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Analysis of the native son
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Native Son by Richard Wright is a story of racial oppression that spread throughout Chicago and America during the 1930s. Through the experiences of Bigger Thomas, Wright shows valuable insights into racial segregation and the ways in which it affected American society. Throughout the novel, Wright insists that Bigger was not born an aggressive criminal. He is a product of the violence and racism. Wright demonstrates that much of the racial inequality occurring was due to the lack of understanding, among both blacks and whites. In Native Son, racism is unavoidable. Bigger is burdened by his black skin, and clearly states his frustrations when he says, “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.”(20). Wright genuinely describes how Bigger is racially oppressed within the law enforcement systems of Chicago, and how “black people, even though they cannot get good jobs, pay twice as much rent as whites for the same kinds of flats” (248). …show more content…
In the article, he is described as looking “exactly like an ape!” (279), with “skin exceedingly black” (279) and a lower jaw that “protrudes obnoxiously, reminding one of a jungle beast” (279). The article accuses Bigger of raping Mary and then proceeds to talk about how segregation and an “injection of an element of constant fear” (281) form the solution in “handling the problem” (281) of Blacks in America. In general, the newspapers in Native Son hold as yet another example of how deeply rooted racism was in American society in the
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.
Notes of a Native Son is a nonfiction essay written by James Baldwin. The essay is about how Baldwin felt about his father and how he felt after his father had passed. Baldwin also realizes and comes to terms with many things during that time period. Racism is also one of Baldwin’s principal themes and uses it in many of his essays. Rebecca Skloot similarly wrote about a woman from near that time period. Skloot wrote an excerpt titled “The Miracle Woman”, the woman’s name in this piece was Henrietta Lacks whose cells would go on to live much longer than she did. Henrietta was a strong willed woman who had many children and knew when things weren’t right, so when she felt something was wrong with her uterus she went to the hospital and was diagnosed with cervical cancer. During Henrietta’s surgery a doctor took a slap of her uterus and grew her cells in a laboratory which became one of the most important cures and tools in medicine.
This is evident by the impoverished living conditions Bigger, along with other African Americans in the 1930s, had to live in, the lack of opportunities offered to African Americans, and the racial oppression African Americans, including the ones mentioned in Native Son, had to endure for many years. One reason why Richard Wright proves that economic and societal hierarchies greatly affect those living at the bottom of those hierarchies is because the bottom class tends to take on the most damage for whatever unfortunate situation its country gets in. This is exhibited in the first book of Native Son, titled Fear. In the beginning of the book, the Thomas family lives in a one bedroom, rat infested apartment in Chicago. Bigger and his younger brother, Buddy, have to turn their backs every morning to not see their mother and young sister dress.
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.
“Notes of a Native Son” is faceted with many ideas and arguments. The essay begins with Baldwin recounting July 29, 1943. The day his father died and his mother bore her last child (63). Baldwin shares his fathers’ past and of the hate and bitterness that filled him and how Baldwin realizes that it may soon fill him also. Baldwin spends the rest of the essay mostly analyzing his experiences and the behavior and mentality of his father, of whom he seemed to dislike. He comes to the conclusion that one must hold true two ideas: “. . . acceptance, totally without rancor, of life as it is and men as they are: in light of this idea... injustice is...
Out of bitterness and rage caused by centuries of oppression at the hands of the white population, there has evolved in the African-American community, a strong tradition of protest literature. Several authors have gained prominence for delivering fierce messages of racial inequality through literature that is compelling, efficacious and articulate. One of the most notable authors in this classification of literature is Richard Wright, author of several pieces including his most celebrated novel, Native Son, and his autobiography, Black Boy.
“The real tragedy of Native Son is that Bigger can find no way other than violence to express his potentially healthy desire to merge himself with others and be part of this world, to lose himself so he could find himself to be allowed a chance to live like others, even though he was black,” (Beetz 950). If he had gotten over his fear and controlled his anger then Bigger could've supported his family, found a wife, and be happy with a successful career. Instead his anger and fear got the best of him as he had chosen to plan a robbery, being in gangs, and murder an innocent woman. “He wanted to load about the streets, steal from newsstands, rob stores, meddle with women, free dives, attend cheap movies, and chase prostitutes,” (Wright 477). Bigger may seem like a kid stuck in the bad neighborhood but he had many opportunities to escape that neighborhood. His mother encouraged him for him to seek a job and gave him money to support him, but Bigger refused to find a job and used the money to buy alcohol and movie tickets. Bigger had the support of his mother who tried to help him find his way, yet Bigger did not listened or even allowed his mother’s help. If Bigger had listened to his mother then he could have a happy life but his anger won the best of him and now he sits for his death
Racism has existed through the world for centuries and has been the primary reason for numerous conflicts, wars and other human tragedies all over the planet. From 16th to 19th-century blacks were taken from their homes and families and taken for the slave trade. They were often overworked, beaten and killed. Being black was not the best thing you could be in 1950’s. Racism is not something that is inborn, it is what people created. In the article, “We’re all racist. But racism by white people matters more”, Mona Chalabi says “I don’t think white people are born with some sort of racism gene – the main thing that explains those different scores is the way that society has geared up our brains differently.” It is our society that is ignorant,
Iowa City: U of Iowa Press, 1986. Kinnamon, Kenneth, ed., pp. 113-117 New Essays on Native Sons. New York: Cambridge UP, 1990. Macksey, Richard and Frank E. Moorer, eds.
Pinckney praises Native Son as a powerful intellectual book that deals with issues of racism and oppression. He says explicitly that it is the most powerful book, but it is unclear what domain of books Pinckney is comparing Native Son with. Pinckney refutes James Baldwin’s statement about Native Son, saying that Bigger Thomas is not a mere stereotype, but an example of a stressed black boy of the racially segregated American society during the 1930s. It is true that Bigger Thomas is a victim of a racially segregated society.
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 family’ 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".
In the novel the Native Son, the author Richard Wright explores racism and oppression in American society. Wright skillfully merges his narrative voice into Bigger Thomas so that the reader can also feel how the pressure and racism affects the feelings, thoughts, self-image, and life of a Negro person. Bigger is a tragic product of American imperialism and exploitation in a modern world. Bigger embodies one of humankind’s greatest tragedies of how mass oppression permeates all aspects of the lives of the oppressed and the oppressor, creating a world of misunderstanding, ignorance, and suffering.
In Native Son, Richard Wright introduces Bigger Thomas, a liar and a thief. Wright evokes sympathy for this man despite the fact that he commits two murders. Through the reactions of others to his actions and through his own reactions to what he has done, the author creates compassion in the reader towards Bigger to help convey the desperate state of Black Americans in the 1930’s.
Bigger Thomas feels trapped long before he is incarcerated for killing Mary Dalton. He is trapped in an overpriced apartment with his family and trapped in a white world he has no hope of changing. He knows that he is predisposed to receiving unfair treatment because he is black, but he still always feels as though he is headed for an unpleasant end. The three sections that make up the novel Native Son by Richard Wright, “Fear,” “Flight” and “Fate,” imply a continuous and pervasive cycle throughout Bigger’s life that ultimately leads him to murder.
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.