Native Son Thesis

Firstly, Wright utilizes the figurative language technique simile to characterize Bigger as an unstable character in order to create an uneasy mood. Wright writes “These were the rhythms of his life: indifference and violence; periods of abstract brooding and periods of intense desire; moments of silence and moments of anger—like water ebbing and flowing from the tug of a far-away, invisible force” (Wright 31). Bigger is being depicted as a character who suffers from massive mood and character changes, going from silence to hatred and rage. This is why Bigger can be seen as an unstable character in the passage, because

The quotations points out the presupposed role of the violent black man; in that his violence is contained to the black community, and would not transcend to the upper class white people. It also presents the issue that by killing Mary; Bigger forgoes any sort of presumption about his abilities. So, Bigger’s ‘tingling sensation’ is,

I would argue, however, that Bigger always detested whites treating him like a nobody and after accidentally killing Mary Dalton, he began being more open about he he feels since he had little to lose. Anyway, Bryant’s main argument is that the white world does not see Bigger, and this is one of Bigger’s biggest fears. Indeed, when they accuse him of rape, this takes away the subjectivity that would have been associated with him had he simply been called a murderer. In addition to making Bigger seem less than human by labeling him as a rapist, the authorities do not think that Bigger is intelligent enough to carry out a murder as complex as Mary Dalton’s. All this goes to show that Bigger is a symbol that whites have used as an excuse to discriminate against Blacks, and who Bigger is as a person is not something that really matters. The reason Bigger has negative feelings towards all Whites for the majority of the book is because they only see his skin color.

Bigger’s reasoning for putting the blame on the communist Jan Erlone was his knowledge that white people don’t like communists. Therefore, he knows the police as well as the white people of Chicago will be happy to convict a communist for the murder. Part of Richard Wright’s purpose in writing this book was to share the views of the communist party and show how unjustly members of the party were treated. Jan was arrested and put in jail based on Bigger’s lies and false accusations and Bigger even pulls a gun on him. Despite all this Jan tries to help Bigger and has Max, the communist’s lawyer, represent Bigger in his trial. Wright simultaneously shows the prejudice against communists and how they are good people.

Bigger Thomas feels paranoia because he knew, for a fact, about the reactions he was going to emit from the White community just as much as any African American did. If one looks at history, they would recall that whenever a Black man did something to a White woman, it was that was their death knell. Earlier in the novel, the narrator explains to the readers that “they felt that it was much easier and safer to rob their own people, for they knew that white policemen never really searched diligently for Negroes who committed crimes against other Negroes” (Wright 17). The narrator points this out to remind readers that when a Black man did something to their race, the White men would look over it. However, if a Black man were to do something to a White man, that’s when they would hunt down a Black man until they have found him and arrest him. In a sense, this was used as foreshadowing to show that Bigger would eventually, albeit accidentally, murder Mary herself. When it comes to Mary’s death, White men called for his head as if she represented something to them despite them not knowing her personally. In fact, Buckley goes as far as to state that Bigger Thomas “has ravished and struck down one of the finest and most delicate flowers of our womanhood” (Wright 373). Buckley, who doesn’t even know Mary Dalton, knows that she was White and held her high on a pedestal as a way to show the readers how White men viewed their women. However, it could be stated that Mary’s death “is

Early within the novel Wright establishes Bigger as a force to be feared when Bigger causes his younger sister, Vera, to faint by dangling a freshly killed rat before her face. As his mother, Ma, tends to Vera she sobs, “Boy, sometimes I wonder what makes you act like you do” (Wright 7). This shows that Bigger has a history of acting in an insensitive manner towards members of his own family. If his lack of sensitivity is not enough to isolate him from those within his own family, the consequences of those actions are surely enough to. Additionally, Bigger extends these tactless acts to his friend and gang member, Gus, and love interest, Bessie.

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

She tells Bigger, “I think I can trust you” (Wright 64) in order to toy with his emotions and disobey his boss’ orders as Bigger, Mary, and Mary’s communist boyfriend Jan Erlone take the car out for a night in the loop. After a rousing evening on the town filled with booze and conversations about communism that left Bigger offended and ashamed to be black, it became Bigger’s duty to make sure that Mary was placed safely in her bed after being too intoxicated to stand on her own. Because Bigger strives to obey his boss, he feels inclined to personally place Mary in her own room in order to avoid trouble. This shows that Bigger Thomas took Mary to her bedroom with no intention of causing any problems in his new workplace reminding the reader that Bigger is not an evil human being, just a product of his environment. After being in Mary’s bedroom, Bigger decided to overstay his welcome due to his curious arousal with white women. To Bigger’s surprise, “a hysterical terror seized him” (Wright 85) as Mrs. Dalton makes an appearance in Mary’s bedroom to check on her daughter. Bigger automatically assumed that if he was caught in Mary Dalton’s bedroom at an odd hour of the night he would be immediately fired and accused of raping a white woman that could ruin his already tragic life forever. Due to her blindness, Bigger was not seen immediately, but he realized if Mary kept mumbling, Mrs. Dalton would make her way

Richard Wright chooses the setting to be South Side Chicago in the 1930s. At that time racism was prominent. In the novel, Mary says “I’ve been to England, France, and Mexico, but I don’t know how people live ten blocks from me.”(Wright 67). Readers might view this as an exaggerated statement but this was a common case during that time, and it showed economic equality which Richard Wright purposely focused on to show the imperfections of communism. Additionally, African Americans were not the soldiers but normally custodians or any other minor job which relates to Bigger when he said “All they want a black man for is to dig ditches. And in the navy, all I can do is wash dishes and scrub floors.”(Wright 278). Showing that even though Bigger wanted to perform a noble duty and serve

They are aware of the hardships they face, so Wright indicates throughout his protagonist the endless conflict of every African American and the choices they have to change their life. He brings the fact that the exceptional conditions they have can be changed only by exceptional acts. Bigger follows different ways in his trip to create identity. He begins with stealing, killing, escaping and rebelling against the white's law. He wants to feel he

At the beginning of the novel, the audience sees that Bigger is forced to steal because he is unable to get any good jobs. Bigger and his gang are planning to rob a white person for the first time, which scares Bigger as he see’s whites as an unstoppable and hostile force. Bigger also goes to a movie where he see’s white presented as wealthy and sophisticated while blacks are presented as savages. This movie shows how Bigger’s perception of whites was formed. Later when Bigger kills Mary, we see that he killed her out of fear and not anger or ill intent.

When Bigger Thomas brings Mary Dalton home after a night out, he is ever so careful with her, in hopes of not disturbing the rest of the house. He doesn’t want Mary, or even himself to get in trouble, because of Mary’s drunkenness. Mary, indifferent than the white community, “responded to him as if he were human, as if he lived in the same world as she “(Wright 65). Because Bigger felt a little more comfortable around Mary, than he did with her father, he acted in a way that later put him to shame. Mrs. Dalton walks into the bedroom where Bigger and Mary were, which frightens him, making him commit the crime of killing Mary. Bigger thought that he would be caught, so he covers Mary’s face to keep her quiet. Mrs. Dalton’s blindness causes her to not physically see Bigger or Mary, or even the crime that Bigger does. The blindness causes Bigger to both commit a violent act, and get away with it for a short period of time. The physical blindness correlates with the idea that whites do not see blacks as

Throughout the whole novel Bigger had felt cornered and intimidated by the white man and who they were. However, this man was different from the others. He treated Bigger as a normal human being, not as a downtrodden person or a murderer, just a normal human being. This is the only instince in which this happens in the whole novel. Wright used it primarily to show that he himself did not feel as if all whites were bad but that because of stereotyping, many were. Wright goes out of his way to show that this man was not under the inlfluence of stereotyping and to show the decent side of some whites.

Mrs. Dalton's discovery of Bigger is a serious threat to his life, which causes him to frantically search for safety.  "He turned and a hysterical terror seized him, as though he were falling from a great height...It was Mrs. Dalton.  He wanted to knock her out of the way and bolt from the room" (Wright 97).  Like the rat, Bigger is trapped and in danger, with no possibility for escape.  In his last, desperate fight for survival, he suffocates Mary, similar to the rat's wild leap for his pant leg.

The oppression that Bigger experiences from his mother is the root of his tendency to want control. She deprives him of his own identity which leaves him to do the only natural thing: create one. Bigger also has control over Buddy, but he does not need to use violence to accomplish it because Buddy is entranced with everything that Bigger does. Wright also foreshadows the events of the novel in the opening scene. The rat is a symbol of the white world’s view of Bigger: an annoying and dangerous monstrosity who does not belong in a civilized environment. Literally, Bigger must gain control over the rat due to his compulsion to commit violent acts. Bigger’s killing the rat symbolizes his destruction of himself that he creates through the violence that he commits.