No mere protest novel: obfuscating criticism, psychological warfare, and legal realism in Native Son

[ABSTRACT ONLY; NO FULL TEXT] Richard Wright's novel, Native Son, published in 1940, has seen itself adapted to a stage drama directed by Orson Wells in 1941, and various film adaptions--one of them starring the author himself. Most recently, an HBO film was released in 2019 directed by Rashid Johnson that adapts Native Son to the sensibilities of contemporary audiences. Needless to say, Native Son has been a major part of American culture. The novel's initial reviews were mostly positive but mixed. Notable authors such as Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin have dismissed Wright's work as a mere "protest novel." This paper will contribute to this criticism and expose how it was generally short-sighted and obfuscatory. More importantly, this essay will reveal Bigger Thomas as a test case and symbolic character of social engineering and psychological warfare via mass media. My essay will also elucidate the legal realism portrayed by Thomas' lawyer, Boris Max.