Literary Elements Of Juuxtaposition In Richard Wright's Native Son

Wrights depiction of Bigger through his use of figurative language techniques, reveals Bigger as an unstable and violent character, and to the reader Biggers character creates an uneasy

Chupacabras feed on animal blood. Their tactic is to sneak up on their prey in the dark of night, and latch their fangs onto wherever they can. While most attacks show puncture wounds in the neck, there have been reports of them being in the belly and rib area of the animal, like they were pouncing on their prey from behind. They feed on any and all livestock, with chickens, goats, and sheep being the most commonly reported animals. Cattle and swine have also been reported, along with domesticated dogs and cats.

In Native Son, Richard Wright paces the plot through his varying sentence structure which differs depending upon the situation at hand. Through the use of short and succinct sentences, especially in dialogue, Wright displays Bigger’s timid nature towards white people. In the narrative, the use of concise sentences depicts fast motions and the simple observations of Bigger. For example, when Bigger carries the intoxicated Mary to her room, Wright describes, “He turned her round and began to mount the steps, one by one. He heard a slight creaking and stopped. He looked, straining his eyes in the gloom. But there was no one” (105) By using simple statements, Wright shows

“Native Son” composed by Richard Wright was revolved into an American drama picture in 1986 by director Jerrold Freeman. This piece caused a lot of controversy on whether the protagonist, Bigger Thomas, is guilty or innocent in the unfortunate events that have occurred. The purpose of this argumentative essay is to examine Richard Wright’s film adaptation of Native Son and prove his innocence based on how society deceived and deprived African Americans, his living and social environment, and his fears.

Samantha Immidisetti Mr. Sherry Literature of Self Discovery May 11, 2015 A Mental State of Isolation Richard Wright’s Native Son is centered around a poor black man, Bigger Thomas, who struggles to cope with his psychological imbalances during daily life in the hostile and racial world of 1930’s Chicago. After being captured for killing Mary Dalton, a young heiress, and Bessie Mears, a poor black girl, he contemplates the meaning of his life in jail. Bigger realizes the origins of his psychological constraints were built by the racism white society demonstrates and result in his reclusive nature. Therefore, Bigger Thomas’s psychological condition acts as an agent for his isolation.

not to mention being an immoral act in itself.  Bigger Thomas is one of those

In the beginning, when Bigger started working for the Dalton’s, he had to drive Mary Dalton, the daughter, to the University of Chicago. However, she wanted him to pick up her boyfriend, Jan, and head to a restaurant. When Bigger was in the car with Jan and Mary, “he was very conscious of his black skin...Jan and men like him” made Bigger feel insecure of who he was. (Wright 67) Even though Jan and Mary did not say anything that would insult his race, the presence of white people made him self-conscious. Being

  In Native Son, Wright employs Naturalistic ideology and imagery, creating the character of Bigger Thomas, who seems to be composed of a mass of disruptive emotions rather than a rational mind joined by a soul. This concept introduces the possibility that racism is not the only message of the novel, that perhaps every person would feel as isolated and alone as Bigger does were he trapped in such a vicious cycle of violence and oppression. Bigger strives to find a place for himself, but the blindness he encounters in those around him and the bleak harshness of the Naturalistic society that Wright presents the reader with close him out as effectively as if they had shut a door in his

Wright uses Bigger’s psychological corruption to send a message to the reader. It offers a new view on the underlying effects of racism on the black community of the time period. Wright creates Bigger from the diversity he saw throughout American society. “I made the discovery that Bigger Thomas was not black all the time; he was white, too, and there were literally millions of him, everywhere... I became conscious, at first dimly, and then later on with increasing clarity and conviction, of a vast, muddied pool of human life in America. It was as though I had put on a pair of spectacles whose power was that of an x-ray enabling me to see deeper into the lives of men. Whenever I picked up a newspaper, I 'd no longer feel that I was reading of the doings of whites alone (Negroes are rarely mentioned in the press unless they 've

When analyzing Bigger Thomas, Richard Wright’s protagonist in the novel Native Son, one must take into consideration the development of his characterization. Being a poor twenty-year-old Black man in the south side of Chicago living with his family in a cramped one- bedroom apartment in the 1930’s, the odds of him prospering in life were not in his favor. Filled with oppression, violence, and tragedy, Bigger Thomas’ life was doomed from the moment he was born. Through the novel, Bigger divulges his own dreams to provide for his family and to be anything but a “nobody.” Although Bigger struggled to fight through obstacles to pursue his dreams for the future, his chase for a better life came to an abrupt

In his most famous novel, Native Son, Richard Wright's female characters exist not as self-sufficient, but only in relation to the male figures of authority that surround them, such as their boyfriends, husbands, sons, fathers, and Bigger Thomas, the protagonists. Wright presents the women in Native Son as meaningless without a male counterpart, in which the women can not function as an independent character on their own. Although Wright depicts clearly the oppression of Blacks, he appears unconscious of creating female characters who regardless of race, are exploited and suppressed. Their sole purpose in the novel is to further the story by putting Bigger in new and more dangerous situations by

After Gus and Bigger finished playing white, they began to talk about the lives of the white people. Gus talks about white privileges. Bigger replies "I don’t know. I just feel that way. Every time I get to thinking about me being black and they being white, me being here and they being there, I feel like something awful’s going to happen to me..."(Wright, 20). The quotation exposes that Bigger could not overcome the obstacle of fear. His fear of white superiority restrains him from being courageous in taking control to improve where he is at now. Wright used words such as “being here” and “being there” to develop a sense of racial hierarchy that Bigger is afraid to go against. The word “Everytime” suggests that this feeling has always surrounded him and it’s unstoppable. If he opens up and tries, chances may be able to come to him but he chose not to. This fear is like a wall in his heart that he is unable to destroy. The collapse of the wall can cause chaos, and it is not what Bigger want. Altogether, fear of white supremacy confine Bigger in one place and does not let him leave so he can achieve that

Richard Wright’s novel, Native Son, depicts the life of the general black community in Chicago during the 1930’s. Though African Americans had been freed from slavery, they were still burdened with financial and social oppression. Forced to live in small, unclean quarters, eat foods on the verge of going bad, and pay entirely too much for both, these people struggled not to be pressured into a dangerous state of mind (Bryant). All the while, they are expected to act subserviently before their oppressors. These conditions rub many the wrong way, especially Bigger Thomas, the protagonist of the story. Though everyone he is surrounded by is going through all the same things that he is, growing up poor and uneducated has made Bigger angry at the whole world. You can see this anger in everything he does, from his initial thoughts to his final actions. Because of this, Bigger Thomas almost seems destined to find trouble and meet a horrible fate. Wright uses these conventions of naturalism to develop Bigger’s view of the white community(). With all of these complications, Bigger begins to view all white people as an overwhelming force that drags him to his end. Wright pushes the readers into Bigger’s mind, thoroughly explaining Bigger’s personal decay. Even Wright himself says that Bigger is in fact a native son, just a “product of American culture and the violence and racism that suffuse it” (Wright).

Many times in novels, authors will use conflicts to strengthen the plot and to give more depth to the story that they are penning. There are four main plot conflicts that authors have to choose from: man versus nature, man versus society, man versus man, and finally, man versus self. Authors, many times, will use only one or two of these conflicts but in the novel, Native Son, all four conflicts are used to some extent. In this novel, Richard Wright, does a superb job of meticulously blending all four conflicts together to form a well-rounded novel about a black man in 1920 's Chicago.

In Richard Wright’s Native Son, Bigger Thomas attempts to gain power over his environment through violence whenever he is in a position to do so.