Role of Bigger Thomas in Native Son by Richard Wright

993 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Analyses of native son

Bigger Thomas, the protagonist of Native Son, by Richard Wright, expresses the role of a poor, uneducated black man. Bigger lived in a time where racism was very common in the society. Wright shows us through him, how bad the situation was. Due to his lack of education, Bigger had to work menial labor. Thus, he was forced to live in a one room apartment with his family. He felt trapped all his life, resenting, hating, and fearing the whites, whom he felt controlled his life. He views white people as a collective, overpowering force that tells him where to live, where to work, and what to do. The main focus of Wright?s novel is to show the effects of racism on one?s mind. 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. Wright does not try to show Bigger as a hero, because of his brutality and capacity for violence which is extremely disturbing, especially in the scene where he shoves Mary Dalton?s dead body in to the burning furnace in order to hide it. Wright?s main point is that Bigger becomes a brutal killer just because the dominant white culture fears that he will. By fearing whites, Bigger only contributes to the cycle of racism and fuels it even more. However, after meeting Max, he begins to redeem himself, actually recognizing whites as individuals for the first time in his life.

But the social injustice does not end there, after killing Mary Dalton, Bigger goes to Bessie, his girlfriend and tells her everything. Recognizing that Bessie might tell anyone, Bigger kills her too and is than arrested by the police. There, the injustice takes place. When Bigger was arrested, and

jailed, he received constant harassment. He only faced two choices, either to confess, or be lynched by the white crowed. Bigger knew deep down, that he was going to die anyhow. But Max, his lawyer, reminded him that he could still win the case and be free. Another example of the injustice is that when Bigger was eventually caught, the pubic and the media press automatically determine that he is guilty of not only killing Mary, but also rapping her before killing her.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis of Richard Wright's Native Son

    1245 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Richard Wright’s Native Son, Bigger Thomas attempts to gain power over his environment through violence whenever he is in a position to do so.

    Read More

  • 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

  • Bigger: Native son

    584 Words  | 2 Pages

    The theme that Native Son author Richard Wright puts in this story is that the white community makes Bigger act the way he does, that through the communities actions, Bigger does all the things he is accused of doing. The theme that I present is that Bigger only acts the way that he did because of the influences that the white community has had on him accepted by everyone. When Bigger gets the acceptance and love he has always wanted, he acts like he does not know what to do, because really, he does not.      In Native Son, Bigger uses his instincts and acts like the white people around him have formed him to act. They way that he has been formed to act is to not trust anyone. Bigger gets the acceptance and love he wanted from Mary and Jan, but he still hates them and when they try to really get to know him, he ends up hurting them. He is scared of them simply because he has never experienced these feelings before, and it brings attention to him from himself and others. Once Bigger accidentally kills Mary, he feels for the first time in his life that he is a person and that he has done something that somebody will recognize, but unfortunately it is murder. When Mrs. Dalton walks in and is about to tell Mary good night, Bigger becomes scared stiff with fear that he will be caught committing a crime, let alone rape. If Mrs. Dalton finds out he is in there he will be caught so he tries to cover it up and accidentally kills Mary. The police ask why he did not just tell Mrs. Dalton that he was in the room, Bigger replies and says he was filled with so much fear that he did not know what else to do and that he did not mean to kill Mary. He was so scared of getting caught or doing something wrong that he just tried to cover it up. This is one of the things that white people have been teaching him since he can remember. The white people have been teaching him to just cover things up by how the whites act to the blacks. If a white man does something bad to a black man the white man just covers it up a little and everything goes back to normal.

    Read More

  • Native Son By Richard Wright: Poem Analysis

    332 Words  | 1 Pages

    Throughout there are tons of motifs in the book. The most common ones are: famish, poverty, and segregation. These themes are all current for the duration of the book. Segregation is a big one The book is set in the early to mid 1900's, where discrimination was huge in the South were Wright was born and raised. For most of the tome, Wright lives in segregation and experiences what it is like to be black in the South. Eventually he does go to the Chicago later on in the book, where there is no segregation. Nonetheless, he is still wary and skeptical of whites because of his life in the South. All through Wright's life (in the book) he lives in poverty and sometimes penury. From the time he was a child in the South to the grown man in

    Read More

  • What Was The Relationship Between Native Son And Bigger Thomas

    910 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bigger Thomas wasn’t just one man but every man Richard Wright, the writer of Native Son, had encounter in his childhood and adulthood. Wright had encountered a nice Bigger, violent Bigger, and a Bigger Thomas who hated the white society. He combined all of these Thomases and created Bigger Thomas in Native Son. Bigger filled with enrage and fear of the whites accidentally kills a white woman and tries to run away, but only to end in a prison cell waiting for his punishment. Bigger’s definition of himself and the white society had limited his possibilities of having a greater future but Bigger could have went to the right path if he had controlled himself and his choicies.

    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

  • Richard Wright's Big Boy Leaves Home

    2258 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...around the death of his friend, causing Big Boy to face the harsh reality that white people are murderous, no matter their sex. Big Boy cannot retain his innocence because after the death brutal murder of Bobo, he “had no feelings now, no fears. He was numb, empty, as though all blood had been drawn from him.”

    Read More

  • Theme Of Bessie In Native Son

    1611 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout Native Son, Bigger was the main character and was given most of the attention because he stood apart from the rest of his race by murdering a white woman and by defying the social norms placed upon him by white society. Though he did all of those things, Bessie deserved notoriety more so than she received. She represented the most vulnerable members of society by living her life under the social constraints that were placed upon her entire

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay: Native Son

    801 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bigger focuses on the question of "What would you have liked to do, if you were allowed to?" explaining to Max that nobody had ever asked him what he wanted to do, and so he had never spent serious time contemplating a future. Bigger shouts "How can I die?" His concern is not his own physical death, but the fact that he has lived his life around people who "didn't see him" and hated him, denying him an opportunity to reveal his potential for humanity.

    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

  • Black Boy-Oppression

    1042 Words  | 3 Pages

    Growing up as a Negro in the South in the early 1900's is not that easy, some people suffer different forms of oppression. In this case, it happens in the autobiography called Black Boy written by Richard Wright. The novel is set in the early part of the 1900's, somewhere in Deep South. Richard Wright, who is the main character, is also the protagonist. The antagonist is no one person specifically, it takes many different forms called "oppression" in general. The main character over comes this "oppression" by rebelling against the common roles of the black, society.

    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

  • Fear, Flight, And Fear In Richard Wright's Native Son

    1216 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bigger often finds himself lashing out as a way to handle his own fear. He is afraid of not being able to help his family enough and so treats them harshly, holding “toward them an attitude of iron reserve” (10). He is afraid of holding up Blum, a white man, and so projects his own fear onto Gus. He berates him for it, calling him “‘yellow’” when he hesitates to take the job (26). Bigger has been so psychologically beat down in his own community and trained to believe that he is a lesser person that he even feels the need to get ahead amongst his own friends, fighting Gus to “feel the equal” of him (41). Yet his anger still translates most directly to the white people whom he blames for it. He describes the deep and "inarticulate hate" he feels toward Jan and Mary but cannot place the immediate cause of it. This is the partial and subconscious reason that Bigger kills Mary (67). For the first time, Bigger feels a semblance of control over his situation and over the white world that Mary represents in that moment. However, Bigger also knows very consciously that if he is discovered in her room he will be accused of rape just for being black, and so he knows his only option is to make sure he isn’t discovered. In this way, though it was not entirely on purpose, the violent act of suffocating Mary comes about as a result of Bigger’s

    Read More

  • The Style, Point of View, Form and Structure of Native Son, by Richard Wright

    1087 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his novel, Native Son, Richard Wright favors short, simple, blunt sentences that help maintain the quick narrative pace of the novel, at least in the first two books. For example, in the following passage: "He licked his lips; he was thirsty. He looked at his watch; it was ten past eight. He would go to the kitchen and get a drink of water and then drive the car out of the garage. " Wright's imagery is often brutal and elemental, as seen in his frequently repeated references to fire, snow, and Mary's bloody head.

    Read More

More about Role of Bigger Thomas in Native Son by Richard Wright

Open Document