Analysis of Native Son
In Native Son Bigger struggles against authority. The authority is the white people.
Bigger wants to have the same power as blacks. In the movie“ The Heat” Stephen
Moore played by Sean Lewis is the main charectar or protagonist. The authority is the
leader of a gang that Stephen feels he should be the leader of. Both protagonists become
powerful in their minds after committing murders and both feel that they deserve more
because of their struggles.
When Bigger kills Mary and Bessie he feels like he has more powerful. In “ The
Heat” Stephen is a 20 year old gang member who has been in the gang for under a year.
Steel is the leader of the gang who has been a gang member for over ten years. Steel
has a lot of power and connections on the street and in his gang. When Stephen kills three
rival gang members he feels like he has more power and influence than Steel amongst his
fellow gang members. There is tension in the movie between Stephen and Steel the
gang leader as the other gang members talk about “a change in the guard” in the gang.
Stephen and Bigger have some things in common. Both live in the bad part of
town, and both don’t get along with their parents. But both live in very different times. Back
then blacks weren’t respected or accepted, But over the years things changed and now
blacks are accepted in society. When both men commit murder they feel more powerful.
Both want to become more powerful and feel that violence is the answer. And both
murders are the most important thing that has ever happened to both bigger and Stephen.
Steel is the authority in “ The Heat ” and the white society is the authority in “Native
Son” . Both have more power than the protagonists. The white society keep the blacks
from being equal from them. Much like Steel does with the rest of the gang. For example,
the whites make the blacks live in bad conditions while they live in nice houses with cars.
Steel keeps the other gang members in line and doesn’t let them become to powerful.
For example, when a member of the gang stands up to Steel in front of the other guys he
With no father figure in his life and a broken home, Kody turned to the streets in search of love and security. He became good friends with a guy by the name of “Tookie” Williams. Williams just so happened to be an early leader of the Crips, a notorious Los Angeles gang. The more Kody hung out with Tookie, the more respect he had for the gang’s power of authority and at the young age of 11 he was initiated into the 83 Gangster Crips (Kody, 2008). When someone is initiated into a gang they are “beat in” meaning they get beat up by 5 or 6 men for a certain length of time (usually around 30 seconds). Right after joining the gang he helped steal a car and shot and killed many rival gang members in a drive by shooting (Kody, 2008). When Kody was 13 years old, he robbed and beat a victim so bad that the police called it the “work of a monster,” which is where he got his nick name (Kody, 2008).
...d in any activities other than his gang nor did he have any desire to be. As for his beliefs he started out believing that he was wrong, but as time passed he began to rationalize what he was doing. He told him self that the bloods deserved it, or that they were asking for it. Eventually he believed himself (Scott, 1993).
Gangs are a group of people involved in illegal activity. They were formed over 200 years ago in the United States and have now reached approximately 1.4 million individuals. There are five different types of gangs. The traditional gang, the neo-traditional gang, the collective gang, the compressed gang, and the specialty gang are all different types of gangs. Captain Dexter Nelson, a spokesman for Oklahoma City police who used to work in the department’s gang unit, said “all gangs exploit areas that are less equipped or less willing to
Bigger is a young black man living in the Southside of Chicago with his mother and two younger siblings. His family lives in a one room apartment, leaving little space for privacy. After being awoken by the sudden clang of an alarm clock, the Thomas’s start their day like every other before it. As the family is getting dressed a large rat runs into the room, causing chaos. Bigger trapped the rat in a box, giving it no way to escape. Looking at Bigger “the rat’s belly pulsed with fear. Bigger advanced a step and the rat emitted a long thin song of defiance, its black beady eyes glittering” (Wright 6). The fear that pulses in the belly of the rat is the same fear that runs through Bigger. Bigger is trapped within the physical walls of his run-down apartment and the city lines that the white society has put around the Chicago Black Belt. Bigger and the black community have no choice or way to escape. The confinement of these areas causes Bigger to feel confusion and anger towards those who have put him
Just as Max did in defending Bigger during his trial and inevitable conviction, Wright uses Bigger as an example for how African Americans have been treated. True, the vast majority of African Americans do not commit the awful crimes which Bigger has committed, but the crimes themselves, and in fact the details of Bigger's life are not really that important in the scheme of thin...
female (qtd. in Miller 431). Miller has recognized two different types of female gangs. First, the
Bigger felt that his crime was justified because murder is an inevitable event that all his life has been leading to. His life has been filled with unjust racism towards blacks, so he felt justified that the killing of a white...
Due to the way Bigger views whites, his motivation for killing Mary is that it serves him a higher purpose. The fact that Mary is white, is mainly what triggers Bigger to feel shame and fear. You’ve got to remember, Bigger views whites people as a great big natural white force. Considering that Bigger killed Mary and gets away with it, gives him gives him a sense of pride because he can act one way while still doing what he pleases. He believes that killing Mary accounts for all things that the white force has done to him and that is his key to motivation.
The book emphasizes the idea of how difficult it is to leave the gang lifestyle. There are frequent cases of relapse by individuals in the book, who were once out to again return to gangs. This case is brought by what gangs represent to this in the book and what leaving entails them to give up. The definition of gangs presented to the class was, three or more members, share name, color, or affiliation, or must exist in a geopolitical context. To members associated with gangs, this definition can include your family members, neighborhood, everyone that they associate with. Take for example Ronnie from Jumped in by Jorja Leap it states,” Ronny’s role models are gangbangers. His family is a hood. His mentors are older homies in county jail.”(102). Ronnie and other gang members like him do not
When Kody Scott was 6 years old, the gang wars started in Los Angeles. It started out as a battle between the Crips and the Bloods, but by the late 70's and continuing today, the biggest killer of Crips is other Crips. The Crip Nation was divided into different divisions, which Monster compares to the U.S. Army. "For instance, one who is in the army may belong to the F...
The essay “Notes of a Native Son” takes place at a very volatile time in history. The story was written during a time of hate and discrimination toward African Americans in the United States. James Baldwin, the author of this work is African American himself. His writing, along with his thoughts and ideas were greatly influenced by the events happening at the time. At the beginning of the essay, Baldwin makes a point to mention that it was the summer of 1943 and that race riots were occurring in Detroit. The story itself takes place in Harlem, a predominantly black area experiencing much of the hatred and inequalities that many African-Americans were facing throughout the country. This marks the beginning of a long narrative section that Baldwin introduces his readers to before going into any analysis at all.
Obstacles are opportunities in disguise. If a person is starving with only one sunflower seed, he/she has a choice to either plant the sun flower seed or to eat it. His obstacle is only having one sunflower, but his opportunity is to plant it. Women and men from urban areas are faced with these decisions everyday of choosing starvation v. assurance, mind v. matter, now v. forever. They are hit with harsh reality in some of the most severe ways, that the bad options can outweigh the good. Alternatively, there those who are hit, though they fight back. The obstacles of living in an urban environment, being faced with controversial experiences, and their relationships during their childhood are what shaped their character and possibly dictate
...eads to him killing Mary and Bessie. He has no remorse because white society has none for him. He knows he was dead the minute he was born. Bigger realizes what the blind people surrounding him do not! He knows he can do nothing; he might as well go out fighting.
Before discussing Jan Erlone and Boris Max, the communists in the novel, it should be known that Richard Wright was a member of the Communist Party when he wrote Native Son. Wright used these two characters in the novel along to support the movement and make it look more positive. This, along with other things to be included later, was very controversial and generated much criticism for the novel. The communist characters turn out to be the most supportive and helpful towards Bigger. Jan Erlone is Mary Dalton’s boyfriend and is quite similar to her at the beginning of the novel. He contributes to Bigger feeling afraid and ashamed as well as tries to force communism upon him. After murdering Mary, Bigger attempts to frame Jan for the crime.
Many stereotypes of gangs have been fabricated. The problem is that a majority of gang members do not fit these stereotypes, which, in turn, makes it hard for the to be caught (Klein). Traditionally they organize their group around a specific neighborhood, school or housing projec...