Abstract

This paper examines the possibility of friendship across differences in Richard Wright’s Native Son by examining the protagonist’s relationship to three pivotal white characters in the text. Through the application to Native Son of a theory of friendship I cull from Heidegger’s discussion of care in Being and Time, I offer a model for relationships whereby radically different individuals may approach each other across and in spite of differences. In putting Heidegger and Wright into dialogue I both shed light on the intricacies of inter-subjective relations depicted by Wright as well as give depth to an obscure passage regarding inter-subjective relations in Heidegger’s Being and Time