Richard Wright's Bigger Thomas

These two relate to each other as it is explained that "Bessie's whiskey was his mother's religion and his mother's religion was Bessie's whiskey." Both Bessie & Mrs. Dalton try to escape their lives.

Motifs

Threats

Setting; Richard Wright employs the vigorous surroundings of 1930s Chicago to depict the roots for which the novel's antihero is densely shaped.

Themes of Native Son

Character Development

Blindness; the novel uses Mrs. Dalton's blindness and consistently uses it as a motif for expressing the coping mechanisms of life for particular characters. They would rather live in a blind world, than open their eyes to the truth.

Whiteness; Bigger's life has been bound by "whiteness" both literal & metaphorical.

Gus & Bessie; these two threaten Bigger through fear. For "it was fear that had made him fight Gus", and it was because Bigger "could not take her[Bessie], he could not leave her." These two invade Bigger's thoughts and reveal his deep feelings about life that he tries to so desperately hide and ignore. Gus & Bessie serve as mirrors to Bigger because they all share a sense of inner yearning that is cut off by fear. Bigger tries to counteract this and face away by destroying it through acts of violence.

Mary & Jan; these two automatically threaten Bigger since their first meeting. Bigger is already innately suspicious of other people's intentions and motives, that he "wondered if Jan would turn on him now. He wondered if he could really trust any white man, even this white man who had come and offered him his friendship." This goes to show that the society in which Bigger lives, has instilled so much fear into minorities, that they have lost trust and instead gained suspicion. As for Mary, Bigger sees her as a threat primarily because of the way she makes him feel; even though she is trying to act nicely and sympathize with him, Mary acts in a way that makes it so obvious that the two are separate beings. as she asks Bigger to take them to be with his people. Bigger carries this feelings of threat well after the murder of Mary.

Britten & Buckley; these two threaten Bigger because of the face they plaster on. They both try to undermine Bigger and make it seem like they are trying to put him out of his misery, but really display him as a poster boy for black stereotypes. Their strong and intense personalities project entitlement, some disgust, suspicion, and ultimate judgement onto the black community, primarily using Bigger as a tool for their rage, motive, and justification of their actions.

Fear; As a dominating theme in the novel, feat often leads Bigger to use violence as an outlet & defense mechanism.

Oppression; It is clear from the beginning that the oppressive society in which Bigger lives, drivers the anger in his life. ("It maddened him to think that he did not have a wider choice of action.")

Mrs. Thomas uses religion to escape her daily struggles in life. Her faith allows her to escape her tragic reality with poverty, reckless son, discrimination, etc.

Bessie uses alcohol to escape her tragic life. She mentions that her life is all "work, work, work," and it is because of the lack of time and joy, that Bessie drowns her sorrows through alcoholism.

Mr. Dalton uses spending to ease his mind off his inner conflict with playing a role in how blacks live. It is also worth mentioning that it is Mrs. Dalton who holds remorse and pity for blacks and thus encourages Mr. Dalton to do something about it. However, even though he spends money, he does so by buying irrelevant things that don't matter to blacks as seen when Mr. Max questions him, "This boy and millions like him want a meaningful life, not ping-pong...." Another quote that supports Mr. Dalton's blindness is when Mr. Max mentions that "fear of hate keeps many whites from trying to help," and though Mr. Dalton does seem to be at least outwardly okay with helping blacks, this ultimately affirms that he (like many other individuals) are only looking for what best serves them.

Bigger is blind to himself until the very end. Multiple times throughout the novel, I noticed how he does not want to submit to anything besides himself. This is seen through not wanting to get a job for the whites, his quarrel with Gus, his lack of faith, etc. His ego and pride cast a haze over his sense of being. It is only when he opens his eyes, steps outside of himself, that he can truly see potential, a future, happiness, and peace.

Whites = looming mountain

Whites = snow

Bigger is overwhelmed with metaphorical whiteness as he describes the white society to be. No matter what he tries to do, its as if he life is already determined and structured by the whites.

Bigger is overwhelmed with literal whiteness. The snow that slowly begins to form in part two of the novel turns into a blizzard in part 3 which limits Bigger's escape options and aids in his capture by the white police.

Murder leads to Bigger stepping outside of himself ("It was an act of creation!"). This also references the quote "As long as he could take his life into his own hands and dispose of it as he pleased, as long as he could decide just when and where he would run to, he need not be afraid." Here this quote transcends the theme of fear and digs deeper into the roots of Bigger. The one thing that Bigger most consistently lacks throughout the novel is control, and it is only when he commits murder, that he feels like he has control over the direction in which way his life heads.

Bigger's awakening comes as his fate is set. Although there was no real way for Bigger to evade his consequences, he finally accepted not only his fate, but his life for what it was. He came to terms with everything he'd experienced and recognized his worth as a human being. It was in doing so - through his own effort (this relates to his need for control) - that Bigger was granted his salvation from the world and its blindness.

Segregated Black Belt community; The physical settings of his run-down, one-room apartment in Chicago's poor and segregated Black Belt community curates this angry attitude and highlights the lack of opportunity to escape from a trapped life. ("Goddamn... they keep us bottled up here like wild animals.")

Anger; Bigger's anger festers into "hate towards the whites; for he felt that they ruled him, even when they were far away and not thinking of him, ruled him by conditioning him in his relations to his own people."

Violence; Bigger explicitly states that "it was fear that made him fight Gus." Or when Bessie is involved, Bigger undermines her and thinks "He could not take her and he could not leave her." In both instances, fear is at the forefront of his mind, and copes with it through violence.

Hope/Faith

Bigger's innate nature, "all the factors in the present hysteria existed before Bigger Thomas was ever heard of," references how racism and discrimination is embedded into the DNA of America. This quote by Mr. Max helped open Bigger's eyes to see beyond the social falsehoods that had been constructed around him. It was his presence that Bigger and others (i.e. courtroom scene) are forced to listen to what the world is and how it works. Richard Wright, like Mr. Max does in his closing statements, makes the effort to identify not only the issue of racism, but present and pick at its societal causation.

Symbols

Rat; The novel begins with a scene in which Bigger kills a rat that has invaded his home. This rat symbolizes the life that Bigger lives; they are both trapped, have no escape, and fear a superior being. It is symbolic because it ultimately foreshadows what Bigger's ending will be: death.

Rape; The word "rape" is continuously repeated throughout the novel, to the point where readers are overwhelmed with it. Of course the rape does not simply refer to the sexual act itself, but also extends to the metaphorical stripping of control and choice; it simply means (in Bigger's words) to "have his back facing a wall." Bigger confesses that he has "raped" before, but not in the way most readers would envision; "He committed rape every time he looked into a white face. He was a long, taut piece of rubber which a thousand white hands had stretched to the snapping point, and when he snapped it was rape." Clearly, rape goes beyond the sexual act in that the whites have also so far taken its meaning and twisted it; one interpretation is that the whites have also "raped" Bigger of his identity and freedom as they continue to berate his reputation.

Cross; The cross that coincides with hope, faith, and some anger that religion brings, affects more than just Mrs. Thomas, but also Bigger. The hope that Bigger begins to have during his talks with Reverend Hammond is immediately crushed when he spots the burning cross. The cross is supposed to symbolize light and positivity but has switched to showcase negativity. Bigger shows this shift in feelings because it was supposed to bring him to hope in a better tomorrow, and from what he sees there is only a dim future. There is also a contradiction presented here because the white men were shouting at Bigger hateful phrases like "bring his death," some things that sound eerily similar to the phrases murmered during the crucifixion of Jesus. This presents the stark contrast to Christianity's promise to bring life instead of death.