Native Son - Research Paper Example

 Native Son by Richard Wright Thesis statement: Did Bigger Thomas merely responded to the social and economic conditions in which he and his black community lived and was compelled to shape his life accordingly? Abstract: This is the story of a young black youth, Bigger Thomas and his desperate struggle to come to terms with the most hopeless conditions of his life and how he faces the practice of racism at its worst in USA. Apart from the usual difficulties that the black community has to face, destiny is extra-cruel to Bigger. He commits two murders, one of them quite unintentional. One wrong issue leads to another wrong decision and ultimately his life is ruined. Notwithstanding the desperate situation that he is placed in to commit the murder, murderer is a murderer and he has to face the legal consequences and the ire of the white community and the unsympathetic Press. A white individual, who should have been his worst enemy comes to his legal aid to defend him from reaching the gallows. Research Paper: The first part of his name, in relation to grammar, is an adjective, and that mocks at him in real life always. Bigger Thomas can never become bigger in life. He is cursed with all the negative challenges of life. He is a poor, uneducated, twenty-year-old black man in Chicago of the 1930s, when racial prejudice is at the peak. He visualizes his future with a totally cynical perspective and is convinced that the future holds nothing for him and it will remain dark like the color of his skin, for all time to come. His father has deserted the family to marry for the second time, and his poor, helpless mother is direction and destination-less. Bigger is not enamored of the menial low-wage labor and against the advice of his mother, gangs up with his friends to plan the robbery of a white man's store. With anger, fear and frustration being part of his daily existence, he is forced to act tough. Analyzing the psyche of Bigger Thomas Richard writes,“He hated his family because he knew that they were suffering and that he was powerless to help them. He knew that the moment he allowed himself to feel to its fullness how they lived, the same and misery of their lives, he would be swept out of himself with fear and despair.” (13) Criminal activities becomes the accepted way of life for Bigger Thomas. The greatest challenge that lay hidden in a conspicuous corner of his mind is the color white. He hates the white race with all the intensity of his feelings, and at the same time, he is fearful of the economic and social power commanded by them. He wishes to retaliate, but dares not! To him, whites are the permanent enemies and he is always at mental war with them. But strangely, so far his gang has attacked all black-owned business establishments, as he has developed the mental block to challenge the whites. In one such state of confusion, he attacks violently member of his own gang to sabotage the robbery. With no option left, Bigger takes up the employment with Daltons as a chauffeur. Being in close contact, Bigger sees the types of double-dealings that Dalton is engaged in. He wears the mask of a philanthropist, out to help the poor black people by donations, but in reality he exploits their weak economic position. He owns the controlling shares in a company that manages apartments, and with the clever strategy of not allowing the black people to hire apartments in the white-dominated neighborhoods, an artificial scarcity for space is created in the black South Side. Mary, Dalton's daughter, creates willful problems for Bigger. She deliberately ignores the social taboos that govern the racial relations white women and black men and enjoys the difficult dilemma of Bigger. On that eventful day, Bigger drives Mary for a meeting with her communist boyfriend Jan. They wish to prove to Bigger that they are are individuals with progressive ideals and racial tolerance and with that perspective they force him to take them to a restaurant to the black-dominated South side. They order drinks, and as the evening passes, all three of them get drunk. Richard describes this interaction between Bigger and the two whites thus: “Was she laughing at him? Were they making fun of him? What was it that they wanted? Why didn’t they leave him alone. He was not bothering them. Yes, anything could happen with people like these….He was very conscious of his black skin and there was in him a prodding conviction that Jan and men like him had made it so that he would be conscious of that black skin.” (67) After the drinking party at the restaurant, Bigger drives around the city as Mary and Jan remain glued to each other in the back seat. What's going on in the mind of Bigger? Mentally he is thinking about the disposition of Mary and Jan and feels they must be making fun of his disadvantageous position by passing remarks against the black race. He recollects the situation in the restaurant and it deeply hurts his sentiments. Richard describes the poignant situation thus: “But they made him feel his black skin by just standing there looking at him, one holding his hand and the other smiling. He felt he had no physical existence at all right then; he was something to be hated, the badge of shame which he knew was attached to a black skin. It was a shadowy region, a No Man’s Land, the ground that separated the white world from the black that he stood upon.” (67-68) Clouds of inferiority complex engulf the personality of Bigger and he feels humiliated. In the midst of secular problems that confront Bigger( and his black community) fate intervenes decisively, to create another vicious problem in his life. It gives an entirely different twist, and makes him to do things, which in the normal course, he would have never attempted to do. By the time they return home, Mary is too drunk to reach up to her bedroom of her own, and Bigger has to support her through the stairs. The male passion has its way, Bigger is aroused by the extraordinary proximity to a young white women and be begins to kiss Mary. As Bigger is about place Mary on her bed, Mary's blind mother arrives. She can not make out the presence of Bigger there, and yet he is terrified. If his presence is revealed by Mary in her drunken condition, the consequences will be terrible. Bigger covers her face with a pillow, to deny her the opportunity of mumbling with her mother, and smothers her to death accidentally; in the process, Bigger creates history that is bound to add fuel to the fire of black and white race relations, if his crime is found out. Richard describes the eventful situation thus: “She was dead and he had killed her. He was a murderer, a Negro murderer, a black murderer. He had killed a white woman….In the darkness his fear made live in him an element which he reckoned with as ‘them.’” (86) Desperate situations demand desperate remedies-unfortunately though, as it happens in the case of Bigger. A crime has been committed inadvertently and unintentionally, but Bigger doesn't wish to take any chances. He burns Mary's body in Dalton's furnace. His hidden grudge against the whites is seen in his scheme of defense. Jan is white and a communist. Dalton has strong prejudices against communism. Bigger takes advantage of this situation. In the course of investigations, it is reasonable for Dalton to assume that Jan has kidnapped his daughter for political purposes and he will never suspect that Bigger, the black servant, will have the audacity to commit any mischief with his daughter. Mary's murder empowers Bigger in a strange way. It is a psychological victory for a black versus the whites—so he thinks! Bigger's girlfriend, Bessie has different ideas, and Bigger is now emboldened to take advantage of the situation. He is fascinated by Bessie's idea to seek ransom from Dalton. Dalton is not aware of the truth of Mary's death. He thinks that she has disappeared. Bigger drafts a ransom letter playing upon the suspicion of Dalton as for the role of communists in Mary's disappearance. He signs the letter by the name “Red.”Next, he bullies an unwilling Bessie to take part in the ransom scheme. When Mary's bones are found in the furnace, it's all over for Bigger. Bigger flees along with Bessie to a deserted building. The animal tendencies of a frustrated Bigger surface again, he rapes Bessie and frightened that she will reveal everything, bludgeons her to death in her sleep, with a brick. The story takes a curious turn at this point, and Richard Wright successfully depicts different levels of human relationships. The best of it sparkles in a worst situation. Bigger is captured after a dramatic shootout.The possible enemy of Jan, rises above his personal grief and prejudice, and comes to the defense of Bigger, on the basis of communist principles dear to his heart, forgetting the personal tragedy he suffered in the dastardly murder of Mary, by Bigger. The press has a field day as the news concerns the murder of a young girl and the racial background of the murderer and the murdered adds fuel to the fire. The South Side faces a testing time, as most of the people and the Press assume that Mary is raped before being thrown into the furnace, to destroy evidence. Conclusion: The paradox of Bigger's life is, a white gentleman who should have been his worst enemy in life, Jan(he is the boyfriend of Mary) comes to his legal defense by engaging his friend Boris A. Max, free of charge. The representatives of white and black race meet as human beings for the first time, and realize their follies of mutual mistrust. The latent hatred of Bigger against the white community is diluted to a great extent. Afterall, what does Bigger achieve in life? Richard describes it poignantly:“But what was he after? What did he want? What did he love and what did he hate? He did not know. There was something he knew and something he felt; something the world gave him and something he himself had; something spread out in front of him and something spread out in back; and never in all his life, with this black skin of his, had the two worlds, thought and feeling, will and mind, aspiration and satisfaction, been together; never had he felt a sense of wholeness.” (225) Notwithstanding the emotional defense by Max that Bigger is the product of environment, and highlighting the trials and tribulations that he undergoes in a racist society, Bigger is sentenced to death, as law goes by evidence. Bigger is not a born criminal; the American society makes him one! ******* Works Cited: Wright, Richard. Native Son. New York: Harper & Row, 1940. Read More