Works, Volume 1

The story of Wright's account of his struggle to escape a life of poverty, ignorance, and fear in his native South. (Lawd today!) Lawd Today is the story of one day in the life of Jake Jackson, detailing his daily routine from dawn into the early hours of the next morning. (Uncle Tom's children) The common theme of the stories in Uncle Tom's Children is the struggle to find personal dignity in an oppressive society. (Native son) Bigger Thomas takes a job working for the wealthy Dalton family. He accidentally kills Mary Dalton, the daughter, and attempts to destroy the evidence by burning her body. (Black boy) A memoir detailing his youth in the South: Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee, and his eventual move to Chicago, where he establishes his writing career and becomes involved with the Communist Party in the United States. Black Boy is a text which is meant to represent slavery and oppression from the perspective of a young boy, and Wright wrote this from the perspective of himself. (The outsider) Cross Damon's search for meaningfulness and happiness falls into five stages, omnisciently narrated in books of the novel entitled: Dread, Dream, Descent, Despair, and Decision.