SOURCE: “‘The Kingdom of the Beast’: The Landscape of Native Son,” in CLA Journal, Vol. 17, March, 1974, pp. 333-37.

In the following essay, Felgar comments on the animal imagery in Richard Wright's Native Son, finding that it symbolizes the white view of blacks in America.

When Buckley, the State's Attorney in Native Son, sums up the prosecution's case, he says, “‘Man stepped forward from the kingdom of the beast the moment he felt that he could think and feel in security, knowing that sacred law had taken the place of his gun and knife.’”¹ In making the statement, Buckley unknowingly and ironically described from the white point of view the world of Bigger Thomas and of America, because Bigger is a beast among beasts, living in the wild forest. The discursive narrative line in the novel is developed, commented upon, and reinforced by Wright's use of images from man's...