Kelsey Draft

849 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Racism in literature

In the novel Native Son there are many impulsive decisions made from the main character Bigger, and I’d like to go in depth in analyzing his behaviors throughout the story. Racism has been known to have a negative effect on people of color in the United States, and a number of research has concluded that racism continue to cause negative social, physical, economic, and psychological effects that are in some cases transferred from generation to generation. Racism continues to have an underlying negative effect in employment hiring practices, home loans, education, and quality healthcare for people of color. This paper will focus on the character Bigger, analyze the negative effects of racism, and how it’s contribution to Bigger’s thoughts, attitude, views, behavior, and social interactions.

Being an African American, Bigger has always lived his life according to the do’s and don'ts of whites, and has developed a hatred toward them because of it. Bigger and his family live in low income housing in Chicago, a dilapidated apartment to be honest, and because this is fact, Bigger feels powerless to change his families living situation and this causes him to be angry. Him and his mother, both unemployed adults in the household, have to bring in some type of income so Biggers mother urges him to accept the position that has been offered to him by Mr. Dalton. His mother often nags at him, and is not the most encouraging parent. Bigger makes it a hobby to go out and commit petty crimes with this friends only against other blacks due to the fear he has of whites. Gus, one of Biggers friends, soon becomes one of his victims of inner anger used to cover up his true fear, when he lures his friends into finally setting out to rob Mr. Blum, a w...

... middle of paper ...

...ly leaves the room. Now Bigger is begins to feel fear. The same fear he felt when it was time to rob Blums. Being a black man in a situation like this is bound to cause his life to be gone quickly. Bigger now thinks like a murderer, even though it wasn't his intention to kill Mary, he feels he has no other options. He uses a trunk to put Mary’s body in and makes his way to the basement. Catching a glimpse at the furnace altered his initial plan. He decided to put Marys body in the furnace and burn it up. The body did not fit entirely so he had to chop her head off and burn that as well. After he was done with her he left for Home. In the morning Bigger returned to the Dalton home, and everyone was still asleep. He checked the furnace to view his cruel work. Peggy begins to worry where Mary is when the time comes close to when Mary should be leaving for the station.

Show More
Related

  • Native Son Hierarchies

    2066 Words  | 5 Pages

    They deal with rat infestations, eviction, and poverty day by day. As the story goes on, Bigger’s mother constantly nags him about getting a job, and providing for his family. This causes Bigger to hate his family and hate his life because of the fact that they are so poor, and he can’t do anything to help them.

    Read More

  • Gregory Howard Williams' Life on the Color Line

    1009 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many of the stereotypes we encounter and hold today were formed because of events in the past, which were formed to rationalize and justify past social and political agendas. Many of the stereotypes that we now hold today were learned long ago and have been passed from one generation to the next. This book has forever inspired me to believe in the value of each child and discourage racist attitudes wherever I encounter them. Gregory Howard Williams encountered many hurdles growing up and successfully defeated them all. He could have easily confirmed the expectations of his negative peers and developed into a self-fulfilling prophecy, but instead he chose to shun his stereotypes and triumph over incredible odds.

    Read More

  • Racial Segregation and Prejudice in ZZ Packer's Brownies

    1109 Words  | 3 Pages

    Wilkins, Roger. “Racism.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 572 (2000): 159. Sage Publications, Inc. Web. 25 Mar. 2014

    Read More

  • Essay On Differences Between Native Son And Natural Born Killers

    2160 Words  | 5 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Native Son by Richard Wright and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

    1637 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Native Son, the character Bigger Thomas is highly oppressed and treated as an outcast in society. This relationship with society is nearly identical to that of the creature in Frankenstein. Bigger Thomas did not choose which race he would be born as, nor did he chose to live in a time of oppression. Despite all this, Bigger is still treated as inferior to white people all throughout the novel. After being raised in an environment in which he was told he would never be able to amount to his dreams, Bigger eventually stretches past his limits and becomes enraged. He uses his anger to rationalize his view of the accidental murder of Mary Dalton. When Bigger’s girlfriend tells him that he will be accused of raping Mary, Bigger thinks:

    Read More

  • Cultural Criticism of Barn Burning by William Faulkner

    825 Words  | 2 Pages

    the reality of a racist society. He must also discover for himself that his father is wrong

    Read More

  • Refutation: The Story of Bigger Thomas ( Native Son )

    1133 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Darryl Pinckney’s discerning critical essay, “Richard Wright: The Unnatural History of a Native Son,” Pinckney states that all of Wright’s books contain the themes of violence, inhumanity, rage, and fear. Wright writes about these themes because he expresses, in his books, his convictions about his own struggles with racial oppression, the “brutal realities of his early life.” Pinckney claims that Wright’s works are unique for Wright’s works did not attempt to incite whites to acknowledge blacks. Wright does not write to preach that blacks are equal to whites. The characters in Wright’s works, including Bigger Thomas from Native Son, are not all pure in heart; the characters have psychological burdens and act upon their burdens. For instance, Bigger Thomas, long under racial oppression, accidentally suffocates Mary Dalton in her room for fear that he will be discriminated against and charged with the rape of Mary Dalton. Also, according to Pinckney, although the characters of Wright’s books are under these psychological burdens, they always have “futile hopes [and] desires.” At the end of Native Son, Bigger is enlightened by the way his lawyer Max treats him, with the respect of a human being. Bigger then desires nothing but to live, but he has been sentenced to death.

    Read More

  • Control of the Black Man in Richard Wright's, Native Son

    647 Words  | 2 Pages

    The effects of racism can cause an individual to be subjected to unfair treatment and can cause one to suffer psychological damage and harbor anger and resentment towards the oppressor. Bigger is a twenty year old man that lives in a cramped rat infested apartment with his mother and 2 younger siblings. Due to the racist real estate market, Bigger's family has only beat down dilapidated projects of south side Chicago to live in. poor and uneducated, bigger has little options to make a better life for him and his families. having been brought up in 1930's the racially prejudice America, bigger is burdened with the reality that he has no control over his life and that he cannot aspire to anything more than menial labor as an servant. Or his other option which are petty crimes with his gang.

    Read More

  • Bigger Thomas as America’s Native Son

    1231 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bigger embodies one of humankind’s greatest tragedies of how mass oppression permeates all aspects of the lives of the oppressed and the oppressor, creating a world of misunderstanding, ignorance, and suffering. The novel is loaded with a plethora of images of a hostile white world. Wright shows how white racism affects the behavior, feelings, and thoughts of Bigger. “Everytime I think about it, I feel like somebody’s poking a red-hot iron down my throat. We live here and they live there.

    Read More

  • Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome Summary

    1534 Words  | 4 Pages

    This vacant self esteem Bigger embodied correlates to the explanation of racism on the black psyche, in The Souls of Black Folks by W.E.B DuBois, “One ever feels his two-ness—an American, a negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder” (2) hencing towards Bigger being still one person but having, two separate wandering lwanderingost thought processes, thisthat resulteds in him not being able to interact with others and unable to comprehend himself. Bigger’s life is drowned out with the sense of finding himself, yet unfortunately in order for him to have found that out he had to take the lives of two innocent women. He had no time to rejoice this realization due to the fact that his life would be cut short from the death penalty. “The perception of racism could lead to such emotional responses as anger, anxiety, sadness, or hopelessness, and to behavioral responses that including externalizing disruptive behavior” (Nyborg and Curry 209) Clark et.al., 1999) thiswhich shows in Bigger’s behavior especially anger towards himself and his surrounding

    Read More

  • Sympathy for a Murderer in Richard Wright's Native Son

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    The simplest method Wright uses to produce sympathy is the portrayal of the hatred and intolerance shown toward Thomas as a black criminal. This first occurs when Bigger is immediately suspected as being involved in Mary Dalton’s disappearance. Mr. Britten suspects that Bigger is guilty and only ceases his attacks when Bigger casts enough suspicion on Jan to convince Mr. Dalton. Britten explains, "To me, a nigger’s a nigger" (Wright 154). Because of Bigger’s blackness, it is immediately assumed that he is responsible in some capacity. This assumption causes the reader to sympathize with Bigger. While only a kidnapping or possible murder are being investigated, once Bigger is fingered as the culprit, the newspapers say the incident is "possibly a sex crime" (228). Eleven pages later, Wright depicts bold black headlines proclaiming a "rapist" (239) on the loose. Wright evokes compassion for Bigger, knowing that he is this time unjustly accused. The reader is greatly moved when Chicago’s citizens direct all their racial hatred directly at Bigger. The shouts "Kill him! Lynch him! That black sonofabitch! Kill that black ape!" (253) immediately after his capture encourage a concern for Bigger’s well-being. Wright intends for the reader to extend this fear for the safety of Bigger toward the entire black community. The reader’s sympathy is further encouraged when the reader remembers that all this hatred has been spurred by an accident.

    Read More

  • Native Son

    1257 Words  | 3 Pages

    Native Son is a critically acclaimed, best-selling novel by Richard Wright (1908-1960) that tells the story of Bigger Thomas, an impoverished and uneducated black man. Bigger’s life in South Chicago (a predominantly African-American area) is miserable and he remains bitter and angry over his social condition – one that involves the constant burden of being black in a white man’s world. He is convinced that he has no control over his life and that he will never be anything more than a low-wage laborer due to his skin color. Bigger represents significant problems in America during Richard Wright’s lifetime – racism, violence, and the debasement of African-Americans. Through Bigger, Wright forces the reader to enter the mind of an oppressed Negro and to understand the effects of the demoralizing social conditions African-Americans were raised in during the early 20th century. Throughout the book, it is thoroughly established that not all of Bigger’s crimes are his fault – part of the blame for his crimes must be attributed to the fearful, hopeless existence that society has imposed on African-Americans since their birth. Through the use of numerous literary techniques, Richard Wright makes a thundering statement about race relations in the 1930s and how racism played a key role in influencing the lives and decisions of many African-Americans during this time period.

    Read More

  • Effects Of Ghetto In The Native Son

    1192 Words  | 3 Pages

    Richard Wright believed that all humans are a product of their environment and when this environment oppresses any member, there is physical and psychological devastation (Wright, 1940, p. 6).” The ghetto, though no longer assumed to create pathological social conditions today did, however aid in the pathological, or deviant behavior of many African Americans in the late nineteenth century. Some psychologists would argue that, the ghettos of today in the United States do in fact still have devastating impacts on African American youth. In Wright’s novel, The Native Son, the protagonist, Bigger Thomas and his single mother, younger brother and sister reside in a one-bedroom apartment in Chicago’s South Side Black Belt. Throughout the course of the novel, it is evident to the reader that Bigger’s

    Read More

  • To Kill a Mockingbird Argumentative Essay

    883 Words  | 2 Pages

    this story that causes controversy because of his skin color. Is the story’s relevance based on Mr. Robinson and his skin color? In my opinion yes, the book revolves all around his skin color and racism of the time. Tom Robinson is treated unfairly because he was black not because of what he supposedly did. The controversial subject matter in this book is immense in numbers, but out of all them, racism stands out the most. A question that has come to mind after reading this book is, today is racism still a hostile problem and as big as it was in the 1930s? Throughout this research paper I will gather information about racism from the 30s, and also today. Then I’ll compare and contrast the differences between the past and present and come to a conclusion.

    Read More

  • Bigger's Summary: Causes Of The Death Of Mary

    804 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about Kelsey Draft

Open Document