Michael Dynia

I read this book in high school and found it quite compelling. I like books that effectively show how social and economic environment can shape a person. It is a tough story that takes an unflinching hard look at what it was like to grow up in 1930s America for blacks. Wright brilliantly did not make his protagonist a likeable sympathetic character that you could feel good about shedding some tears. You can't really cry about what happens to Bigger but you can't really be unaffected by it either. Its kind of like watching a terrible accident unfold but the person responsible for the accident is not really at fault because the car is defective. Such is the impact of this powerful story. No matter what horrible things Bigger does somehow you can't condemn him. This is one of the best books I have ever read on the effect of living in a race oriented society.