Native Son

"Native Son" by T. D. Hamm is a science fiction story set in the not-so-distant future, featuring Tommy Benton, a young Martian colonist experiencing Earth for the first time and struggling to find his place. As Tommy wrestles with Earth’s heavy gravity and the differences in culture of a futuristic New York City, he feels more and more distant from this new place and increasingly homesick for Mars, leading to internal conflict with his family expectations. The story takes the reader through Tommy's difficulty adjusting, highlighting the struggle of being an outsider and the longing for acceptance, culminating in a sad climax that examines questions of identity, belonging, and what it truly means to be human in world of advanced technology.