Oppression
In the novel Native Son written by Richard Wright a young adult named Bigger Thomas goes through a metamorphosis, from sanity to insanity. He starts out a normal trouble youth, living in a run down housing project, where all he does is hang out with his gang. But the city relief program gives him an opportunity to work and make something of himself. All he has to do is chauffeur for a very rich family. But on his first job everything goes wrong and he ends up murdering the family’s daughter. Through this novel Bigger meets many other people, which have the same oppression as him but handle it in different ways. Some of these people include his mother, his girlfriend, and Max his lawyer. All of these people have a certain amount of oppression given to them by the outside world. The only difference is the way each one of them handle it.
Ever since Bigger was a little boy he has felt very oppressed by the world because he was black. Bigger feels that he has nothing to be proud of so he takes this oppression to the heart and turns it into fear. The only way that he could express himself was to show the world that they should not oppress what they don’t know the power of. Bigger demonstrated that he should be feared and acknowledged by murdering the daughter of a very rich family. At one point after Bigger killed the daughter stated that “...for the first time in my fear-ridden life a barrier of protection between him and a world of fear.';(p. 119) Bigger feels as though know that he has killed this person that all will be well because of this new sense of power that he received from doing this horrible act. At this point Bigger feels assured that he could fool the world into thinking that he was normal. He started referring to all the people around him as blind, even when they where already physically blind; “Ms. Dalton was blind; yes blind in more ways than one';(p. 120) but in his own mind he no longer felt the oppression or fear after he killed the Daughter.
The next most oppressed person is Bigger’s mother. She can not get a job because she is black and is of the female gender. So the world has oppressed her into poverty and the only way that she can respond to this oppression is to pray and worship the lord.
Older and modern societies tend to have organized castes and hierarchies designed to encompass everyone in society. This is demonstrated in Richard Wright’s acclaimed novel, Native Son. The novel follows the life of a twenty year old African American man named Bigger Thomas, and his experiences living as a black man in 1930s Chicago, Illinois. Unfortunately, he commits two unlawful killings of women, mostly as a result of the pressure and paranoia that had been following him from a young age. He is tried and convicted of the deaths, and is sentenced to die as a result.
As Bigger is trying to dispose of Mary’s body he questions if he should just run away. Bigger knows that “he could not. He must not. He had to burn this girl” (Wright 92). Bigger is aware that he has to get rid of Mary’s body for the same reason he had to kill her. Once Mrs. Dalton walked into Mary’s room, her white presence caused Bigger to act based on how society would react. Bigger knew that if he had been found in a room alone with a white girl he would be killed. From what Bigger knew about white society he would be killed if was caught in the room alone with Mary. He was put in a positon by society that left him no other option but to kill. Bigger knew that no matter the circumstances, the crime would fall on him because “he was black and had been alone in a room where a white girl had been killed; therefore he had killed her” (Wright 106). Whether his crime was accidental or not he knew that because of the image given to black people, especially black men, in the community that the blame would be put on him. In the room that night, both Bigger and Mary were only reacting in the way that society had expected them to. They were not individuals anymore, they represented the more powerful forces of the black and white society, acting as they had been told to. Bigger was unable to defend himself because society had already determined death as his
Black lives in America have been devalued from the moment the first shipment of black slaves arrived in Jamestown in 1619. They were seen as nothing more than an lucrative animal to help aid in the production of various crops, such as tobacco, rice, and cotton. The Europeans were careful in the breaking of the black slaves, as they did not want a repeat of the Native American enslavement. European settlers found it difficult to enslave natives as they had a better understanding of the land and would often escape from the plantation. The African slaves however were stripped of everything they had ever known and were hauled to a new distant world.
In Book 3, “Fate”, Bigger is now convinced that he is going to die for the crimes he have committed. “They don’t give black people a chance, so I took a chance and lost. But I don’t care none now. They got me and it’s all over.” (pg. 356) This book reveals Bigger’s realization of what he has done and how it will affect him. We find out that he is sentenced to death and he will not live for long. For some odd reason, Bigger has a sense of satisfaction and security knowing that he will die. “Aw, I reckon I believe in myself…. I ain’t got nothing else…. I got to die….” (pg. 428).
Bigger’s confession was coerced. State Attorney Dalton assures Bigger that he has no need for tactics and that the young man is as already caught so he might as well confess. Buckley warns Bigger that it will be better for him to confess. He describes Bigger as a wayward youth who has broken his mother's heart and surely, if he might escape the justice of the state, he would meet a far worse fate at the hands of the angry, frothing mob that is only growing. Buckley tells Bigger the police know that Bigger raped her and that he threw her body in an airshaft. Buckley suggests that Bigger's only way out is to confess, admit who helped him commit the crimes and settle for spending the rest of his life in a "hospital." Bigger confesses to the crime, denying his insanity and the existence of any accomplices. Buckley is joined by a "man with a pad" who records Bigger's confession and after they leave, Bigger is alone in his cell. He hears them joking outside the cell about how "easy...
Native Americans suffered hundreds of years of violence, discrimination and forced relocation from their land, during the European invasion of North America. After the Europeans arrive, Indian culture soon became endangered, a culture which developed distinctively shaped tools, sewing needles, clothing, jewelry and weapons. They held strong their own higher cultural beliefs, and legends, retold to them for many generations. During the era of colonization in the United States, Native Americans were subjected to years of despair, of which includes ravaging diseases, conversion to Christianity, European technology, and procurement of native land.
Native Americans lived on the land that is now called America, but when white settlers started to take over the land, many lives of Native Americans were lost. Today, many people believe that the things that have been done and are being done right now, is an honor or an insult to the Natives. The choices that were made and being made were an insult to the Native Americans that live and used to live on this land, by being insulted by land policies, boardings schools and modern issues, all in which contain mistreatment of the Natives. The power that the settlers and the people who governed them had, overcame the power of the Natives so the settlers took advantage and changed the Natives way of life to the
As a people who were born free, futures ripe with opportunities and choices, it’s hard for most in American society to truly imagine slavery. It’s a horrific concept that is ingrained into childrens heads and then thought of as only an idea in a history class, but sadly, the past doesn’t seem to always stay in the past. Many forms of slavery that share a plethora of traits with slavery found back in the times of the civil war, are still very prevalent in the world today, domestic work and exploitation being a very huge problem in several countries.
People being prejudice and racist have been a major issue in society. This causes people to commit crimes in order to receive justice. In Native Son by Richard Wright there is a lot of prejudice against the black community. In Book Two: Flight; we get a closer look at Bigger Thomas’s actions and thoughts after murdering Mary. With the amount of racism and stereotypes made against the black community it has forced Bigger to feel that the people around him are blind, making him feel powerful and him murdering Mary is justified.
In recent years there has been a spike in the use of excessive force towards African
All men are created equal (Declaration of Independence). Yet, the Native Americans continue their fight for decades since colonization. There is a constant struggle to urge for equality from William Apess in his 1833 essay, An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man. In modern day, the fight continues after his lifetime. Equality and freedom is the goal for most Native Americans. Although securing the rights of the Native Americans are progressing, it is slow. Therefore, the inequality continues at a faster pace, as opposed to major changes that would impact the Native Americans positively. Throughout history, they are exploited for their land and natural resources and severely underfunded. As a matter of fact, the common theme seems to be that the Native Americans are continuously suppressed by the “superior race”, which showcases the prevalent thoughts in America. William Apess and
Contrary to popular belief, discrimination of Native Americans in America still widely exist in the 21st century! So you may ask, why? Well, to answer that one question, I will give you 3 of the countless reasons why this unfortunate group of people are punished so harshly for little good reason. So now, let’s get into it, shall we!
In Native Son, Richard Wright introduces Bigger Thomas, a liar and a thief. Wright evokes sympathy for this man despite the fact that he commits two murders. Through the reactions of others to his actions and through his own reactions to what he has done, the author creates compassion in the reader towards Bigger to help convey the desperate state of Black Americans in the 1930’s.
Bigger has become primal because of the alienation he faces from society. The best example of this is found in book one when Bigger is in the movie theater. He and Jack are in a public place doing sexual acts. The narrator says, “They sat still for five minutes, slumped down in their seats. Finally, they straightened (30).” The fact that Bigger does this in public shows how uncivilized he is because of his alienation from whites. He feels that he can do whatever he wants because nothing can make them dislike him more. The resentment he faces has gotten him to a point of where he does not care anymore. He will do whatever he wants to. This alienation has more serious consequences when he has the ability inside of him to chop off Mary’s head. The book says “He got the hatchet, held the head at a slanting angle with his left hand and, after pausing in an attitude or prayer, sent the blade of the hatchet into the bone of the throat with all the strength of his body (92).” This gruesome scene is almost hard to even read. Committing this act reveals the primitive side of Bigger. No civilized person would have the ability to chop off a gi...
...event that leads Bigger’s destiny to failure. Because Bigger knows if he gets discovered in her room he will be accused of trying to rape her and will jailed and very likely executed just because he is black. His only other choice was to do what he did, but unluckily he unintentionally kills Mary making his path to failure even greater. All of this happens because Bigger is afraid. Bigger faces fear all throughout the story and his fear comes from him feeling that white people are out to oppress him and he can not doing anything about it. Richard Wright uses Bigger in his story to show how society of that time period put fear into black society. Bigger’s fear is what takes him down the path of the dooms which eventually causes him to harm, his friends, other black people, and kill to young girls one being his girlfriend and the other the daughter of his employer.