Native Son: What I Remember from Grad School

Well, I must have read some of it, because there are notations in the margins in my handwriting up through page 100. I find it interesting that I actually only remember one thing about Native Son. I remember that Bigger Thomas, the lead character who is black (I am not going to try and be PC here), put a dead woman in a furnace. That’s all I remember. I don’t remember the circumstances up to the furnace or anything after the furnace. All I remember is that he put her in the furnace, which is why when presented with the 3 choices of books above, I thought “Native Son should be interesting. He shoves a girl into the furnace.” However, the only thing I remember about Crime and Punishment is something about the landlady getting an axe in the head, but that’s a whole different blog. Wow! What does that say about me?

Native Son was a book I was supposed to read in Grad School. I was taking a class on African American (I am only being PC here, because that is actually what it was called) Literature. I loved the stuff that I had read (actually read) previously and was even considering doing my comprehensive exams on it, but was stifled by the professor believe it or not. I enjoyed Black lit and thought that I might like to teach ethnic lit after Grad school. My black professor said that no one would take me seriously because I was not black. WOW!!! I was stunned. I found that sooo hard to believe. While I respected her for her knowledge and scholarship, I felt like I had been discriminated against. I couldn’t do a good job just because I was white?? Hmmm . . . that sounds familiar. Isn’t that exactly what we were studying and reading about?? Racial prejudice? I can’t help but think that that is the reason I didn’t finish Native Son. I did write a paper on it and I did receive a B—Good considering I didn’t read the whole book.