Bigger's Self Realization in Native Son

February 2003, 1998. http://www.rainbowwalker.com/anger/cycle.html Wright, Richard. Native Son. 1940. New York, NY: First Perennial Classics, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, 1998.

Bigger has lived a life defined by the fear and anger he feels toward whites for as long as he can remember. Perhaps that is what leads him to do the crimes that he does. Bigger develops the main action of the book when he kills Mary Dalton. In fact, it makes him feel as though his life actually has a meaning. He feels as if he has the power to assert himself against the whites.

¡§The Negro became in the first year contraband of war; that is, property belonging to the enemy and valuable to the invader. And in addition to that, he became, as the South quickly saw, the key to Southern resistance. Either these four million laborers remained quietly at work to raise food for their fighters, or the fighter starved. Simultaneously, when the dream of the North for man-power produced riots, the only additional troops that the North could depend on were 200,000 Ne... ... middle of paper ... ...hey will not be satisfied until we return to our original positions as slaves because that is the primary reason we were brought to this unyielding land. Yet, as Maya Angelou so eloquently stated, ¡§still we rise¡¨.

However, Lemann connects the acts of violence to show an orchestrated movement intended to undermine both keys to the freed blacks’ quality of life, organizing abilities and voting rights. Violence against blacks existed for years, but in the form of a master supposedly disciplining his slave. The acts of violence outlined by Lemann show a shift from fear and ignorance to organized intimidation. After all, whites of the time viewed themselves “as protectors of [the] natural order” meaning racial superiority (65). What first started as a fear of being the minority turned quickly to a fear of losing political power and economic wealth.

As the years went on he started to feel the sting of prejudice from upper class white Americans. In Johnson’s teenage years in Raleigh the son of John Daveraux a ric... ... middle of paper ... ...ended Andrew Johnson was thrust into the spotlight as president when Abraham Lincoln was murdered. A man from a relatively poor upbringing he developed a dislike for newly freed African Americans because of the way they were affecting poor southern whites, And Due to this he would fight laws meant to help African Americans, and enacted economic reforms and being “concrete” with his policies. Johnson created an environment where he could have blacks be slaves without the title of slavery. His fight against the civil rights or any tights for freemen were extensive and continued on for his whole presidency and I see him as one of the biggest reasons why civil rights did not take place a lot earlier in the United States.

Since the first slaves were brought to America whites have seen the Negro race as inferior and unequal. They were merely chattel purchased for the sole purpose as to provide for his master. Slaves were beaten to ‘keep them in line’ or killed to set an example for the rest. As time passed Negroes gained more freedom but also more hatred from the white populace. The formation of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in 1866 greatly heightened tension between the black and white races.

Children would mature more often because they would see a white man kill a black slave because he ran away. The fact that children have known what these people did and to grow up and become the same makes the 19th century evil. The slavery in this time was evil and that is what Stowe always refer to when you see the way the world is in this story. The evils in this story was clear to anyone who reads it. Stowe shows the world in the eyes of slaves and the readers gain an understanding of how slaves were treated and how they had to survive in those years.

Though the Civil Rights Act succeeded, societal forces have changed and the oppressed are still oppressed but in a new way. America's unique history with slavery and the segregation that followed brought into creation a white power structure that serves to maintain the position that whites have as the dominant race. This has been the major oppressive societal force since the United States became its own country. Slaves who were shipped to the United States from Africa were seen as animals and even property because of several different factors. Settlers became extremely frustrated at their own ineptitude; how could the American Indian survive so well even though they were savages while civilized white men with more advanced technology were dying of hunger and exposure?

In the story Beloved by Toni Morrison, Morrison portrays the fact that some acts of cruelty will forever affect a slave’s life, preventing them from creating a family therefore altering their actions, thoughts, and the perspective of the society they are exposed to. The violence from the quote correlates to the cruel treatments of the “60 million and more” (Morrison) slaves by the white people. Millions have died by the hands of white people who are oblivious to the pain and sufferings of that they have inflicted upon others to make money or to prove their dominance over the slaves. The slaves do not get to decide what they could do or own instead the slave owners give them orders and if they dared defy the punishment would certainly be physically painful , sometimes it might even lead to death. Incidentally, the main character in the novel, Sethe, out of desperation kills her own daughter, hoping... ... middle of paper ... ...d into the minds of the black community as well as other communities.The “60 million an more” shall never be forgotten because they are the true heroes that have paid a price to make this country a better place for the future generation.

John Brown was a white northern man who was disgusted by the thought of slavery. In 1859, he attempted to start a slave revolt. In the process he killed many plantation owners and some of his men were killed. He was later hanged for his crimes, but the north saw him as a hero. They then realized that they would have to take great strides for the cause of abolition.