Before discussing Jan Erlone and Boris Max, the communists in the novel, it should be known that Richard Wright was a member of the Communist Party when he wrote Native Son. Wright used these two characters in the novel along to support the movement and make it look more positive. This, along with other things to be included later, was very controversial and generated much criticism for the novel. The communist characters turn out to be the most supportive and helpful towards Bigger. Jan Erlone is Mary Dalton’s boyfriend and is quite similar to her at the beginning of the novel. He contributes to Bigger feeling afraid and ashamed as well as tries to force communism upon him. After murdering Mary, Bigger attempts to frame Jan for the crime. …show more content…
The article by Jack L. Nelson and Valerie Ooka Pang discusses racism in the North and South. Racism in the South was far harsher than the North, yet the North was still pretty bad. There was no escaping it, many African American’s believed escaping to the North would solve many problems but in reality, it did not. This is because racist thoughts will always exist, due to this behavior will always be affected. They may punish racist people now but that does not prevent it from causing problems (Nelson & Pang, 2006). Paul Kivel, the author of How White People Can Serve as Allies to People of Color in the Struggle to End Racism, says that being an ally to end racism is one of the most important things a person can do. Racism is frozen and motile (Frisina, 2016). Meaning it will always be present. Even though people change and time changes, some problems never fully just disappear. Kivel states that there is no correct way to be an ally and whites should team up with colored people to end racism. He mentions that time changes circumstances and what is a priority today may not be tomorrow. People of color need support in order to end the struggle of racism and other injustices. Racism is a big part of this country’s culture and it always will be. If no one ever takes a stand to stop it, then how can we assume …show more content…
He has a dissociation with his emotions and does not have a sense of guilt when he does something wrong. He is fearful of the whites and this fear causes him to hate them. Olympia Duhart, the author of A Native Son’s Defense: Bigger Thomas and Diminished Capacity, wrote that Bigger would meet elements of the diminished capacity doctrine. Diminished capacity is not an insanity defense, but maybe more of a justification of Bigger’s actions in the moment when he killed Mary. In the moment, his judgement was failed him and he faced an emotional and mental disturbance. Duhart states that Bigger’s social surrounding is likely the cause for is lapse of judgement. This would also explain why Bigger was not remorseful after killing Mary. The environment he was living his basically desensitized him and filled him with anger. It is not just murder because it has a deeper more symbolic reason for its occurrence. Mary mad Bigger afraid an ashamed, whites in general made him fearful and angry. Mary Dalton told Bigger she wanted to help him, she wanted to tears down the wall between the two races. Wright wrote, “she responded to him as if he were human, as if he lived in the same world as she. And he had never felt that before in a white person. But why? Was this some kind of game?” This quote from Native Son shows Bigger’s confused response towards Mary and also the distrust he has towards
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.
It would be ignorant to say racism does not exist till today. There is almost a complete 100 year difference between the reconstruction period and the Civil Rights Movement for equal rights to the Black society. While slavery took time to vanish in the south in those hundreds of years, segregation was pushed harshly, laws we 're enacted to prevent Blacks from having certain privileges that whites had. Segregation almost seemed to kick the Blacks out of the society we live together in. The Jim Crow laws had made efficient work in separating the Blacks from the Whites in society, and it took the Civil Rights movement in 1964 to finally bring more equality to the African-American society. However, the Ku Klux Klan and still other organizations had existed and continue to exist despite efforts to bring equality. There is a strong social equality for the Black population in America today, but because of hate organizations and discrimination still existing today, black lives are being lost through murder, and even in forms of police brutality. Take for example the L.A riots in 1992 from the beating of Rodney King, or going back to 1967 the Detroit riots which tore apart these cities. Today Black Lives Matter movements exist to crush out racism in society so people no longer have to live in fear, and it is an existing movement that I think will actually fade as generations in the future work to build up society, and racism will become a thing of a past. There is however, always going to be something that causes prejudices and hate in society if not directed to one group of people. Even today if racism disappears between blacks and whites, prejudice occurs between cultural people here in America. These problems exist mainly in America, and it is socially slowing us down from advancing as a
The theme that Native Son author Richard Wright puts in this story is that the white community makes Bigger act the way he does, that through the communities actions, Bigger does all the things he is accused of doing. The theme that I present is that Bigger only acts the way that he did because of the influences that the white community has had on him accepted by everyone. When Bigger gets the acceptance and love he has always wanted, he acts like he does not know what to do, because really, he does not. In Native Son, Bigger uses his instincts and acts like the white people around him have formed him to act. They way that he has been formed to act is to not trust anyone. Bigger gets the acceptance and love he wanted from Mary and Jan, but he still hates them and when they try to really get to know him, he ends up hurting them. He is scared of them simply because he has never experienced these feelings before, and it brings attention to him from himself and others. Once Bigger accidentally kills Mary, he feels for the first time in his life that he is a person and that he has done something that somebody will recognize, but unfortunately it is murder. When Mrs. Dalton walks in and is about to tell Mary good night, Bigger becomes scared stiff with fear that he will be caught committing a crime, let alone rape. If Mrs. Dalton finds out he is in there he will be caught so he tries to cover it up and accidentally kills Mary. The police ask why he did not just tell Mrs. Dalton that he was in the room, Bigger replies and says he was filled with so much fear that he did not know what else to do and that he did not mean to kill Mary. He was so scared of getting caught or doing something wrong that he just tried to cover it up. This is one of the things that white people have been teaching him since he can remember. The white people have been teaching him to just cover things up by how the whites act to the blacks. If a white man does something bad to a black man the white man just covers it up a little and everything goes back to normal.
As Bigger is trying to dispose of Mary’s body he questions if he should just run away. Bigger knows that “he could not. He must not. He had to burn this girl” (Wright 92). Bigger is aware that he has to get rid of Mary’s body for the same reason he had to kill her. Once Mrs. Dalton walked into Mary’s room, her white presence caused Bigger to act based on how society would react. Bigger knew that if he had been found in a room alone with a white girl he would be killed. From what Bigger knew about white society he would be killed if was caught in the room alone with Mary. He was put in a positon by society that left him no other option but to kill. Bigger knew that no matter the circumstances, the crime would fall on him because “he was black and had been alone in a room where a white girl had been killed; therefore he had killed her” (Wright 106). Whether his crime was accidental or not he knew that because of the image given to black people, especially black men, in the community that the blame would be put on him. In the room that night, both Bigger and Mary were only reacting in the way that society had expected them to. They were not individuals anymore, they represented the more powerful forces of the black and white society, acting as they had been told to. Bigger was unable to defend himself because society had already determined death as his
As stated before, racism is not something that people thought of in the last ten years, it is an ongoing theme that has been flowing through the story of the United States. Starting from the enslavement of black Africans, and moving along to the days of when African Americans were separated from white Americans even though they lived in the same country and walked the same streets. Racism is seen all over the world. Hitler killed close to six million Jews during World War II due to the fact that he claimed that Germans were superior. He said that Jews polluted Europe and began “cleaning” it up. “Racism serves both to discriminate against ethnic minorities and to maintain advantages and benefits for White Americans.” This is what Mark Feinberg, PhD, stated about this issue and most people would agree.
In the novel Native Son, the author used irony to express the true thoughts of Bigger. Bigger is prejudice to whites but somehow finds himself attracted to a white woman, kisses her and even feels on her body. The author also explained how Bigger feels that Whites have a sort of great natural force meaning that they could detect things from a mile away, in this case literally. Referring to the specific scene where bigger is afraid that the whites would detect that it was him that actually killed Mary when Mr. Dalton hired Mr. Britten as a detective. Bigger feels that the whites can see through him as read what he’s doing even when he’s really not saying anything. His paranoid actions depic...
Kivel, P. How White People Can Serve Allies to People of Color in the Struggle to End Racism. New Society Publishers, 2011. Print
America has had a long history of racism. This fact is more easily understood if racism is understood for what it really is. It is more than just personal hatred. Racism is the “belief that a particular race is superior or inferior to another, that a person’s social and moral traits are predetermined by his or her inborn biological characteristics” (What is Racism). The 21st century has brought a lot of changes to the American society. Nevertheless, racism still exists owing to the truth that it is still impossible to persuade the hearts of mankind in terms of racism, which leads to many people wondering how and when black and white racism will end in America. Many solutions have been suggested, and one of the various solutions is black and white interracial relationships. Such relationships have recently been successful in the 21st century, which leads us to the definitive question: can interracial relationships help reduce black and white racism in the 21st century?
Native Son written by Richard Wright, is a novel that is set in the 1930’s around the time that racism was most prominent. Richard Wright focuses on the mistreatment and the ugly stereotypes that label the black man in America. Bigger Thomas, the main character is a troubled young man trying to live up the expectations of his household and also maintain his reputation in his neighborhood. Wright’s character is the plagued with low self esteem and his lack of self worth is reflected in his behavior and surroundings. Bigger appears to have dreams of doing better and making something of his future but is torn because he is constantly being pulled into his dangerous and troublesome lifestyle. Bigger is consumed with fear and anger for whites because racism has limited his options in life and has subjected him and his family into poverty stricken communities with little hope for change. The protagonist is ashamed of his families’ dark situation and is afraid of the control whites have over his life. His lack of control over his life makes him violent and depressed, which makes Bigger further play into the negative stereotypes that put him into the box of his expected role in a racist society. Wright beautifully displays the struggle that blacks had for identity and the anger blacks have felt because of their exclusion from society. Richard Wright's Native Son displays the main character's struggle of being invisible and alienated in an ignorant and blatantly racist American society negatively influenced by the "white man".
Is Systematic Oppression still relevant? An examination into the roots of the Black Lives Matter Campaign and its Validity in Modern Times? Native Son: Essay Rough Copy
“Whenever my environment had failed to support or nourish me, I had clutched at books...” ― Richard Wright, Black Boy this is a quote from the famous Richard Wright an African American author. This quote means that no matter what was placed in his way or what he lacked that others had he hung on to what he had and did what he could. And the more he read about the world, the more he longed to see it and make a permanent break from the Jim Crow South. "I want my life to count for something," he told a friend. Richard Wright wanted to make a difference in the world and a difference he did make. Richard Wright was an important figure in American History because he stood astride the midsection of his time period as a battering ram, paving the way for many black writers who followed him, these writers were Ralph Ellison, Chester Himes, James Baldwin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lorraine Hansberry, John Williams. In some ways he helped change the American society.
Racism is one of the most revolting things within the vicinity of humanity. Many times it haunts our past, degrading our future. However, a good fraction o...
The alienation of Bigger Thomas leads to his character development. He is primitive, fearful, and quick tempered because of the isolation and racism he faces. He is created by the society that he lives in; the environment surrounding him leads to his downfall. Bigger knows that he was dead from the day he was born, the “blind” people around him are either too fearful or ignorant to see it. He knows that what he has accidentally done can never be justified to whites; he wants to die knowing he is equal to his counterparts.
Due to the way Bigger views whites, his motivation for killing Mary is that it serves him a higher purpose. The fact that Mary is white, is mainly what triggers Bigger to feel shame and fear. You’ve got to remember, Bigger views whites people as a great big natural white force. Considering that Bigger killed Mary and gets away with it, gives him gives him a sense of pride because he can act one way while still doing what he pleases. He believes that killing Mary accounts for all things that the white force has done to him and that is his key to motivation.
In his novel, Native Son, Richard Wright favors short, simple, blunt sentences that help maintain the quick narrative pace of the novel, at least in the first two books. For example, in the following passage: "He licked his lips; he was thirsty. He looked at his watch; it was ten past eight. He would go to the kitchen and get a drink of water and then drive the car out of the garage. " Wright's imagery is often brutal and elemental, as seen in his frequently repeated references to fire, snow, and Mary's bloody head.