Native Son’s rapid-paced story follows Bigger from when he lands a job as a chauffeur with a white real-estate magnate, Mr. Dalton, to standing in a courtroom being sentenced to death over Mary Dalton’s death. The book is formatted into three separate “books” that all follow a different theme: Fear, Flight, and Fate. The three titles connect to Bigger’s overlying attitude throughout his journey. The first book is titled “Fear.” The opening scene of book one immediately draws the connection between Bigger’s emotions and the book title. Bigger must kill a rat, while his mom and sister stand on their bed in fear. Immediately after this event, readers are further introduced to Bigger’s fear when Bigger beats up his ...