Argumentative Analysis Of Richard Wright's 'Native Son'

“Native Son” composed by Richard Wright was revolved into an American drama picture in 1986 by director Jerrold Freeman. This piece caused a lot of controversy on whether the protagonist, Bigger Thomas, is guilty or innocent in the unfortunate events that have occurred. The purpose of this argumentative essay is to examine Richard Wright’s film adaptation of Native Son and prove his innocence based on how society deceived and deprived African Americans, his living and social environment, and his fears.

Richard Wright’s “Big Boy Leaves Home” addresses several issues through its main character and eventual (though reluctant) hero Big Boy. Through allusions to survival and primal instincts, Wright confronts everything from escaping racism and the transportation (both literal and figurative) Big Boy needs to do so, as well as the multiple sacrifices of Bobo. Big Boy’s escape symbolizes both his departure from his home life and his childhood. Big Boy, unlike his friends, does not have a true name. This namelessness drives his journey, and Big Boy is constantly singled out in one way or another. The moniker ‘Big Boy’ is a contradiction—is he a large boy or is he a grown man?—and drives all of Big

What is black, white, and red all over? A sunburned zebra, of course! These three colors also describe events that occur in Richard Wright’s novel Native Son. While a great deal of importance is placed on the color black, white remains present throughout the novel. The colors combine in many instances to lend great significance to characterization and setting. Through symbolism, Wright uses the colors black and white to illustrate the major problem of the era: the separation of black and white Americans. Furthermore, Wright utilizes "communist" red to emphasize the novel's overwhelming black and white imagery.

Wright implies, suggest, and even says that Bigger Thomas is an embodiment of the black revolt against the injustices of white caste society and that this revolt often takes the form of crime against this same white society. Borne into a white society, hostile and indifferent, Bigger becomes the total embodiment of that city hatreds and prejudice against the black man.

In the 1986 film adaption of Richard Wright’s novel Native Son, the director presents the following question: can those who suffer from Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome go insane after years of oppression? That is the question that must be answered in the case of 19-year-old Bigger Thompson, who is accused of murdering Ms. Mary Dalton. The purpose of this essay is to examine Richard Wright’s film adaptation of Native Son, and Bigger’s innocence regarding ethos, pathos, and logos.

Throughout the novel, Wright uses both dialogue and narrative to move the plot forward. Through dialogue, Wright shows the interactions between Bigger and the other characters, which reveal the feelings and thoughts of others in order to give the reader a well-rounded perspective on the matter. Wright especially uses narrative throughout the plot to depict new settings, reveal Bigger’s first opinions of others, and also flow through Bigger’s thinking process. Because of this, the readers are able to better understand and relate to his emotions that may lead to his uncontrollable actions. In blending the use of dialogue and narrative, Wright takes the reader through Bigger’s interactions with other characters, and he also shows how these interactions affect Bigger’s later behavior in various situations.

Bigger, a protagonist and controversial character in The Native Son, made a number of mistakes and he was indeed very much responsible for his actions. Bigger Thomas, a 20 year old who lives in poverty in a one-bedroom apartment with his mother and two siblings, has experienced racism has whole life. Bigger grew up to believe that white people were better than the blacks and were to be treated better than the whites also; in result, Bigger became angry and when in fear he turned to violence.

A victim of the same impoverished environment as Shakur, Bigger personifies violence in the form of the real murders of Mary Dalton and Bessie, unlike Shakur who only talks and sings of murder. In Native Son, Wright, for better or for worse, presents his readers with an entity in Bigger Thomas who achieves self realization only after murder, and this characterization suggests violence presents a kind of road which winds down into self consciousness and self awareness, a road many African Americans, most notably gangster rappers, cannot help but continue to travel on today.

In Native Son by Richard Wright, Bigger Thomas is characterized as an impoverished, violent, and uneducated black male. The book begins with a large rat that scampers across their apartment, which Bigger aggressively kills. The rat undoubtedly represents Bigger, for they are both physically repulsive and is seen as a threat to the outside world. The only way for him to survive is to kill the rat or be killed by it. The war with blacks versus whites creates the concept of racial stereotypes, against black males like Bigger. This forbids him to have true control over his life or aspire to anything more than a low class worker. This is also seen in Fruitvale Station when a white police officer unlawfully shoots an innocent black man for looking suspicious. Coogler’s movie created the theme of black

Slavery might have ended, but the 1940s in America were still a time of racial prejudices and discrimination. Many treated African Americans as subhuman, limiting their education, where they could live, and their individual rights. Richard Wright, an African American author in the 1940s, became frustrated with the state of a society where all men were supposedly equal. In Native Son, Wright shows how prejudice and discrimination can shape one’s conscience, self-esteem, and trust in others to show white Americans the people bred by racism. Bigger Thomas, a member of a poor African American family, finds himself accidentally killing a white woman named Mary Dalton.

Racist people in the court systems are what give people unfair trials. The judges, juries, attorneys, and public opinions are full of biased statements when they see that a person of the opposite race committed the crime. In Wright’s Native Son, we see an African American boy on trial for murder. This boy grew up extremely poor and is working for a rich white family. He is also in a gang and is looked down upon. He knows he needs to get his life together and provide for his family, but he

Throughout my study of racism in America, violence, gender, class, and more have all been brought to the forefront of discussions of racial oppression. Human sexuality is often subverted in these conversations, although it intersects with all of these forms of racism. African Americans are often subject to sexual stereotyping and objectification which causes them to become rigidly policed by both society and themselves (Gonzales and Rolison 715). Since sexuality presents itself as a significant way in which African Americans are oppressed, sexual persecution presents itself as a theme in many prominent pieces of African American literature. Specifically, these themes present themselves in Iceberg Slim’s autobiography Pimp and Richard Wright’s novel Native Son. Despite the fact that Iceberg Slim’s popular underground autobiography and Richard Wright’s fictional sociological commentary appear to be on separate ends of the African American literary spectrum, both works demonstrate how Black sexuality is policed, objectified and commodified in mid 20th century America. Studies performed by Alicia M. Gonzales and Gary Rolison for their article Social Oppression and Attitudes towards Sexual Practices prove that African Americans receive less sexual freedom in contemporary America, and analysis of Native Son and Pimp will exhibit the ways in which this, sexual oppression, presents itself in societal experiences, and how African Americans are blocked in attempts to escape this

Have you ever pondered why individuals crave the fear and adrenaline in committing a crime? Or how individuals get so frightened by the thought of crime? As I came across multiple quotes this is the one that stuck out the most: “The world is filled with violence. Because Criminals carry guns, we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise they will win and the decent people will lose.” -James Earl Jones. Those problems occurred in the book Native Son, where the main character, Bigger, is faced with many crimes he created for himself. Bigger robbed many businesses within his neighborhood as well as killing two human beings. As a citizen, he committed many crimes throughout his community, craving the excitement in immorality. The quote mentions guns and how criminals carry concealed weapons, which reflects back to Bigger. As a character in a book, he represents individuals in our society today by carrying around a gun as a safety mechanism. The book showed Bigger never had a good home life, was highly uneducated and had a very low income. All of those issues caused him to commit a variety of crimes to receive what he desperately needed in life. Bigger represents the whole community of zealous criminals. As someone with needs and wants, not achieving what is needed, one will go without hard work and dedication to steal someone else’s values to get by. Such as Bigger did in Native Son. At the same time, the Dalton’s, which is the family Bigger worked

Richard Wright’s novel, Native Son, depicts the life of the general black community in Chicago during the 1930’s. Though African Americans had been freed from slavery, they were still burdened with financial and social oppression. Forced to live in small, unclean quarters, eat foods on the verge of going bad, and pay entirely too much for both, these people struggled not to be pressured into a dangerous state of mind (Bryant). All the while, they are expected to act subserviently before their oppressors. These conditions rub many the wrong way, especially Bigger Thomas, the protagonist of the story. Though everyone he is surrounded by is going through all the same things that he is, growing up poor and uneducated has made Bigger angry at the whole world. You can see this anger in everything he does, from his initial thoughts to his final actions. Because of this, Bigger Thomas almost seems destined to find trouble and meet a horrible fate. Wright uses these conventions of naturalism to develop Bigger’s view of the white community(). With all of these complications, Bigger begins to view all white people as an overwhelming force that drags him to his end. Wright pushes the readers into Bigger’s mind, thoroughly explaining Bigger’s personal decay. Even Wright himself says that Bigger is in fact a native son, just a “product of American culture and the violence and racism that suffuse it” (Wright).

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.