Black Boy, Native Son, Rite Of Passage, and The Long Dream: Self-realization of a Black Man The white world dominates political and social life in all books by Richard Wright as Wright portrays the never-ending struggle a young black male faces when growing up in the United States. Black Boy, Native Son, Rite Of Passage and Wright's The Long Dream are all linked by the common theme of self-realization. In all four books, the climax occurs when a young black man realizes his position in society and the bad future that awaits him. In his autobiography Black Boy, Wright reveals his personal experience as a black man growing up in a white society. The process of achieving self-realization is marked by all the verbal and physical battles that the main characters in Wright's books must fight. He makes clear what all his characters experience when he writes in Black Boy: "I had never been abused by white people in my life, but I was already conditioned by their existence as if I had been the victim of a thousand lynchings" (34). The powerful presence of white people in a young black man's life is ingrained from birth but emerges clearly during the young black man's period of self-realization. In Native Son, the main character, Bigger Thomas, lives in a studio apartment with his mother, brother, and sister in a black ghetto on the South Side of Chicago. Bigger sees white people through eyes filled with hatred and jealousy. The feeling of inferiority compared to whites consumes Bigger's life. However, he tries to help his family by working for a rich and respected white family. But, in a moment of fear and hysteria, Bigger commits a murder that will change his life forever. Compared to the other three... middle of paper......: WW Norton and Company, 1982. 671-673.Marcus, Steven. Appiah 35-45.Macksey, Richard and Frank E. Moorer, eds. Richard Wright. Englewood, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1984.Margolies, Edward. Native children. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1968.McCall, Dan. “Wright's American Hunger.” Appiah 259-268.Stepto, Robert. “Literacy and Rising: Black Boy.” Appiah, 226-254. Tanner, Laura E. "Uncovering the Magical Disguise of Language: Narrative Presence in Richard Wright's Native Son." Appiah 132-146. Taddeo, Janice. "The Metamorphosis of Black Boy." Appiah 272-284.Wright, Richard. Black boy. New York: Harper and Row, 1945._____. The long dream. New York: Harper and Row, 1987._____. Native son. New York: HarperCollins, 1993._____. Rite of passage. New York: HarperCollins, 1994.