English: Native Son Essay May 13, 2008

Native Son, Literally
“In the Great Depression the American dream had become a nightmare. What was once the land of opportunity was now the land of desperation.” (http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade30.html). The Great Depression affected issues beyond the American economy, inadvertently emphasizing racial and class struggles. Richard Wright’s Native Son, a story that takes place in 1930s Chicago, depicts this. The experiences of Bigger Thomas, a young black man living in the poor conditions of the Black Belt, are told by an omniscient voice. From the perspective of one character, Wright gives a clear and detailed reflection of real American society at that time. Through his characterization and symbolic imagery, Richard Wright shows what mainstream society failed to recognize and chose to ignore in his own society.
On August 27th, 2007, National Public Radio, or NPR, broadcasted a show honoring Richard Wright, giving him the title of “first black author to make a living writing books” (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13975729). In it, Farah Jasmine Griffin, an English professor at Columbia University, shares what she thought was the societal significance of the many unique qualities of Native Son, one of which was the relatable realism of the protagonist character, Bigger Thomas.
“He [Richard Wright] came out like a comet…first black writer who could make his living as a writer…[Bigger Thomas was] a character feared by white Americans…also a character who a great many of black Americans did not liked either…During a time where black Americans fell victim to horrible stereotypes, some writers felt that we ought only put forward images of our best…others felt that Bigger Thomas did not really represent the humanity of black people, that he was a figure who believed everything white people had said about him, internalized those meanings…” (http://www.npr.org/
templates/story/story.php?storyId=13975729).

Griffin praises Wright for his courageously writing a piece that told a brutal, but truthful perspective. Wright did not, like other black American authors of the time, highlight all the positives and hide the negatives of the black community. By doing this, he showed his resistance towards the hatred from “everything white people had said about him.”
Wright meticulously uses various literary devices to convey a realism that no other author dared to achieve. Writing the book from Bigger’s, this young black boy’s perspective allowed him to have the most character development. However, Bigger is no ordinary character. He is a young lower class black male living in Chicago. If the reader knew this, he or she would also know that, when reading, racism would be experienced “first-hand.” The story surrounds Bigger’s life but is told through an omniscient voice. This person knows Bigger very well, therefore, giving a sense of power over him. There may be parts of the book when Bigger is powerful but it is still told through someone else, giving Bigger a weakness. An example would be when the narrator spoke of Bigger when he was walking alone. It knew what he was thinking, but beyond that, the voice conveyed Bigger’s thoughts in a way Bigger could never achieve. “He was confident. During the last day and night new fears had come, but new feelings had helped ally those fears. The moment when he had stood above Mary’s bed and found that she was dead the fear of electrocution had entered his flesh and blood” (Wright, 149). By choosing to make the most developed character a young black man from the Black Belt, Wright created an additional world of literary opportunities along with the potential he already had. Leaving no room for ambiguity, Wright wrote with detail, allowing the reader to know the exact psychology of Bigger.
From his appearance and speech to his actions and thoughts, every element of Bigger’s development can be found in the people living in Wright’s society at that time.
From the story’s very beginnings, Wright uses a situation to introduce Bigger, one that inhabitants of a real Black Belt could have easily related to. This mutual understanding, between reader and Bigger, is simple and common but shows the reader Bigger’s history, family, and societal status. “ ‘There he [a revisiting rat] is again, Bigger!’ the woman screamed, and the tiny, one-room apartment galvanized into violent action. A chair toppled as the woman, half-dressed and in her stocking feet…Her two sons, barefoot…their eyes searching anxiously under the bed and chairs. The girl ran into a corner…” (Wright, 4). The use of a rat killing to start the story established the mood of the setting. The rat symbolized the family’s poor living conditions and the struggle they go through, a struggle caused by a great force, over which they had no control.
Wright also gave Bigger qualities relatable to young black Americans through his dreams and aspirations. In this scene, he and Gus, a friend and fellow gang member, are in the street when a plane flies overhead. “ ‘I could fly one of them things if I had a chance,’ Bigger mumbled reflectively, as though talking to himself…For a moment, Bigger contemplated all the ‘ifs” that Gus had mentioned. Then both boys broke into hard laughter, looking at each other through squinted eyes. When their laughter subsided, Bigger said… ‘It’s funny how the white folks treat us, ain’t it?’” (Wright, 16-17). Bigger’s hopeless dream of being able to fly a plane one day shows a vulnerability rooted from the society which he was born into. The profession of being a pilot is elite. They are the jetsetters that drive the jets, always going places with beautiful flight attendants hanging onto their arms. There was no opportunity for Bigger to ever reach this dream and he knew it. This knowledge is the same one many other black Americans grasped very early on in their lives.
Wright conveyed this hopelessness in “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow”; an autobiographical piece documenting his experiences growing up in a segregated south.
“I worked hard, trying to please…one thing was missing…I was not learning anything and nobody was volunteering to help me…I asked Morrie one day to tell me about the work. He grew red. ‘Whut yuh tryin’ t’ do, nigger, get smart?’” (Wright).

Bigger’s mindset is a mirror image of the situation Wright experienced while working in a factory as a young man. Black Americans were looked down upon but unknown at the time, this situation reveals Morrie’s and the white racist American’s fear. If Wright were ever given the chance to succeed in society, he probably would and Morrie knew that. That fear drove him to take Wright’s potential into his own hands and hinder those chances of success. Wright placed Bigger in a similar situation because many other black Americans experienced this apparent yet unacknowledged hate. However, Wright also saw hope because sharing his story gave other black Americans a chance to make the same empowering discovery.
Richard Wright also uses imagery to convey major themes or forces in Native Son. The word “white”, on www.dictionary.com, means 1. of the color of pure snow, of the margins of this page, etc.; reflecting nearly all the rays of sunlight or a similar light. 2. light or comparatively light in color. 3. (of human beings) marked by slight pigmentation of the skin, as of many Caucasoid. 15. morally pure; innocent. A reoccurring image in Native Son is the color white. It was the color of the uncontrollable forces: the Dalton family, the white police troop, and the harsh white snowstorm, triggering the murder. In the end, this white force finally drew Bigger out of hiding after he escaped when reporters found Mary’s bones in the furnace.
When the reader is introduced to the Daltons, the family Bigger starts to work for, the white symbols are unveiled. It began with Mrs. Dalton and her cat. “Then he saw coming slowly toward him a tall, thin, white woman, walking silently…Her face and hair were completely white; she seemed to him like a ghost,” (Wright, 46). “…he was stone-still; the white cat bounded past him and leaped on the desk…” (Wright, 47). The pattern then proceeded when it began to snow, the same moment Bigger fled from the crime scene after killing the Dalton daughter, Mary. “He went out of the back door; a few fine flakes of snow were floating down. It had grown colder.” (Wright, 101). The snow represented Bigger’s altered conscience and newfound freedom. As he planned his next steps, whether to run away or write a ransom note, snow fell. The realization of the murder and its liberating consequences fell in small individual flakes in Bigger’s mind.
In addition to representing Bigger’s mentality, the snowfall represented the white forces gaining a clear connection between him and the murder. The morning after Mary’s death, Bigger “stood at the window, looking wistfully out at the feathery flakes of falling snow” (Wright, 111). However, the flakes escalated into a blizzard during Bigger’s flight in attempt of escaping captivity. “He went to the window and looked out at the swirling snow. He could hear wind rising; it was a blizzard all right. The snow moved in no given direction, but filled the world with a vast white storm of flying powder…He groped to the window and climbed into it, feeling again the chilling blast of snowy wind” (Wright, 220). As people, like detective Britten, questioned him, gaining knowledge to the truth, the snow fell harder. Wright used this versatile word to convey color, mentality and power. All the conflicts that burden Bigger are “white”.
Richard Wright has painted for readers a picture of the American society he so closely examined in Native Son. He failed in glorifying black Americans in a time when they were victims of oppression but he succeeded in showing their daily struggles society created. Writing Native Son was his chance to channel all the oppression he experienced and observed into a book that mirrored society. And in doing so, he spoke out about it. This critique on American society may seem hopeless but, on the contrary, it should be inspiration for change.