Bigger: A Literary Analysis

396 Words1 Page

Bigger knows that his hatred of Mary makes no sense, yet he tries to explain it to himself. He feels that his murdering her was more than amply justified by the fear and shame she had made him feel. But he does not know what else she had really done to make him feel this way. Max wants to know, and he replies that he hates her as soon as she spoke to him and as soon as he saw her. Mary stands for the white people who would not let him do the things he wanted to do. They would not let him go to aviator school and learn to fly a plane. They would not even let him be a real soldier or a real sailor. “All they want a black man for is to dig ditches. And in the Navy, all he can do is wash dishes and scrub floors” (NS, 295). And now that he has killed

Show More
Related

  • TKAM: Literary Analysis Paper

    596 Words  | 2 Pages

    To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic novel written by Harper Lee. The novel is set in the depths of the Great Depression. A lawyer named Atticus Finch is called to defend a black man named Tom Robinson. The story is told from one of Atticus’s children, the mature Scout’s point of view. Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, the Finch Family faces many struggles and difficulties. In To Kill a Mockingbird, theme plays an important role during the course of the novel. Theme is a central idea in a work of literature that contains more than one word. It is usually based off an author’s opinion about a subject. The theme innocence should be protected is found in conflicts, characters, and symbols.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Richard Wright's Native Son

    1245 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first expression of Bigger’s desire for power comes in the opening scene of the book in which Wright sets the precedent for Bigger’s actions. In the opening scene, the Thomas family discovers a black rat in their apartment, and it is Bigger’s task to take care of it. Bigger kills the rat, and through this action, he asserts control over the disturbance of his environment. Though he dominates one annoyance in his environment, he is not yet satisfied; he needs to have control over his family as well. In his quest to gain control over his family, he takes the dead rat and dangles it around Vera’s face to scare her thus putting him in control. Bigger’s act of waving the rat is not a physically aggressive action, but it still constitutes violence because it is an unjustified assertion of force. Bigger is not satisfied that he only has control of Vera, however. Next he must control his mother, which he does by not responding when she asks him to help Vera to bed. Bigger only obeys after the second time that his mother tells him to act, which demonstrates that he decides what he does and when he does it, as opposed to his mother’s doing so. Thomas’ reasons for pursuing his control are the same ones that he has for killing Mary; he must have power over any oppressive structure that he can. His mother is oppressive in the way that she seeks to limit him through rules, forcing him to get a job, and commanding him to act. Bigger’s mother even prohibits him from forming any self-identity because she alters other people’s perception of Bigger. When Bigger refuses to obey his mother she calls...

    Read More

  • Native Son Hierarchies

    2066 Words  | 5 Pages

    Mary struggles to get the pillow off, but Bigger overpowers her. He ends up accidentally killing her. The thoughts of him being caught and fired, or even being arrested under suspicion, overcame his mind. This is evident when Wright explains, “He knew that Mrs. Dalton could not see him; but he knew that if Mary spoke she would come to the side of

    Read More

  • Our Kids Literary Analysis

    1339 Words  | 3 Pages

    In a country like the United States of America, with a history of every individual having an equal opportunity to reach their dreams, it becomes harder and harder to grasp the reality that equal opportunity is diminishing as the years go on. The book Our Kids by Robert Putnam illustrates this reality and compares life during the 1950’s and today’s society and how it has gradually gotten to a point of inequality. In particular, he goes into two touching stories, one that shows the changes in the communities we live in and another that illustrates the change of family structure. In the end he shows how both stories contribute to the American dream slipping away from our hands.

    Read More

  • The Sense Of Agency In Richard Wright's Native Son

    1088 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mary was having a conversation with Bigger and asked him several questions. She wants to help out the African-American. After she left the car for a moment, a thought occurs to Bigger. It was “The hard fact that she was white and rich, a part of the world of people who told him what he could and could not do”(Wright, 65). In this quote, Wright conveyed how Bigger was destined to never be equal to the whites or have the same power. He categorized Mary as “a part of the world” which indicates the existence of segregation in society and how his life is influenced by it. It also shows Bigger’s understanding that he knows there is an invisible line that should not be crossed. This line separated the races and placed them into different groups. Those groups represent a place where they should belong based on societal norms and stereotypes. People from that part of the world may tell him something but in his mind, it seems like an order. Bigger stand in a place where he feels like a slave even though he is free. The words spoken by the white people are like rules. Wright used the phrase “hard fact” to symbolize that it is the truth so it cannot be changed. In Bigger’s community, it is a reality that does not want to accept. Racial discrimination put them on a different standard from birth, which contributes to the fact that Bigger is unable to have control over his

    Read More

  • Sympathy for a Murderer in Richard Wright's Native Son

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    While Bigger Thomas does many evil things, the immorality of his role in Mary Dalton’s death is questionable. His hasty decision to put the pillow over Mary’s face is the climax of a night in which nothing has gone right for Bigger. We feel sympathy because Bigger has been forced into uncomfortable positions all night. With good intentions, Jan and Mary place Bigger in situations that make him feel "a cold, dumb, and inarticulate hate" (68) for them. Wright hopes the reader will share Bigger’s uneasiness. The reader struggles with Bigger’s task of getting Mary into her bed and is relieved when he has safely accomplished his mission.

    Read More

  • Essay On Differences Between Native Son And Natural Born Killers

    2160 Words  | 5 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay: Native Son

    801 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...gger explains that he neither loved nor hated her; his hate is reserved for whites mostly, because they "own every thing" and prevent him from being able to live freely. He had to kill her because "she was killing [him]." He is told to "stay in a spot" and Bigger confesses that he was simply unable to live that sort of life adding that after committing the murders, he felt a sort of freedom that he had not experienced.

    Read More

  • Refutation: The Story of Bigger Thomas ( Native Son )

    1133 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Darryl Pinckney’s discerning critical essay, “Richard Wright: The Unnatural History of a Native Son,” Pinckney states that all of Wright’s books contain the themes of violence, inhumanity, rage, and fear. Wright writes about these themes because he expresses, in his books, his convictions about his own struggles with racial oppression, the “brutal realities of his early life.” Pinckney claims that Wright’s works are unique for Wright’s works did not attempt to incite whites to acknowledge blacks. Wright does not write to preach that blacks are equal to whites. The characters in Wright’s works, including Bigger Thomas from Native Son, are not all pure in heart; the characters have psychological burdens and act upon their burdens. For instance, Bigger Thomas, long under racial oppression, accidentally suffocates Mary Dalton in her room for fear that he will be discriminated against and charged with the rape of Mary Dalton. Also, according to Pinckney, although the characters of Wright’s books are under these psychological burdens, they always have “futile hopes [and] desires.” At the end of Native Son, Bigger is enlightened by the way his lawyer Max treats him, with the respect of a human being. Bigger then desires nothing but to live, but he has been sentenced to death.

    Read More

  • Control of the Black Man in Richard Wright's, Native Son

    647 Words  | 2 Pages

    The effects of racism can cause an individual to be subjected to unfair treatment and can cause one to suffer psychological damage and harbor anger and resentment towards the oppressor. Bigger is a twenty year old man that lives in a cramped rat infested apartment with his mother and 2 younger siblings. Due to the racist real estate market, Bigger's family has only beat down dilapidated projects of south side Chicago to live in. poor and uneducated, bigger has little options to make a better life for him and his families. having been brought up in 1930's the racially prejudice America, bigger is burdened with the reality that he has no control over his life and that he cannot aspire to anything more than menial labor as an servant. Or his other option which are petty crimes with his gang.

    Read More

  • The Sleeper Literary Analysis Essay

    1056 Words  | 3 Pages

    Death can both be a painful and serious topic, but in the hands of the right poet it can be so natural and eloquently put together. This is the case in The Sleeper by Edgar Allan Poe, as tackles the topic of death in an uncanny way. This poem is important, because it may be about the poet’s feelings towards his mother’s death, as well as a person who is coming to terms with a loved ones passing. In the poem, Poe presents a speaker who uses various literary devices such as couplet, end-stopped line, alliteration, image, consonance, and apostrophe to dramatize coming to terms with the death of a loved one.

    Read More

  • Bigger Thomas as America’s Native Son

    1231 Words  | 3 Pages

    This internalized social oppression literally forces his hands to hold the pillow over Mary’s face, suffocating her. Bigger believes that a white person would assume that he was in the room to rape the white girl.

    Read More

  • Native Son Theme Essay

    1329 Words  | 3 Pages

    People being prejudice and racist have been a major issue in society. This causes people to commit crimes in order to receive justice. In Native Son by Richard Wright there is a lot of prejudice against the black community. In Book Two: Flight; we get a closer look at Bigger Thomas’s actions and thoughts after murdering Mary. With the amount of racism and stereotypes made against the black community it has forced Bigger to feel that the people around him are blind, making him feel powerful and him murdering Mary is justified.

    Read More

  • Bigger Thomas In Native Son

    899 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...event that leads Bigger’s destiny to failure. Because Bigger knows if he gets discovered in her room he will be accused of trying to rape her and will jailed and very likely executed just because he is black. His only other choice was to do what he did, but unluckily he unintentionally kills Mary making his path to failure even greater. All of this happens because Bigger is afraid. Bigger faces fear all throughout the story and his fear comes from him feeling that white people are out to oppress him and he can not doing anything about it. Richard Wright uses Bigger in his story to show how society of that time period put fear into black society. Bigger’s fear is what takes him down the path of the dooms which eventually causes him to harm, his friends, other black people, and kill to young girls one being his girlfriend and the other the daughter of his employer.

    Read More

  • The Theme Of Racism In Richard Wright's Native Son

    1077 Words  | 3 Pages

    A direct product of the society which formed him. Bigger is an individual shaped and defined by the classic racism demonstrated by the characters in the novel. As opposed to the classic “black hero” demonstrated in other works, he represents all those stereotypes held against black men. He is undereducated, accustomed to servile labor, woefully bad at monetary management, and full of resentment towards white people. In addition, he is also increasingly violent - beginning with the apathetic attitude towards his own family and developing all the way until murder. These are some characteristics that can be seen all throughout the novel, from beginning to end. His lack of education is evident in his simplistic speech and inability to sometimes string together grammatically correct sentences. This can be inferred is the reason as to why he is “degraded” to what was considered a lowly job - a servant for the white people whom he resented so much. Furthermore, we have examples of this resentment throughout several conversations within the book, such as near the beginning he is discussing career options with Gus and exclaims, “they don’t let us do nothing”. Showing the reader how frustrated he is with his situation. Then, when he accidentally murders Mary, the excitement he feels at finally being “superior” is palpable. Through selections such as, “With eyes glazed, nerves tingling

    Read More

More about Bigger: A Literary Analysis

Open Document