Editing Native Son (section)

=== Influence of Communism on ''Native Son'' ===
Wright was affiliated with the Communist Party of the United States both prior to and following his publishing of ''Native Son''. The Communist ideas in ''Native Son'' are evident as Wright draws a parallel between the [[Scottsboro boys]] case and Bigger Thomas' case. One parallel is the court scene in ''Native Son'', in which Max calls the "hate and impatience" of "the mob congregated upon the streets beyond the window" (Wright, p.&nbsp;386) and the "mob who surrounded the Scottsboro jail with rope and kerosene" after the Scottsboro boys' initial conviction.<ref>{{cite book|last=Maxwell|first=William J|title=New Negro, Old Left: African-American Writing and Communism Between the Wars|year=1999|publisher=[[Columbia University Press]]|location=New York|page=132}}</ref> Critics attacked Max's final speech in the courtroom, claiming that it was an irrelevant elaboration on Wright's own Communist beliefs and unrelated to Bigger's case. {{citation needed|date=July 2017}}

There are many different interpretations concerning which group was the intended target of Max's speech. [[James Baldwin]], a renowned critic of Wright's, presented his own interpretation of Max's final speech in ''Notes by a Native Son''; Baldwin says Max's speech is "addressed to those among us of good will and it seems to say that, though there are whites and blacks among us who hate each other, we will not; there are those who are betrayed by greed, by guilt, by blood, by blood lust, but not we; we will set our faces against them and join hands and walk together into that dazzling future when there will be no white or black" (Baldwin, p.&nbsp;47). However, other critics, such as Siegel, have argued that the original text in ''Native Son'' does not imply "the dazzling future when there will be no white or black".{{citation needed|date=July 2017}}

<!-- Thus, the argument that Max's final speech is a Communist promotion is not supported by the texts in the novel.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kinnamon|first=Kenneth|title=Critical Essays on Richard Wright's Native Son|year=1997|publisher=Twayne Publishers|location=New York|page=96}}</ref> Max referred to Bigger as a part of the working class in his closing statement. Furthermore, in 1938, Wright also advocated the image of African Americans as members of the working class in his article in the ''[[New York Amsterdam News]]'': "I have found in the Negro worker the real symbol of the working class in America."<ref>{{cite book|last=Foley|first=Barbara|title=Radical Representations|year=1993|publisher=[[Duke University Press]]|location=Durham|page=190}}</ref> Thus, Wright's depiction of and belief in the figure of African American workers and his depiction of Bigger Thomas as a worker showed evidence of Communist influence on ''Native Son''. -->
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