The Reservation

In a way, I cannot fairly compare my expierences to Junior's. I have not felt the same things he has, and I cannot pretend to have felt those things. However, I think that there is some way in which everyone can relate to some part of Junior's life. Junior, and the other Indians on the reservation are unique in that the things that are holding them back are very physical. The lack of opporutnities and hope that are very evident on the reservation are things that could be left behind if everyone were to seek those things elsewhere, as Junior did when he started going to school at Reardan. But, as with many of the books that we have read this year, there is also an underlying fear. People on the reservation do not want to leave the reservation because that would mean leaving what they know, which is very scary. Junior, even for 5 days a week, has to leave his friends, his family, the rules and the lifestyle that he knows and will most likely eventually leave it all for good. Because so much of who the Indians are lies on the reservations in their communities and traditions and ways of life, leaving the reservation is also leaving all of those things, which means that the decision to leave would not be an easy one. 

In many ways, living almost anywhere in the world in some way is like living on a reservation. Where you are born greatly affects what you are able to do in life. We have all, in some ways, won the lottery of life in that we live in a developed country with lots of opportunities where we are able to receive a quality education and have hopes for the future. There are so many places in the world where people live in great poverty, and are not able to receive education and are therefore not able to break the cycles of poverty. Even the city of Chicago is split into reservations- deeply segregated neighborhoods varying dramatically in opportunity and socioeconomic status. Even though legally people can come and go as they please, they city has changed very little in the past century. The difference is that many of these "reservations" are not challenged in the same ways that the Indian reservations are, which makes them seem less like reservations.

Native Sons

By including Max's very long presentation of his case, Richard Wright is leaving very little to be guessed by the reader. By reading this, the reader pretty much knows exactly what Richard Wright is trying to say by telling Bigger's story because he essentially spells it out.
In the end, though, it did not matter how great of a speech it was that Max made because Bigger still got charged, but this likely would have been true regardless of what Max had said given Bigger's situation. I think that Max knows this, and that is why he says the things he says. Max is just trying to tell the truth, to bring the issues at least into public eye, while also trying as hard as he possibly can to save Bigger's life.
Part of the reason that Bigger's life is not saved is that Max's speech makes the trial not just about Bigger. Max makes the trial about everyone. Every black citizen, and every white citizen. He argues that Bigger's crime is much more than just his crime, that it is instead society's crime. And this means that everyone is to blame. If Bigger were not to be given the death sentence, that would have been seen as an acknowledgement of the jurors that something in the society is wrong which would mean that they were wrong, which is something no one wants to admit to. Max brings to light the deeply flawed society that they all live in, but because the flaws do not necessarily affect them, they feel no need to change them.
Buckley's speech, which is not nearly as eloquent or thought-provoking as Max's is the one that "wins" because Buckley tells everyone exactly what they want to hear. This case was not about what was right or wrong, it was about what the white people wanted, and so that is what prospered, as it did all throughout Native Son and throughout history.