James Baldwin

 The title of this particular book in the novel pervaded the back of my mind the entire time whilst reading its events. Every single aspect seems to be blamed on some sort of unflinching fate as a scapegoat. The authorities claim that the spectacle and handling of Bigger’s trial is completely justified and therefore fated, but it is clear that it is inciting unnecessary violence and further divides both the sides of the oppressor and the oppressed. They seek to make an example out of Bigger, solidifying his portrayal and therefore deciding his fate for him. Bigger himself also believes his actions to be completely fated as consequences of the sheer lack of control, autonomy, and individuality he has suffered from his entire life. Bigger genuinely believes he is a product of his unfair environment, a victim of the emasculations and prejudices he has always experienced. I agree that Bigger lacks control in his life while those in charge of his case yield it over him against his favor, but I also disagree that an omnipotent fate has all of these terrible events planned out, excusing anyone from being truly at fault. Hypocrisy and denial is present on all fronts. Even though he says so to save Bigger’s life, Max claims, “we planned the murder of Mary Dalton, and today we come to court and say: ‘We had nothing to do with it!” He tries to show the court how white society played a part in Mary’s death, rather than Bigger being completely responsible. Is it within Bigger’s fate to become a killer in order to revolt against the society that villainizes him? The debate of fate was also present during class discussion through the idea that “black people are born already dead.” I believe this idea would resonate with Bigger in how death was always fated to be a part of his life. Before meeting the Daltons, he meanders through life a dead man, and will now certainly die for taking a white girl’s life.

One of the main events of Book Two in Richard Wright’s Native Son is Bigger tragically killing Mary on his first night of work at the Daltons. Throughout the book, we as readers get a great insight into what is going on in Bigger’s head, how he truly feels about killing Mary, and how he feels about the consequences he may face in the world as a result of that. One of the main themes that ran through Bigger’s thoughts, that I noticed, was an aspect of control or possession that Bigger felt after he killed Mary which he had not really expressed or felt prior. Before Bigger killed Mary, he often communicated that he did not have much control in his world, control over his identity as a Black man, control over his ability to get a job and succeed, control over the situation when Mary and Jan were in the car with him, and more. However, after killing Mary, Bigger makes a huge change. He expressed how suffocating Mary, throwing her in the furnace, and knowing all of this “was something that was all his own, and it was the first time in his life he had had anything that others could not take from him” (Wright 105). It was very interesting, but more importantly concerning to see how Bigger felt better knowing that he had something of that magnitude to hold over people. He felt as though the murder “had created a new life for himself” and that he finally had possession over something of great importance to many people (Wright 105).

Bigger never really had possession or control over something like this or any property that was exclusively for him before, except for the knowledge and truth about Mary. Having that control over others gave Bigger a lot of confidence in himself and he became fearless. This is all shown for example when Bigger sees Peggy with the letter, when he tells Mr. Dalton and Britten his story about what happened that night, and even when the men from the news question Bigger at the Dalton’s home. Bigger felt as though he is this big mastermind behind the truth about Mary and finally has control over these people who were once so intimidating him. Having control over them with his knowledge makes Bigger feel equal to them which makes him feel better about himself. Because Bigger knew the truth, he was able to control the narrative and conceal the truth about Mary being “kidnapped”. He no longer feared the white people in the same way he once did and even began acting out more fearlessly than he previously did. He raped and murdered Bessie, pointed his gun at Jan, and more; all things that he probably would not have done if it were not for the “confidence” tragically killing Mary gave him.

When reading this on a surface level, Bigger’s newly acquired confidence, which is only achieved as a result of him killing Mary, seems quite chilling and portrays Bigger in an even more negative manner. However, when looking at it more in depth from a different perspective, I thought that it was sad that Bigger even had to do such a thing for him to feel worthy of attention or to feel something in the world. Although Bigger was indeed responsible for his own actions, I can’t help but wonder how much society and the circumstances surrounding Bigger influenced his fate.

Book Three of Native Son by Richard Wright, titled “Fate”, attempts at humanizing Bigger Thomas by establishing his case as bigger, no pun intended, than his troubling psyche. Although the reader can predict what is going to happen to Bigger early on in the novel, the majority of “Fate” tries to convince the reader that somehow Bigger might escape his fate. The reader is forced to question if Bigger deserves the death penalty and his lawyer Max makes a pretty decent case for him to be saved. Max’s character plays into the white saviorism trope along with Jan and Mary’s characters and his relation to solidarity becomes clear when he talks about his place in society as a Jewish person. Max’s argument to the court on behalf of Bigger is probably the one clarity one will get from the novel. He tries to make sense of Bigger’s actions and turn the situation into an argument of the collective African American experience. I think that he knew that Bigger couldn’t be saved but he used the situation to make a case for social injustice in america. It’s pretty clear that Bigger is going to die though, no matter how convincing Max’s speech is. Although noble, how do you make sense of a disaster? It’s hard to analyze this novel and establish some sort of meaning to it because everything is so hard to justify. It’s hard to give Bigger’s life any meaning because his behavior was so extreme that one cannot just say he’s a product of his environment. It seems as though Wright wants the reader to hate Bigger from the way he writes about him. Throughout the novel Wright feels the need to remind us that Bigger is a poor black man who is going to live a poor black life and never amount to anything. For example, deep into the novel on page 285 it states, “Bigger’s black face rested in his hands and he did not move” (Wright 285). Wright wants the reader to have a negative connotation of the word “black”. What’s even worse about this book is that the ending establishes prison as fate for black men. Prison is often described as a place of familiarity for black men and this novel contributes to that stereotype. Max argues that prison will be a refuge for Bigger, which is a paradoxical concept. Max describes life in prison as literally giving Bigger a chance at a better life, but how much growth could occur when Bigger is portrayed as unsaveable? Death is the fate of all humans, but this depressing narrative connotes death with blackness. It’s hard to make sense of this novel just as it is hard to make sense of Bigger’s character. 

Being white in America, to me has never been a choice. Coming from a mixed-race background, there was never truly a place for me to fit in. I was neither black enough nor white enough. I was always stuck in the middle, with no true place to fit in. I had never thought about how people came to America and chose to be white. Yet, I understand that choice. In the past and currently, people have been biased toward anyone who is not considered white. There are many people who wish they were white. Yet, one thing I do not think Baldwin had considered is the happenings in today’s world where people claim it is easier to be a minority. The amount of times I have been told it is easier to be a minority than to be white today is obnoxious honestly. People do not see the past anymore, as much as they claim. Everyone focuses on today. People choose to not see the way that people have been put down in the past, so these ‘equality’ rights were put into place. With the recent change in affirmative action, I wonder if this will change people’s minds. I do not believe that it has ever been easier to be a minority anywhere, including America.

Baldwin wrote ‘This moral erosion has made it quite impossible for those who
think of themselves as white in this country to have any moral authority at all—privately, or publicly.’ Yet, I do not believe that people view it this way. People take in the non-white form in ways they wish to view them, be it an athlete or a fighter, but do not always wish to accept them as a regular person. They do not want to view them as a neighbor, or a doctor. ‘White’ people will look up to non-whites for abilities they view they do not-have, the athleticism, the quick thinking. This is not to say that white people do not have those abilities, but will white people ever be able to take the moral high ground again? Or will they continue on with the notion that all is right in the world in which they claim?

Book 1 of Native Son was a fascinating reading. The majority of the reading consists of Bigger’s efforts towards self-actualization. It reminded me very much of the events of A Raisin in the Sun. When I read that play for the first time in high school, we discussed at length the relevance of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs within the story. Self-actualization is the final level of needs that can be sought after, but the most important in my opinion. A sense of individuality, purpose, and conviction are accomplished when this need is satisfied. Bigger is wanting of this, as Wright describes multiple instances of emasculation and frustration. My prediction is that the struggle towards self-actualization or the stark absence of it will play a critical role in these characters’ lives as well. Bigger is a frustrated young man who dreams of more for himself. His employment with the Daltons is portrayed as a stroke of luck at first for Bigger and his poor family, but the vapid liberalism, “white savior”-ness, and fascination the Daltons have towards Bigger and the black community in general poisons their good deeds. Could Mrs. Dalton’s blindness be a physical manifestation of her and her family’s color-blindness? The Dalton family present an extremely complex dynamic in wanting to help the people they employ, and yet Bigger still feels ill at ease around them, especially Mary. He simultaneously hates yet is captivated by her. They are reciprocally transfixed on each other, but in quite malicious and selfish ways. Mary wants to observe Bigger like an animal in captivity, while Bigger wants to take advantage of Mary in order to feel any control. Mary’s death was a complete shock. I felt sympathy for Bigger at first as he had put himself in serious danger, but his intentions and feelings are becoming more confusing and unreliable. On the surface, he is a poor black kid who has murdered a rich white girl. Will he escape the consequences of his actions? Will society be able to forgive him?

Richard Wright begins Native Son with the exploration of fear and what it can do to a person, more specifically a poor black man named Bigger. In Book One, titled “Fear”, Bigger proves the virtue, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” (Franklin D. Roosevelt). While this quote can be somewhat uninspiring in a world where poverty and racism reek, in the case of Bigger it has so much truth to it. It is quite unsettling to discover Bigger’s downfall as one progresses through “Fear”. For someone who is extremely self-aware, Bigger remains so helpless. The reader knows that Bigger’s self hatred contributes to many if not all of the poor decisions that he makes. On page 10 it states, “He knew that the moment he allowed what his life meant to enter fully into his consciousness, he would either kill himself or someone else. So he denied himself and acted tough” (Wright 10). This kind of anger or discontent with life that allows him to think that he will retaliate in a way that ends in death is scary, but it speaks to the way that men tend to handle their emotions. Bigger views the suppression of his feelings and violence as the only answer to his feelings of powerlessness, and he seems fine with this. Wright states, “These were the rhythms of his life: indifference and violence; periods of abstract brooding and periods of intense desire; moments of silence and moments of anger…He was bitterly proud of his swiftly changing moods and boasted when he had to suffer the results of them” (Wright 29). Further, when he is playing “white” with Gus, they mimic the way upper class white men speak to each other. Bigger makes reference to J.P. Morgan Chase and the President of the United States. Their game reveals how incompetent they feel in a society that would never allow them to succeed in the first place. Their mocking of white maleness reveals their desire for proximity to it. Bigger desires to fly a plane like white males do and continually states that “they” don’t allow “us” (being black men) to do anything (to make money or be something). The one chance Bigger gets to make some money ends in tragedy due to his fear of blackness and whiteness. Bigger’s attempt to escape the responsibility he claims he does not possess leads him to the death that he tried so hard to avoid. He commits desperate acts of violence as an attempt to cling onto some power over himself and his future. However, his avoidance of his consciousness does not aid him in escaping the fate that he manifested for himself.

I found Native Son interesting for many reasons, but, particularly, when the text is put in conversation with last week’s reading, the complexity of the construction of Blackness is revealed. For instance, Baldwin reminds us , in On Being White, And Other Lies that “no one was white before they came to America,” insisting that proving one’s whiteness through the subjugation of Black Americans is “the price of the ticket” to being a white American (Baldwin, 178). In Native Son, Wright draws attention to the fluidity of racial construction; for instance, Peggy, Dalton’s cook, shares that “my folks [in Ireland[ feel about England like the colored folks feel about this country” (Wright, 57). While conflating the two experiences can diminish the complexity of each circumstance, Wright helps the reader understand that America’s racial construction doesn’t just fall on lines of Black and white; rather, racial constructions work to uphold the wealthiest white class, while races and/or nationalities seen as the other continue to work in subservient roles, like Bigger and Peggy. Wright further expands on this by explaining that no one hates Black America more than “poor whites,” because they gain economic mobility and social validity through their racism (Wright, 23). 

In the first part of the novel, it is very clear that Dalton’s house represents white America: guarded off, wealthy, and – in the literal case of Mrs. Dalton – blinded, further exemplified by Mary’s ignorance of the Black experience. While Peggy is still invited into the home, she can only access Dalton’s wealth through serving them, much like Bigger. However, there is a recognized inequality between Bigger and Peggy – between Black America and white America. Even Peggy’s comment about her hatred of colonization indicates that British colonization while a threat in Ireland, is not a reality faced by Irish Americans, but the threat of white power is a reality faced by Black Americans, like Bigger. Moreover, Peggy’s comments about the “last colored men” who worked for the Daltons prove that Wright draws a distinction between Peggy’s and Bigger’s status. 

In Irish-American communities, the discrimination faced still rings loudly; yet, as Baldwin almost predicts, discrimination is used to minimize the harsh consequences of racial constructions; Irish-America often points to their own discrimination as evidence that Black Americans cannot ‘rise above ’ their status. In reality, as Wright notes, Irish-Americans and Black Americans exist shunned from the upper class but different in their experience of race. Mary and Jan’s visit to the South Side indicates that Bigger’s experience is not just different but seemingly alien from that of White America. While Peggy appears for a mere four pages, Wright draws a sharp distinction between Black America and Irish-America, which would have been relevant as waves of Irish immigrants and Black migrants settled in Chicago in the early 20th century.