Both Fyodor Dostoyevsky, in Crime and Punishment and Richard
             Wright, in Native Son look to men who have been pushed beyond reason into
             murder, and both authors ask us what justice means in such a context. The
             answers that the authors provide are quite different - which should
             hardly be surprising since both authors suggest that ideas of justice
             must reflect the local realities of life in a given place and time and
             the settings for each of the novels is dramatically different. But the
             answers that each provides are also strikingly open-ended: We must
             ourselves decide in the end what justice was granted and what denied to
             Both novels ask us to decide for ourselves what moral action is
             possible in a society in which justice is scarce, and our answer to that
             question in large measure will reflect our own experiences of how justice
             A Man With No Place To Go
             Wright's novel - arguably one of the most influential American
             books of the 20th century - relates the story of Bigger Thomas, a man who
             had never had a fair chance in life because of the racism he faces as an
             African-American. We see him traveling downward through society and we
             can predict that his actions will lead him (as in fact they do) to crime
             and punishment. As a young black man in a decade (the 1930s) and a place
             (Chicago) that sees him as only being of possible use as a slightly more
             intelligent than average beast of burden) he is trapped and made
             desperate by a future in which the walls will continue to close in on
             him. His desperation, and his anger (as well as his underlying
             personality) lead him to the edge of violence and then push him over and
             he murders a young white woman. From this moment on he cannot hope to
             find any help, any hope, in a society that already had very little use
             He is abandon...