Revisiting Richard Wright’s NATIVE SON to Understand Why Americans Choose Fascism
Is there really a compelling rationale for Americans choosing fascism this election season?
This question is one we really need to explore. And beyond looking for a good reason, we simply need to ask in a serious way why they did in a way that likely brings us to considerations outside the realm of rationality and which instead reside within a more fundamental emotional dynamic motivating Americans.
As a professor of U.S. literature, I tend to think literary works offer a lot of insights into the American character and cultural dynamics over time. When it comes to understanding Americans’s attraction to a fascism that would seem to promise nothing but punishment even for those who voted for it, Richard Wright’s landmark 1941 novel Native Son, through the development of its main character Bigger Thomas, may help us understand why the American voter chose a felonious rapist who espouses an authoritarian and retributive agenda over another candidate who speaks of ameliorative policies to address Americans’ real struggles, whether fully sufficient or not.
One can point out the foibles and insufficiencies of the Democratic Party or the Harris campaign, but that position doesn’t really seem to explain why Americans turned to Trump’s authoritarianism and hate.
