Start Reading The Outsider Designed By Richard Wright Available In Readable Copy
and thematically akin to Crime and Punishment, with a Black main character constantly threatened by the powers that be and surrounded by Communist paranoia in midth Century America.
“Because in my heart, . . Im I felt Im innocent Thats what made the horror, . . “ p.It is hard to look at the books of Richard Wright without considering the racial tension surrounding the time of publication and setting, But objectively, without bothering about the author's background, his books are masterpieces, They are bold, daring, tragic, powerful, intricate, deep and profound, Ascribe any adjective you like, but there is no substitution for immersing yourself in The Outsider or Native Son, Don't forget his short stories either, I put Richard Wright on the level of Dostoyevsky, So why isn't he read in high school English classes Why isn't he anthologized as often as James Baldwin or even paltry Kurt Vonnegut Sure, his themes and method are controversial.
The things his characters say might send a shiver down your spine every once in a while, But I guarantee you will never forget this book, Don't be intimidated by its size, It is nothing like Henry James or even Dreiser, Wright writes simply, without tiptoeing around, If you can read a newspaper, you can read this book, But that doesn't stop him from ploughing headlong into immense abysses of existentialism, If you don't believe me, read his incredible short story called "Big Black Good Man, " This was my first introduction to Wright, and I still think it's a great taste of what he can do, great work of potent relevance to us today, a timeless clasic!! loved it!!! I wish it had ended differently, The thought processes shared were spellbinding for me because of the time period in which this book was written, It made me think about the true purpose of a person, and if, in the process of living, do you always maintain that there is more in store for this life, or is there a teetering back and forth between this and knowing that you are doing exactly what you are supposed to be doing One thing I took away from this book that is timeless is that your choices truly shape your destiny.
This was gripping in so many ways, It was puzzling and eye opening and dark and serious, This book haunted me when I put it down, I found myself thinking about the main character and his take on things, I found myself trying to imitate his stoicism and the way he could be so emotionally detached was remarkable, This was brilliant and the way the story intertwined and and weaved its way around issues and ideals was astonishing,star ideas with a kind of hitormiss execution, Some passages are precise, fantastic, and real, while others seem clunky in expositionheavy dialogue or accounting for a difficult plot, It sometimes seems like Wright is trying to bring "Crime and Punishment" to a new generation he doesn't trust to read on its own, But it is a noble task whatever it takes to bring "Crime and Punishment" to more people is fine by me, But the ideas make up for some of the issues I took with the narrative, I had a hard time with this one, I wanted to like Cross but I couldn't stand his character most of the time, He was extremely intelligent which was probably the only thing I admired about him, Besides that, I did not like the darker side of him that entailed him hitting his wife, abandoning his kids, lying to everyone he met, and murdering four men.
The writing was actually pretty good and only once was I really unable to keep reading if you read the book, it's the part where Cross talks for maybe twenty pages about his viewpoints.
It was probably important to understanding his character but I just couldn't read it, It was too long and boring,
And finally, the book seemed to be teeming with important themes but none in particular really stuck out to me, Mostly it just left me feeling extremely sad, angry, and confused, Great novel by's Harlem Renaissance black writer Richard Wright, Its an expressly philosophical book that includes the ideas of Nietzsche, Sartre, Kierkegaard and more, The story of a black existentialist bordering on nihilism who is torn between fascists and communists, It blurs the line between a pulpy crime story and a highliterary novel,
All my praise,.Once again Richard Wright has blown my mind, The Outsider is the third novel I've read of his and like Native Son and Black Boy, it has catapulted me into a terrifying, uncomfortable world.
Twentysix year old Damon Cross is trapped in Chicago and escapes to a double life in Harlem, twisting his existentialist beliefs into justification for murder.
He is an outsider in the white world, the black community, within his own family and in the communist party,
This novel is a portrait of an alienated young man grappling with the meaning of life, a searing indictment of racism, a critique of the exploitive communist party of thes and a suspenseful thriller.
There are pages in the last quarter of the book that are dominated by monologues of characters exchanging their beliefs i, e. existentialism vs. communism. I zoned out during these, Otherwise I was on the edge of my seat, Still havepages left, but I feel pretty safe rating this five, I have yet to read a book by Wright I didn't love, He writes so clearly and engagingly he can make even dense philosophical passages breezy,
This is not for you if you don't like novels of ideas or novels that deal with political, social, and idealogical issues, It's essentially Wright's take on an existential novel, The books that it seems most similar to are The Stranger and Crime and Punishment, It's much more interesting and expansive than Camus though never been a big fan,
That's not to say that it's purely abstract, Like my favorite existentialist writing, it does all the character, scene, and sensory work necessary to give lifeblood to its ideas, Still, if you're looking for a more traditional narrative, I'd advise Native Son, the first half of Black Boy, or some of his short fiction.
Though weighed down by some of its heavyhandedness a couple of extended monologues on politics, a few too many narrative coincidences, etc, Wright's novel is an engrossing portrayal of a black man's alienation and nihilism.
It reads like a modern version of 'Crime and Punishment' in parts, with some Camus and Sartre thrown in, I still prefer 'Native Son', though, In any case, it is a great novel, Absolutely engaging! There are so many emotional memories and moments tied to this book, Ill have to wait and write a summary,
."Io non so neppure quello che faccio, infatti non quello che voglio io faccio, ma quello che detesto"
Chiesi che mi inviassero l'elenco dei libri lasciati dal defunto Cross Damon.
Li ricevetti prima di sera ed ebbi di cosa essere soddisfatto, Avevo trovato la prima vera traccia ed erano i suoi Nietzsche, Hegel, Jaspers, Heidegger, Husserl, Kierkgaard, Dostoevskji, . Capii d'avere a che fare con un uomo avvelenato da idee malsane",
Al centro dell'opera di Wright c'è l'individuo con le sue pulsioni, È interessante come quell'individuo venga contrapposto alla società che lo ospita, Wright militò nel partito comunista da cui si distaccò nel, Le impronte di quel cammino si ritrovano nelle pagine in cui il protagonista va alla ricerca della propria assoluta libertà, A costui la vita ha riservato una seconda possibilità viene creduto morto e può rifarsi una vita altrove, Già si può fuggire dai propri affetti, dai propri impegni, dal proprio lavoro, ma come evadere dalle sbarre del proprio cuore
Perché certa gente è destinata come Giobbe a vivere un'interminabile dibattito con la propria visione della vita Perché certi cuori sentono l'esistenza come un affronto e le condizioni di essa li umiliano
A Pag.
Viene chiesto la protagonista:
Perché hai letto tutti quei libri
Cercavo una cosa, risponde
Che cosa
Non lo so, ammette tristemente lui
Vi siete mai chiesti perché avete letto così tanti libri
Cè una cosa peggiore di non trovare che cosa si cerca, è non sapere che cosa si sta cercando.
Libero da tutti, fuorché da te stesso
Spiazzante eppure avvincente, Incredibile eppure notevole. Sconvolgente eppure monopolizzante. Drammatico eppure ha letteralmente catturato la mia attenzione, dall'inizio alla fine,
Difficile per me esprimere ora un giudizio articolato e oggettivo di questo romanzo, E' tutto: è un giallo è un romanzo psicologico, filosofico, sociale è immaginario, quasi distopico, e in parte autobiografico è perfino romantico e anche un saggio, La scrittura è semplice ed essenziale, Mai sopra le righe.
Non affondo nella trama e nei significati del romanzo, Si può solo leggere per farsene un'idea,
Ho conosciuto Richard Wright con l'altro suo romanzo sitelinkRagazzo negro, Ringrazio NoodLesse che mi ha consigliato di leggere anche questo,
P. S. Manca la quinta stellina perché in un paio di passaggi ci sono, secondo me, delle incongruenze, I must admit, I unknowingly stood unprepared as this book emotionally and essentially intruded upon me, I now feel an acute fear in realizing the damage, It will likely haunt me, or dictate any future understanding I have of myself, and may signify a definitive point in my everlasting development, Forgive me, as the following will not implicate the kind of perversity which this work played in my mind, I have to embrace it before you can, And this may never come to pass,
History will undoubtedly memorialize Richard Wright, alongside Ralph Ellison, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, etc, as one who speaks for the scorned and neglected in America.
Their experiences as black intellectuals beckons them to dictate their ideas through the perspective of their lives, In a sense, their stories and ideas symbolize the plight of the marginalized, the systemic outcast, the undesired the proverbial black sheep, a cliche indicative of more than just the color of its wool.
But again, this is not a perspective of transcendence, since cultural heritage should be gloriously celebrated, proudly embraced and joyously proclaimed, Yet understanding this experience holistically, as an experience shared, in varying degrees, by many outsiders, leads to a communal bliss of brotherhood discovered in the depths of despair and hatred.
Of course, America acknowledges these outsiders, yet in most cases they choose to confer a comforting identity upon them, Insiders mechanically grind through life oblivious to the true consciousness of these people, Why Because the insider desires a bearable and clean conscience not the kind of conscience free of guilt, but the kind of conscience blissfully ignorant of the existence of outsiders who feel disenfranchised in a world preaching brotherhood and equality.
Wright compacts the psyche of the outsider into his main character, Cross Damon, who, in the very fabric of his name, embodies a dualistic conflict of good and evil.
Yet Cross disregards the pretense of good and evil, bars caging the human psyche, and seizes his desire for a moldshattering freedom, Rather than good, there exists himself, and rather than evil, there exists the world, And vice versa. Because of his disillusionment, his enlightened vision into the nature of man's worldly existence, he learns to hate both that which lies within him and that which the powerful constructed around him.
He needs neither angel nor demon to aid him, He would rather live without needing them,
Like Dostoevsky, Wright possesses a keen insight into the psyche of his characters, Native Son struck the world dumb as it witnessed the psychological depth of a man we might have carelessly called a simple beast.
Now Cross Damon, notably unconcerned with the color of his skin, exhibits the psychological ache of a man outside the accepted and encouraged processes of thought and existence.
If "man is nothing in particular, . . ", a characteristic feared by man, a reality hidden behind and compensated by the constructs of civilization and her systems, Cross seeks meaning by abandoning the imprisoning perspectives of institutionalized marginalization and embraces the full potential of life uninhibited.
Insiders seek power and spend their days maintaining it, Cross seeks meaning and life the potential of which men fear because it cannot be overpowered and controlled,
Throughout the story, Cross rarely plans events and circumstances, He simply reacts to them, One of the most devastating blows to his psyche occurs when he realizes how his actions represent an insider's will to power, Cross' life is not a crusade, but a will to live and live fully, Yet along his journey of actionable existentialism he suffers mightily, His life regurgitates the horrors of his existence onto every new circumstance, Then he wades in the simmering bile as his soul caramelizes, The conflict of Self and World wage a brutal campaign simply because Cross desires freedom from the effects of an outsider's status, But in pursuing this dream he realizes the inescapable connectedness of men and the world, how men constitute the world and the world constitutes men, and how even the conscious outsider, desiring freedom from the yokes of religion, social and political aspirations, civil promises, cannot stand loneliness.
Whatever meaning Cross discovers rests in the ironic connectedness of people people who seek nothing more than the organization of life and a will to power.
What fate awaits the outsider Perhaps a choice, To yearn for the enslavement of institutionalized
illusion and exist, or to find purpose and freedom and live, though perhaps alone, The outsider either suffers an ignorant consciousness of the world around him, or an awakened, damning consciousness of the soul within himself and how it cannot exist as fully human within a system bent on power and afraid of its people's own potential and propensity toward life.
The undulating philosophies expressed throughout this book, as well as the experience of the protagonist, were highly relatable and beautifully expressed, One can really feel what the main character is feeling, Brilliant. "Wright presents a compelling story of a black man's attempt to escape his past and start anew in Harlem, Cross Damon is a man at odds with society and with himself, a man who hungers for peace but who brings terror and destruction wherever he goes.
As Maryemma Graham writes in her Introduction to this edition, with its restored text established by the Library of America, "The Outsider is Richard Wright's second installment in a story of epic proportions, a complex master narrative designed to show American racism in raw and ugly terms.
. . The stories of Bigger Thomas, . . and Cross Damon bear an uncanny resemblance to many contemporary cases of street crime and violence, There is also a prophetic note in Wright's construction of the criminal mind as intelligent, introspective, and transformative, "
In addition to the Introduction by Maryemma Graham, this edition includes a notes section by Arnold Rampersad, ".