The negative impacts of racial prejudice and discrimination upon the life of black American society in the Northern Cities as reflected in Richard Wright’s Native Son

Oleh :
Eka Nurcahyani - C0396030 - Fak. Sastra dan Seni Rupa

ABSTRACT This thesis presents a discussion about the negative impacts of racial prejudice and discrimination upon the life of black American society in the Northern cities as reflected in Richard Wright’s Native Son. Data is divided into primary and secondary data. The source of the primary data is Richard Wright’s novel Native Son. The primary data consist of all words, dialogues, phrases and sentences occurring in the novel related to the topic. Meanwhile, the secondary data will be taken from articles, journals, essays, historical information, such as books related to race and ethnicity in US, critics on the novel, and many other pieces of related information from internet. The supporting data will be analyzed to support the primary data in providing more information about the negative impacts of racial prejudice and discrimination upon the life of black American society in the Northern cities. The objective of this thesis is to trace the negative impacts of racial prejudice and discrimination upon the life of black American society in the Northern cities especially in Chicago as reflected in Richard Wright’s Native Son. In order to achieve the goal, the researcher employs some approaches. Since this thesis is written under the discipline of American Studies, which attempts to analyze the problems through interdisciplinary approach, thus the researcher admits some approaches that are suitable and related to this object of research namely: biographical approach, socio-cultural approach, and historical approach. Yet, before employing interdisciplinary approach, the researcher applies first structuralism as a previous analysis in order to obtain systematized and explicit understanding stands as a valuable reference used to take our step of analysis to the world of social culture that is the analysis of the relation between Native Son and American social culture. Biographical approach is used to find out the relationship of Native Son to Wright’s social background in order to give more attention to the influential matter that stimulates him to write Native Son and to put attention to the Northern black problem. The socio-cultural approach and historical approach are applied to see the making of black ghetto in the Northern cities and the Great Depression phenomenon that becomes the background to Native Son. These approaches are applied in order to have the most appropriate analysis dealing with the problems of the thesis. Analysis leads to a conclusion that racial prejudice and discrimination against black American have some negative impacts upon their life. Racial prejudice and discrimination in housing, employment, education, and law and justice cause the existence of their sense of inferiority, hopelessness, and sense of alienation. It also has a tremendous contribution to their poverty and the increase of crime and juvenile delinquency. By rejecting blacks from the mainstream of American life and treating them as inferior race, white American create “Bad Nigger”, which can explode at any time into violence and fury. As long as racial prejudice and discrimination still exist, their condition is difficult to change even when they do their best.