Native Son, A Critical Review

Bigger, Crime, and Society

In the heated trial that determines whether Bigger Thomas will live or die, his supportive defense attorney exclaims, “You cannot kill this man, your Honor, for we have made it plain that we do not recognize that he lives!” Living in the Chicago slums as a poor, uneducated young black man whose only confidence can come from acts of violence, Bigger Thomas of Richard Wright’s novel Native Son is destined to meet a poor fate. Anger and hopelessness are a daily reality for him as he realizes that his life has no real meaning. When he accidentally murders a young, rich, white woman, however, his actions begin to have meaning as he accepts the crime as his own, even while he lies to the authorities. Bigger is, of course, taken down by a society who takes offense at the remarks of his supporters and seeks to justify itself. Bigger himself is doomed, but his emotions, his actions, and his motivations all help to give the reader a window into the mind of a criminal and a repressed inner city African American.

Fear, flight, fate. These are the three simple and meaningful words chosen by Wright to mark Bigger’s sad existence. Growing up angry at the white world, he is forced into working as a chauffeur for a rich white family, the Daltons, to support his struggling family. He is frightened and angered by the attempts of Mary Dalton and her Communist friend Jan to be friendly to him and interprets their actions as condescending. As he tries to stifle a drunken Mary to avoid detection after carrying her upstairs, he accidentally kills her. In a time of panic, he burns the body in the furnace and concocts an elaborate lie imputing the Communist Party. He lies, dodges questions, and even tries to demand ransom, but this can only last for so long before Bigger is named as chief suspect. He brings with him in flight his girlfriend Bessie and later kills her, as she cannot continue with him nor return home. After being caught and brought to trial he is supported by attorney Boris Max who defends him intensely with his own eloquence and conviction. Bigger discovers that the man, though white, feels genuinely for him, but in the end, as dictated by fate, he is sentenced to death and is granted no clemency by a society refusing to take any responsibility for a member for whom it has failed to care.