Critical Overview
Wright’s literary reputation was established in the early 1940s when he published two critically acclaimed bestsellers, Native Son and Black Boy, in rapid succession. Though he was a prolific writer in many genres, over the decades the great majority of critical attention has focused on these two major works and, to a lesser extent, his first book of short stories, Uncle Tom’s Children, all written before Wright turned forty.
At the height of his popularity Wright was considered the best African-American writer of his generation, but his critical reputation has since declined. In fact, recent critics view his work as uneven. In 1946 Wright left the United States to live in France. He continued to write fiction and nonfiction until his death at age fifty-two.
In 1960, when Eight Men appeared, Wright had fallen into relative obscurity with his earlier success sometimes attributed to his topical subject matter rather than the literary merits of his writing. Additionally, scholars may have neglected Wright because his career fell between two great high points in African-American letters—the Harlem Renaissance of the 1930s and the Black Power movement of the 1960s. However, the rise of the field of African-American studies has led to a renewed scholarly interest in Wright in recent years.
The critical reaction to Eight Men was tepid; most reviewers find only one or two of the eight stories up to Wright’s standards. The collection contains stories written over the course of twenty-five years, representing a wide range in style and subject matter. Some critics praise the greater subtlety and sympathy evidenced in the collection’s representations of race relations, suggesting that Wright’s exile led to a more humanistic and philosophical outlook.
Yet most critics prefer the older stories, including ‘‘The Man Who Was Almost a Man.’’ These stories are considered similar to his major early works.
In New Republic, Irving Howe asserts that ‘‘these stories do give evidence of Wright’s literary restlessness, his wish to keep learning and experimenting, his often clumsy efforts to break out of the naturalism which was his first and, I think, necessary mode of expression ... I think he went astray whenever he abandoned naturalism entirely.’’
While Howe perceives Eight Men as successful in his naturalistic stories, Commonweal’s Richard Gillman condemns the book as ‘‘dismaying stale and dated.’’
An early critic of Wright, James Baldwin provided a positive review of the short fiction collection. He asserted that Wright, had he not died, would have been on the edge of a new artistic breakthrough, ‘‘acquiring a new tone, and a less uncertain aesthetic distance, and a new depth.’’ Baldwin also praised the older stories: ‘‘perhaps it is odd, but they did not make me think of the 1930s or even, particularly, of Negroes. They made me think of human loss and helplessness.’’
In an unfavorable review, W. G. Rogers of the Saturday Review maintains that only one story, ‘‘The Man Who Went to Chicago,’’ ‘‘shows Wright at his realistic, bludgeoning, blunt best.’’
Regarding Wright’s direct style, Gloria Bramwell compares ‘‘The Man Who Lived Underground,’’ to Ralph Ellison’s 1952 classic Invisible Man in a way that may sum up Wright’s status on the literary scene:
‘‘Today Americans are more sophisticated and more likely to approve Ellison’s action as he strips society’s pretensions bare, laughs at it and at himself, and mocks its attempts to destroy him. Wright was never far removed enough to do more than suffer and articulate that suffering incompletely ... but powerfully enough to touch us. And he is merciless in the presentation of that suffering ... It fascinated, it horrified, it aroused, it even repelled, but its force was undeniable. It has the hypnotic force of nightmares from which we cannot wake voluntarily ... He articulated as no other an American nightmare. That he could not waken out of it himself is our loss.’’
Get Ahead with eNotes
Start your 48-hour free trial to access everything you need to rise to the top of the class. Enjoy expert answers and study guides ad-free and take your learning to the next level.
Already a member? Log in here.