Native Son is a novel that follows the life of Bigger Thomas, an impoverished young black man living in Chicago in the 1930s. Bigger tries to get a job to help his family, but everything backfires when he accidentally kills the daughter of his employer. He burns her body in the family furnace, and later also kills his girlfriend Bessie. He is caught, and while imprisoned receives regular visits from Max, a lawyer. Together they discuss Bigger's life and his relationship to the world as a black man.
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