Theme Of Racism In Native Son

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).

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