In Native Son, Richard Wright tells the story of a young black man named Bigger Thomas who lives in a poor, all-black neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago in the 1930s. Bigger is angry and resentful at the white world that seems to be closing in on him, and he turns to a life of crime to try to escape his circumstances. When he accidentally kills a white woman, he realizes that there is no way out for him and that he is doomed to die. The novel is a powerful portrait of racism and violence in America, and it remains one of the most important works of fiction about race in this country.