Author: qbarbaza

Wright’s How Bigger Was Born section of Native Son is remarkably in line with a good amount of the critiques brought up in class and in previous reflections. I was particularly interested to see if Wright would address or anticipate some of those critiques. He does, and in doing so, Wright revealed what I think is a very prevalent theme in how Native Son is presented.

Wright completely dismisses any opinion contrary to his own. Several sections of How Bigger Was Born were particularly striking, namely “I felt with all of my being that he was more important than what any person, white or black, would say or try to make of him” (450). That is Wright’s only addressal of the complaint that he paints a bleak picture of Black identity. That is a woefully inadequate position, because Wright seems to be dismissing the very experience of the reader, which is, in basic terms, the point of writing a character. “They did not want people, especially white people, to think that their lives were so much as touched by anything so dark and brutal as Bigger” (449-450) is another claim Wright makes about issues the Black community might have with Native Son. But he doesn’t go any further. Wright makes no claim and records no thought about what effect that might have on the reader. Which, once again, is the purpose of writing a book. Telling a story that affects a reader, whether purposefully or not. I think that is why Native Son seems somewhat inconclusive as well. Several of us in class asked the question: so what? Where do we go from here? What’s the point of portraying Bigger this way? Wright explains how but not why, which leads the story and the explanation to seem somewhat inadequate.  Wright also completely dismisses any notion of Black pride or culture with the simple line, “Still others projected their hurts and longings into more naive and mundane forms–blues, jazz, swing–and, without intellectual guidance, tried to build up a compensatory nourishment for themselves” (439). Once again, Wright offers no clarification as to why this is bad, why such forms are “naive”, or why Bigger’s lens on Black America is more apt. Finally, Wright makes not a single reference to the role of women in Bigger’s life. The seldom times he mentions rape, which is a massive part of Native Son, he solely discusses rape in the context of its connotations for Black men, which are undoubtedly present, but is entirely dismissive of women. This explanation reaffirms conclusions about Native Son: Wright focuses the story with an incredibly narrow lens, that not only highlights a very particular approach to Blackness, but also dismisses any other approach to those topics.

Book three of Wright’s Native Son is incredibly conflicting as Wright seems to change course from the first two books of the novel and attempts to humanize Bigger Thomas. Wright mainly does so by finally having Bigger give voice to his feelings at the end of the book as well as an extensive argument from Max on Bigger’s behalf. However, the most conflicting aspect of Native Son for me has been the concept of agency. Wright makes the point that Bigger was destined, hence the title Fate, by his environment and the nature of oppression in America to be imprisoned at least if not killed. Max puts the concept succinctly in saying, “We allowed Bigger Thomas nothing. He sought another life and accidentally found one” (398). Wright continually presents the reader with the assertion that the only means of agency for Bigger is murder. “[Bigger] accepted it because it made him free, gave him the possibility of choice, of action, the opportunity to act” (396). Bigger, along with the rest of the Black community, is fatefully driven towards violence. I do not agree with this assertion because the preponderance of fate cedes agency which is already limited by society. 

Wright paints an incredibly pessimistic picture of blackness, one that is dictated by oppression and violence. By no means do I contradict the weight of oppression and systemic hatred and racism, nor do I contradict the effect those have had on Black agency. Clearly, opportunity and agency in America is incredibly different, and continues to favor White people. It continues to disadvantage Black people, from redlining to voter suppression. But agency and blackness are not confined to violence, as Wright seems to argue in Native Son. 

I was listening to a group of rappers I follow closely (Coast Contra) and one of their pieces touched on pride in themselves, particularly the line “Stop, breathe, give and receive / Nowadays in mind, I stay align, I wake and meditate for space / Been taking time to make these rhymes in hope they elevate all our thoughts / Stop, breathe, give and receive” (Breathe and Stop Freestyle, 4:20 – 4:30). Ras Austin delves deeper into similar feelings of pressure, fear, and confusion later in the verse but still chooses to emphasize the pride in himself and his group for who they are and what they have done. As Black artists, this is a stark contrast to Wright’s depiction of blackness via Bigger Thomas. So while I think Wright excellently points out how systemic oppression and alienation make people feel, I disagree with Wright’s assertion that agency is accessible only through violence.