Hurston Both Pack Quite A Punch. Each Of The Stories Have

Wright and Hurston were two of the most well known writers of their time. Hurston made an excessive amount of literary works, Their Eyes Were Watching God being included as one of the most broadly read. She grew up in the same location that she used in Their Eyes Were Watching God, Florida, in a rural area that was an all black district where she was forced to believe she was inferior, and having attended a distinguished and prominent black university, Howard University, she did not encounter racism as harshly as others, which could potentially be the reason as to why racism is not a main focal point in her works. She was proud of her black culture and therefore continuously praised black culture rather than vigorously fight for equal

Hurston grew up in her birthplace, Eatonville, Florida where she developed interests for storytelling. The story reflects the lifestyle of people in her home place, the southern region that was characterized by masculinity, violence, injustice and illiteracy. The story exposes characteristics of the traditional

He is not a very nice person. He is rude to his mother, he is a bully to his sister and to his friends. However, the situation that Bigger is forced to be in, and what drives him to make most of his actions, creates a sympathetic tone where the reader feels bad for Bigger. It is not his fault that he comes from a poor family or that he is a black man in a time where racism is very prevalent.

Throughout the whole novel Bigger had felt cornered and intimidated by the white man and who they were. However, this man was different from the others. He treated Bigger as a normal human being, not as a downtrodden person or a murderer, just a normal human being. This is the only instince in which this happens in the whole novel. Wright used it primarily to show that he himself did not feel as if all whites were bad but that because of stereotyping, many were. Wright goes out of his way to show that this man was not under the inlfluence of stereotyping and to show the decent side of some whites.

Bigger Thomas uses deception to cover the crime for his personal safety. He knows that the white people of Chicago will kill him if they know he killed a white girl. Throughout his deceit, Bigger feels the white world

From the first pages of the novel, Bigger is associated with the color black. The most obvious is his skin color, as well as the fact that most of the action of the plot is located in the Black Belt of South Chicago. The Black

In book one, talks about crimes Bigger have done against other blacks, but never against a white man. He and his best friend Gus “play white,” and Bigger talks about, how “they don’t let us do nothing” referring to white people (Wright 17). Bigger feels that white people are going to force him to do something he cannot control. Bigger talks about robbing a white man named Mr.Blum. His friends are hesitant about the robbery and Bigger tells them, “ If old Blum was a black man, you-all would be itching to go. ‘Cause he’s white, everybody’s scared” (Wright 20). Bigger and his gang of friends have no problem committing crimes against their own people. They had never thought of committing a crime that involves crossing a racial boundary.

After Gus and Bigger finished playing white, they began to talk about the lives of the white people. Gus talks about white privileges. Bigger replies "I don’t know. I just feel that way. 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..."(Wright, 20). The quotation exposes that Bigger could not overcome the obstacle of fear. His fear of white superiority restrains him from being courageous in taking control to improve where he is at now. Wright used words such as “being here” and “being there” to develop a sense of racial hierarchy that Bigger is afraid to go against. The word “Everytime” suggests that this feeling has always surrounded him and it’s unstoppable. If he opens up and tries, chances may be able to come to him but he chose not to. This fear is like a wall in his heart that he is unable to destroy. The collapse of the wall can cause chaos, and it is not what Bigger want. Altogether, fear of white supremacy confine Bigger in one place and does not let him leave so he can achieve that

Wright uses Bigger’s psychological corruption to send a message to the reader. It offers a new view on the underlying effects of racism on the black community of the time period. Wright creates Bigger from the diversity he saw throughout American society. “I made the discovery that Bigger Thomas was not black all the time; he was white, too, and there were literally millions of him, everywhere... I became conscious, at first dimly, and then later on with increasing clarity and conviction, of a vast, muddied pool of human life in America. It was as though I had put on a pair of spectacles whose power was that of an x-ray enabling me to see deeper into the lives of men. Whenever I picked up a newspaper, I 'd no longer feel that I was reading of the doings of whites alone (Negroes are rarely mentioned in the press unless they 've

As we read Native Son, Bigger’s resulting attitude toward the whites is a combination of anger and powerful fear. He fears the whites as an overpowering force that he cannot

Bigger Thomas feels paranoia because he knew, for a fact, about the reactions he was going to emit from the White community just as much as any African American did. If one looks at history, they would recall that whenever a Black man did something to a White woman, it was that was their death knell. Earlier in the novel, the narrator explains to the readers that “they felt that it was much easier and safer to rob their own people, for they knew that white policemen never really searched diligently for Negroes who committed crimes against other Negroes” (Wright 17). The narrator points this out to remind readers that when a Black man did something to their race, the White men would look over it. However, if a Black man were to do something to a White man, that’s when they would hunt down a Black man until they have found him and arrest him. In a sense, this was used as foreshadowing to show that Bigger would eventually, albeit accidentally, murder Mary herself. When it comes to Mary’s death, White men called for his head as if she represented something to them despite them not knowing her personally. In fact, Buckley goes as far as to state that Bigger Thomas “has ravished and struck down one of the finest and most delicate flowers of our womanhood” (Wright 373). Buckley, who doesn’t even know Mary Dalton, knows that she was White and held her high on a pedestal as a way to show the readers how White men viewed their women. However, it could be stated that Mary’s death “is

In the beginning, when Bigger started working for the Dalton’s, he had to drive Mary Dalton, the daughter, to the University of Chicago. However, she wanted him to pick up her boyfriend, Jan, and head to a restaurant. When Bigger was in the car with Jan and Mary, “he was very conscious of his black skin...Jan and men like him” made Bigger feel insecure of who he was. (Wright 67) Even though Jan and Mary did not say anything that would insult his race, the presence of white people made him self-conscious. Being

The plan falls through after Bigger starts a fight with one of the guys who comes late. "Bigger was afraid of robbing a white man and he knew that Gus was afraid, too… He hated Gus because he knew that Gus was afraid, as even he was; and he feared Gus because he felt that Gus would consent and then he would be compelled to go through with the robbery" (25). Bigger hates his race and wishes he could escape the oppression. He isn't proud of being black and sees it as an impediment and a burden. These views of his own race allow him to pilfer from them with no remorse. He and his friends clandestinely envy the freedom that white people experience. He longs to enjoy their privileges but doesn't know how to release himself of the racial boundaries: ‘"Them white boys sure can fly," Gus said. "Yeah," bigger said wistfully. "They get a chance to do everything."… "I could fly a plane if I had a chance," Bigger said. "If you wasn't black and if you had some money and if they'd let you go to aviation school, you could fly a plane," Gus said' (16-17). Racism has curtailed Bigger's ambitions in life and his perception of himself. He is ashamed of his family's penury and he hides his feelings. He has crafted a façade of toughness to guard himself from the pressure he feels because of his family's social position and his inability to help

Firstly, Wright utilizes the figurative language technique simile to characterize Bigger as an unstable character in order to create an uneasy mood. Wright writes “These were the rhythms of his life: indifference and violence; periods of abstract brooding and periods of intense desire; moments of silence and moments of anger—like water ebbing and flowing from the tug of a far-away, invisible force” (Wright 31). Bigger is being depicted as a character who suffers from massive mood and character changes, going from silence to hatred and rage. This is why Bigger can be seen as an unstable character in the passage, because

Additionally, Bigger asserts control over his friends to accomplish his own goals. When he plans to rob Blum’s store and decides that it is not a good idea, he beats Gus to gain control. Bigger does this because he realized that he lost control at the point when he decided to take the chance of ruining his own life by robbing a white store over getting a job with the Dalton’s; making that choice left the power in Blum’s hands. Whether or not Bigger got away unharmed would depend on Blum’s weapon possession, how fast he contacted the police, and if the police could catch him, none of which Bigger could control. Though the logical solution would be to inform Gus, G.H.,