Native Son By Richard Wright

 

Native Son

By Richard Wright

Bigger Thomas lives in a one room tenement flat in 1930s Chicago with his mother, younger sister, and younger brother. The family has been removed from the social welfare program and will not have an income if Bigger does not take a job with the wealthy Dalton family that has been offered to him, his name given to Mr. Dalton from the welfare office. Bigger would much rather pal around with his friends Jack, G.H., and Gus, hanging out at theaters and pool halls or planning and perpetuating petty crimes. But he takes the job to keep his family from starving.

Among the other black people in his segregated neighborhood, Bigger acts like a tough guy, often bullying his siblings and his friends. He is afraid of appearing weak and he takes his fear out on others. He believes that the whites do not care about black people committing crimes against other black people, but if he did the same things to whites he would find himself in a world of hurt.

Once Bigger goes to the Daltons and meets them he is offered a job as a driver and furnace stoker. He is offered money for his income and extra for himself, a room at the Daltons, and meals. This is a good situation for him and his family. But, during his interview, he meets Mary Dalton, the 23-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Dalton (who happens to be blind). He has seen Mary before in a short film at the theater. He immediately despises her when she acts familiar toward him and ask him how he feels about unions. Mary Dalton is in a relationship with a member of the Communist party, a young man named Jan. Bigger does not want to be familiar or on friendly terms with any white people, whom he sees as dangerous. Bigger has only known whites to work toward keeping the black people segregated, closed off, and without opportunities for movement or advancement. Bigger always had dreams about going places and being someone, but as he grew older he realized that it was impossible because of the acts of the dominant white culture. The conventions and customs were stacked against him.

Mary asks Bigger to take her to university, but instead she redirects him to pick up Jan and the two of them make Bigger take them to his neighborhood, eat with them, drink with them, and even sit in the same front seat of the car, all close together. Bigger is completely freaked out by the whole situation, fearful that something will happen that will cause him to get in trouble. Not only because Jan is a Communist, but mostly because of the intermingling aspects that have been forbidden by the white culture. The three get drunk, Jan is taken to his own neighborhood, and Bigger brings Mary back home, where she is too drunk to get herself into her room. He takes her there, and while there he kisses her and fondles her when he blind mother enters the room. Bigger panics and does the unthinkable, an act he can not come back from, which leads to further acts just as bad. Originally, when he realized Mary was going away for a while, Bigger planned to fake her kidnapping for ransom money to get out of his miserable life. After he does the bad thing, he calls off the plan.

A group of newspapermen and policemen come to the Daltons after Mary disappears, the circumstances sketchy, and they question Bigger about her, about Jan, and the Communist party. Bigger finds an "out" and blames Jan for Mary's disappearance, but a series of events uncovers the real crime, which causes Bigger to run. He is hunted down, his second crime discovered, and he is arrested, questioned, tried, and convicted to death.

This was a great story and the message was made explicit, a message we can still stand to hear today. Bigger did what he did out of fear, and as a result if what Wright calls white guilt, which is talking about the ways white people oppress black people while thinking they are doing the best things. These best things are not actually best. They work to keep black people separated, unable to advance, and unable to mingle with whites, which leads people like Bigger to fear the unknown and act out to exhibit some form of freedom and choice. Bigger feels he lives a life without agency. He is unable to achieve his dreams, so he acts out in ways that bring him some semblance of control. It is a cycle that could not be broken under the strong oppression of white culture.

Native Son is a story that everyone should read, especially privileged whites who think they are helping without knowing what actually is the root of the struggle. I found the story to be perfectly told, even if at times it seemed like a lecture on race relations. The plot perfectly illustrates the points being made in the message. The only thing that bothered me about it was the overuse of the characters names when they were talking to one another. I've said it before: people don't often say each others' names in conversation, and it annoys me in fiction when it occurs to excess. This was a great look at race relations in the 1930s, especially in the north where this takes place. We like to think the north was so much more enlightened, but that's just not the case in a lot of places.

I'm giving Native Son 4 stars.