Richard Wright 's Native Son

Richard Wright was born on September 4, 1908, to a poor family on a plantation in Mississippi. His father was an illiterate sharecropper and his mother was a well-educated teacher. Due to his family’s poverty they were forced to move to Memphis. When Wright was five years old, his father left his family for another woman, and his mother was forced to leave her job as a school teacher and do domestic work to provide for her family. As Wright grew up, he became involved with the Communist Party, and in 1940 he published Native Son. This success of Wright’s book made the black community proud of him, but it also brought a lot of uncomfortable feelings. They felt that the main character, Bigger, portrayed a stereotypical, harsh, black man the

Richard Wright, wrote the fictional novel Native Son, using three intellectual forces, which include: Naturalism, Existentialism, and Communism. He uses these forces, along with racist ideology, to shape the life of a young black male, Bigger, living in the ‘Black Belt’ of Chicago in the 1940’s. Wright refers to the ‘Black Belt,’ as a ‘black world’ where violence is directed towards other American Americans, and warns that this violence will be aimed at white people. Bigger, is used to depict the criminal actions that come along with living in racial confinement under the fear of white people during this time.

Richard Wright's Native Son provides us with an exemplary example of the way the black race was conditioned in the 1930's. He does this by telling us about an adult black male named Bigger Thomas. Wright titles each book in the novel the way he does to give insight into the various actions and feelings of Bigger.

In Wright’s Native Son, it states, “He felt he had no physical existence at all right then; he was something he hated, the badge of shame which he knew was attached to a black skin. It was a shadowy region, a No Man’s Land, the ground that separated the white world from the black that he stood upon. He felt naked, transparent; he felt that this white man, having helped to put him down, having helped to deform him”(Wright 67). While Bigger is in the presence of Mary and Jan, Bigger feels he is being looked down upon, he has no value around Mary and Jan. Bigger feels, people like Mary and Jan were the cause of black people being put through tough obstacles, and Bigger developed hatred towards them because he is powerless around Mary and Jan. Also in the novel it states,“Ultimately, though, his hate and hope turned outward from himself and Gus: his hope toward a vague benevolent something that would help and lead him, and his hate toward the whites; for he felt that they ruled him, even when they were far away and not thinking of him, ruled him by conditioning him in his relations to his own people” (Wright 115). This quotes shows how Bigger expresses his hate towards whites and Bigger is no longer hating himself for killing Mary, his reasoning for killing Mary is due to the fact he hates white

In the mid-1800’s, blacks legally got freedom and equality under the law, but some argue that they are still not treated equally today. In the book, Native Son, Richard Wright shows the racism and unequal treatment towards blacks in the city of Chicago. Bigger obtains a job being a chauffeur for a white family. The job only lasts a few hours because he murders their daughter, Mary Dalton. As Bigger goes through a trial, Mr. Max learns a lot about Bigger and how his life led to his actions. Mr. Max explains how the horrible treatment towards blacks impacts them more physically and emotionally than one can see by just looking at someone. The United States does not live up to the promise of “liberty and justice for all” because whites accuse blacks for terrible things without any evidence; blacks pay higher rent for the same apartments, and blacks are segregated from certain schools and jobs.

Native Son, by Richard Wright, explores racial prejudice in Southside Chicago in the 1930s from the life of Bigger Thomas. Bigger held a job of a Chauffeur to a rich white family; the Daltons. In merely a day, Bigger faced with Mary, a young white women, and Jan, a believer in Communism. From accidental actions, Bigger suffocates Mary, ending up killing her. From then on, his whole life revolved from running away from the police, or it means certain death for a black man. As he runs from his fate, his plans to make money from this disaster ruins him, to the point where he could no longer trust his own girlfriend; inevitably killing her. Reporters soon figured out the Bigger murderer, and so his life of running ended. Scared of white people

Bigger’s perception and treatment of women is associated with race and the mindset of his environment. Native son illustrates the mental and physical struggles of being black in the nineteen thirties. Not only does he murder two women out of trepidation, but also felt little to any remorse towards them. However, his solicitude for the women in his family shows his realization of shame his actions have caused. Correspondingly, the reason for Bigger’s behavior is his abhorrence for the conditions that they lived in. In light of, when Richard Wright wrote Native Son, African Americans were trapped in poverty and drowning in sorrow. During this time, women were treated as servants and were driven by economic desperation. Together with, Bigger demonstrates

Richard Wright, author of Native Son, commences the novel with an introduction of the morning routine of the African-American protagonist, Bigger Thomas, showing that he lives in a rat-infested one bedroom apartment with his mother, brother, and sister. These poor living conditions demonstrate to the reader one of the many struggles African-Americans face living in a predominately Caucasian society that judges their race by fallacious stereotypes given due to the color of their skin. As a result of these erroneous stereotypes, Bigger believes his destiny is already predetermined by the belief of others and is in no control of changing the future events that will occur in his life (Wright 23). Correspondingly, this leads to the overall

Throughout the novel Native Son by Richard Wright, Bigger struggles with his fear of the white community because of the segregation and violence that has been inflicted upon him as a part of the black community. Bigger’s whole life he has lived within Chicago’s ‘black belt’, the only area of the city where relators will rent houses to people of color. Likewise, Bigger has been denied access to clean housing conditions, quality education, and well-paying job opportunities. By having two distinct sides in the visual that is representing Bigger’s struggle to live a life free of fear, the segregation and the distinct difference between the races that is present in society and effects Bigger’s day to day life is being displayed. In addition, skin

In Native Son, Bigger is so lost in his own rage that it allows him to commit horrible crimes without remorse. It is not Richard Wright's intention to create a hero in Bigger Thomas but a sympathetic character trapped by white society into committing his acts of violence. Wright wants the reader to understand that in a world of injustice it may take that same injustice to open people's narrow minds. Bigger and the society that he lives in, allots him few options for progress. Like many in the "real" world, Bigger chooses to break through "white" structured choices with violence. He finds an empowerment like never experienced. Similar to the work of Flannery O'Connor, Bigger's violence is used to shock the characters of the story, the heart of the reader, and ultimately society.

Native son is about a black young man named “Bigger Thomas”, who was born in America, but is alienated to his own homeland. This establishes fear and ignorance to almost all of African- Americans who struggles to live as if they are unable to make their own choices, including Bigger. Wright vividly describes how racism and social economic status affects Bigger’s decision as he challenges society by murdering a white rich girl but then chooses to escape because he knows he cannot win over whites.

Native Son was written by Richard Wright, published in 1940, it was an almost instantaneously successful novel. As a book written about lower class African Americans, who were forced to break away from the conformity of a populous white society, it was not enjoyed by some of the upper and middle class African Americans who wished he had published a book that would show the ways that the African Americans could break away from oppression, and escape it, rather than conform to it. Native Son depicts a black man, named Bigger who was forced to conform to a dominantly white, oppressive society, and how he broke away from it. The novel Native Son by Richard Wright is about escape and reveals that the oppressed can be effected by racism, and other social norms, and how people would do anything to escape the societal views of others, based on how they’ve been raised.

After reading the novel, Native Son, I realized that the author , Richard Wright, was trying to aggrandize a lesson in the story of the blindness caused by racism and stereotypes on both oppressed and the oppressor. In the beginning of the story, he put Bigger in a position like an animal trapped in a cage; with no hope or freedom as pop culture and even his mother dehumanize him as nothing but sullen. Such negative actions to Bigger, the main character, made me side for him even though I knew his fate was already grim and already predicted. Almost like the play," Romeo and Juliet", Wright made clear of tragedy, but like Shakespeare, he showed the reader the actions and even thinking that leads to the main action of the story. At

The major genre of Native Son is a sociological novel, which is one that “concentrates on the nature, function, and effect of the society in which characters live” (Harmon 487). Throughout the plot, Wright depicts a segregated Chicago and demonstrates the innate social dominance of the whites over the black people. With this setting, Wright explores this social pyramid, showing the injustices towards the black race and the limits and boundaries placed on them as well. Wright especially demonstrates the effects of this racial hierarchy through the character of Bigger Thomas, who represents the potential reactions of the oppressed that can result from the prejudice society.

Fear throughout the world keeps people from doing certain things they wish to do. Many authors will have their characters face the fear. The theme of the novel, Native Son, written by Richard Wright is going to show the fear that Bigger faces throughout the novel. Richard Wright will have Bigger go through obstacles he wishes to not have to go through. We will see how Bigger faces the things he will be put through as well as him facing fear.