Writing Social Justice

Without making readers feel like they're being told what to think

Get all that Writers at Work has to offer, including posts on strengthening your writing habits and workshops on mastering the art and business of being a creative writer on Substack. Become a free or paid subscriber. Your writing and writing career are worth it.

Richard Wright’s Native Son (1940) opens with the novel’s protagonist Bigger Thomas killing a rat in his family’s one-room apartment. It’s not just any rat; it’s a foot-long, teeth-bearing monster of a rat that “could cut your throat.” Bigger has no choice but to kill it.

If this were a high school English class, we’d ruin the novel by discussing the scene’s “symbolism.” We’d set up an equation to the effect of rat = x and try to solve for x. In doing so, we’d reduce the novel and Wright’s brilliance.

True, the scene does predict how the novel plays out: Bigger, living in poverty in Chicago with no opportunity, could be said to be forced to kill the daughter of a white, rich family. Or is he? That’s the novel’s question.

Some sa…