Native Son by Wright

Sometimes I think it's so unfair that a book that I have every intention of hating turns out to be really good. Case in point Native Son. It was written in the 1930s as a protest novel to the treatment of African Americans and the author said he wrote it to make you feel it in your gut. He didn't want to write a book that bankers' daughters could read, cry over, and then go to lunch. He wanted something that would change people's lives.

And this book did. I can't say too much about it without giving everything away, but if you don't like blood and violence you shouldn't read this book. I had to read it in the library because I refused to associate it with my apartment because I would never be able to sleep again if I did (luckily my professor had warned us that it was graphic and would cause nightmares). So I was dead set on hating it after reading the first 2 sections. The main character just made me so angry and I did not like him at all and I felt no sympathy for him whatsoever. But then I read the last section, and everything changed. Sure I didn't like the guy a whole lot, but I came to understand him a lot more.

And even though this book was written to protest the treatment of African Americans so many decades ago, I couldn't help but think about how it still applies. How each of us contributes to the creation of another person (not in the parent/procreative aspect, but in shaping a person's beliefs and attitudes). Every interaction we have with a person affects the rest of their life. If we continually treat someone poorly they will remember it. Even if its just the guy that gives us our food at McDonalds, our treatment of him affects him. You cannot have an interaction with someone without it affecting their life. So give that a thought. The next time you're in a bad mood and don't want to talk to the guy next to you on the bus, or in the elevator with you, just think about what you want to be accountable for... and try to make that person's day a little better.