The problem of the balance between an individual's freedom and rights and the demands and claims of the group or bigger entity that the individual is part of, is pervasive in all different levels of society. It can be observed in the smaller unity of problems within the family, but as well in the relationship between state and individual. In two of the works I have studied, "All my Sons" by Arthur Miller and "Native Son" by Richard Wright, this problem is clearly expressed.

In Richard Wright's "Native Son" the tension exists between Bigger Thomas, a black American in the Chicago of the 1930s and the society that surrounds him. He suffers from the suppression of blacks by the white majority in the USA, which does not give him the freedom to fully develop and realize his dreams. Instead, he is restricted by the society's expectations and the...