Richard Wright

Does everyone have an equal ability to achieve the American Dream? Wright's powerful text tackles this issue and explores the intense and complex issues of racism, discrimination, and poverty in America. Featuring the protagonist, Bigger Thomas, Wright tells Bigger's story of hardship and depicts his lack of autonomy because of the oppressive forces that are enacted to keep Bigger in his current, impoverished and hopeless situation. For further reading, check out excerpts from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky.