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Compton, California and Harlem, NYC

 

But what could he do? Each time he asked himself that question his mind hit a blank wall and he stopped thinking" (Wright 12). This shows the struggle that Bigger cannot seem to overcome, the fact that he wants a better life for himself but it becomes impossible due to the power the white people had over the black people during his life. The only way for Bigger to live among the white people was for him to work for them and become somewhat of a slave. Native Son shows a very different point of view than most readers are accustomed to which is a reason why it has been so heavily censored. Most readers know of racism and the discrimination of black people in the past but not many have experience it first hand from an illogical and non-traditional protagonist. The reader gets to look into the life of a black person who is truly overwhelmed by white people and the power they have; he wants power in his life over white people but he is too frightened of the power that the white people have over him. .
             After World War I, huge numbers of African-Americans migrated to the industrial North from the South; this movement is referred to as the Great Migration. The neighborhood of Harlem had a high volume of black people; however Harlem differs from other areas of marginalization because it was filled with highly educated black people who had the power to produce literature that confronted racism very clearly. Poets like Langston Hughes and Claude McKay created poems that spoke of racial discrimination of black people which put a new perspective on racism to the general population. In an article by Mike Chasar, The poets of the Harlem Renaissance are recognized for their use of sound as a metaphor for social power. It is said that black poets of Harlem would incorporate many different sounds to show the many struggles of those who crumble under the power of racism (Chasar 58). Claude McKay illustrates the struggle of black people in a very racist environment in his poem "Enslaved,".


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