WRIGHT, RICHARD "NATIVE SON".   Term Paper ID:6192 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: An analysis of the character of Bigger Thomas as he personifies the difficulty of black youth adjusting to Amer. society.... More...

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Paper Abstract: An analysis of the character of Bigger Thomas as he personifies the difficulty of black youth adjusting to Amer. society. Paper Introduction: This research paper is about the character, Bigger Thomas, portrayed in Native Son by Richard Wright, as the existential hero and his alienation from society and from himself. The task of adjustment for Blacks in American society, particularly Black youths, is arduous, and made more difficult by the combined handicap of racial barriers and inferior social status. Personality deficiencies results and the behavioral patterns Blacks have learned in their own domestic and social environment are often inappropriate in greater American society, minimizing their chances for success - unless he is able to overcome the obstacles placed before him by a society which has a history of treating Blacks as inferior beings. Native Son, a landmark in fiction, is the absorbing story of a "bad Negro" caught in the friction generated by his own impul Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Bigger reassures himself, "Whata fool Mary was carrying on that way! One might ask, how can Bigger Thomas be a hero when he steals, forexample, although he is perfectly capable of working and with theopportunity to do so. Some may say that we are all capable of risingabove the social shortcomings and personal inadequacies afflicting us, butthat is a narrow-minded viewpoint, for some are never given the opportunityto acquire the strength necessary to overcome the powerful forces pushingus down. He is in awhite man's house - the Waltons - reacting as a black man would who hasbeen brought up on fear and mistrust. 31.Wright, p. Bigger is less significant as a social force than as theembodiment of a myth. Max points to these origins as having roots inBigger's conscience - how can he escape the violence and oppression heinherited? Bigger's awareness of the contradiction in his environment iskeenly portrayed when he comes upon a sign in the street which warns: "IFYOU BREAK THE LAW, YOU CAN'T WIN."[iii] Bigger mumbles his observation, insilent mockery. Where does his hero status come from? . (His decision is to rob Blums, but his action is accepting thejob). We cannot learn to swim if there is never a body of water for usto learn in. Personality deficienciesresults and the behavioral patterns Blacks have learned in their owndomestic and social environment are often inappropriate in greater Americansociety, minimizing their chances for success - unless he is able toovercome the obstacles placed before him by a society which has a historyof treating Blacks as inferior beings. . And in the author's voice, "He felt that his murder of her was morethan amply justified by the fear and shame she had made him feel."[vii] But did Mary put this fear and shame in him? Richard Wright, in his wanderings through Native Son with hischaracter Bigger Thomas, gives little clue to the social dynamic whichcreated Bigger, and in the end destroyed him. Native Son. . New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 194 .-----------------------Richard Wright, Native Son (New York: Harper & BrothersPublishers, 194 ), p. In his fear of trespassing the "white"boundaries in holding up a white proprietor, and the wrath that would beunharnessed from authorities, which is greater than if he were to rob onlyBlacks, Bigger grapples with this quandary - the plight of the Black insociety and his own contribution to it. In the same way, Blacks cannot overcome theirpoverty and personal failings if they are never provided with the resourcesnecessary for physical and emotional nourishment. After a lifetime of being taught to hate Whites,Bigger cannot reimburse this unexpected display of friendship without beingthrown into turmoil. It is the existential hero in Bigger speaking when he thinks ofhimself: "His crime seemed natural, he felt that all of his life had been leading to something like this. Already he is a hero, a victim of this squalor, and a hero at hisopening attempt to squelch it - to extinguish the life from the "rat" whoput him there. Only one day on the job andBigger murders the white girl. She should've known better . Or was it alreadythere? . Bigger clamors for the daily newspapers, indisbelief, for visible proof of the headlines he alone is responsible for.He is in the spotlight, and yet once more Bigger is unable to act in a self-constructive fashion; he is unable to take advantage of the situation tospeak of on behalf of his people, to use his case as an example, or atleast speak up for himself. In this decision, the existential hero again emerges in thatBigger would rather muster the self-courage and contempt - stronger virtuesfor ghetto survival - than give in to subservience at the cost of self-respect. Bigger concedes that it had just been in him all along. 11.Wright, n.p.Ibid., p. Another analogy can be made here to the symbolism of the rat, asmentioned in the beginning. . In the closing scene. The main character portrayed dramatically and thoughtfully, byauthor Richard Wright, is Bigger Thomas - "a human soul in hell because itis sick with a deadly spiritual sickness."[i] In this sense, Bigger Thomaswas "born to lose," and acquires immediate qualification to enter the ranksof the "existential hero" - one who is put in a position of having to riseabove the depths of degradation,, poverty, misery, chaos, all elements oflower class existence - and whether or not this "hero" is able to transcendthese elements is not the issue, it is the mere fact of harboring them,beyond one's control. He was afool for wanting to rob Blum's just when he was about to get a good job.. Icouldn't help it! In highlighting this book,James Baldwin asserts that it is "the story of an unremarkable youth inbattle with the force of circumstance. (In the end he is finally able to act on it, but tragically unableto communicate his feelings about his plight). Native Son, a landmark in fiction, is the absorbing story of a "badNegro" caught in the friction generated by his own impulses and the nervereactions of those around him, born into a maelstrom of fear and violence,the depths of which he must extract himself from or succumb to, dependingon the resources he is able to accumulate from birth through adulthood, tocope. A poverty-strickenhungry body lacks the nutrients necessary to furnish the mind -possibilities for mental growth are diminished - and the socialreinforcements so vital to our self-image will warp any human when denied,or given in the form of constant abuse and condemnation. This is shown moresuccinctly in Bigger's attempt to grapple with these two choices - to workfor Mr. Dalton or to sacrifice this chance by robbing Blum's Delicatessenand take the big leap into the white world on his own grounds rather thantheirs. He loses either way. Presumably, a conflict into which he isborn. ENDNOTES BIBLIOGRAPHYBaldwin, James. In this case the force ofcircumstance is not poverty merely but color, a circumstance which cannotbe overcome against which the protagonist battles for his life andloses."[ii] The premise of the book is clearly conveyed in the opening pages, inour first encounter with Bigger in his squalid Chicago tenement, in the actof killing a rat, and it is through this metaphor that we, as the reader,receive our first glimpse of the inevitable doom and horror which awaitshim. . Even though he is able to forego his harsher judgments of the whiteworld - " . . The task of adjustment for Blacks in American society, particularlyBlack youths, is arduous, and made more difficult by the combined handicapof racial barriers and inferior social status. 29.Ibid., p. Hell! This predicament is compounded and his instincts aretossed into a frenzy when Mary becomes drunk and Bigger has to carry hersoft, tempting body upstairs. Society needs cooperative membersto sustain itself; it needs people who are willing to join the work forcein order to survive, and rebellious members who go against this tide arechallenging the very structure upon which it exists. And even worse than the act of robbing itself is thefact that he robs his own people! Were Bigger ina win or lose situation, he would only be a hero if he won. 97.----------------------- 12 Bigger is inhis cell with Max, desperately struggling for a strain of self-respect, forbelief in himself, for the reassurance that he has not been hated, and willnot be forgotten at the end, but that he will die, something of a hero. The most powerful statement of what it means to be a Negro in Americais unquestionably Richard Wright's Native Son. Bigger's alienation from society is thus partly a product of hisupbringing and partly his own human reaction to the social injustices he isdaily confronted with. . He kills his black girlfriend, Bessie, his last link to theworld, someone who cared for him, and feels little remorse, only awe, athis power to affect so many Black people by his deeds. . rich white people were not so hard on Negroes . Perhaps, one might say, he couldbe a hero in the Robinhood sense of the word, were he to rob only Whites inredemption for the black man, but Bigger surpasses even this definition ofthe hero, because he appears to have few qualms about stealing from his ownpeople. It is his lawyer, Max, who makes a heroout of him, in his attempt to use Bigger as an example of the plight ofoppressed people in general, taking the murder out of the corridors of theDalton home, and reaching back through the annals of Black history, repletewith murder and violence. Not only is he treated with respect and trust, but theWalton's daughter, Mary, and her "Communist" boyfriend Jan, go so far as toseek his friendship. . The injustices and dilemmas we are confronted with may be morepowerful than the strength we are physically and emotionally able toharbor. Psychological Laboratory experiments haveshown that the rat, when taken out of his environment and thrown into a newone in which none of his learned responses and behavioral patterns areappropriate or reinforced in the same manner, can easily become psychotic.When pulling levers cease to produce the food it once did, and otherstimuli fail to produce the reinforcement the rat is used to throughacquired conditioning, frustration sets in, and unless the rat has apassive, docile personality, the mounting frustration leads to erraticbehavior, often to the point of psychosis. It was as though he had an obscure but deep debt to fulfill to himself in accepting the deed . richwhite people liked Negroes better than they did poor whites. We are born helpless until we render ourselvesotherwise - it is the education we receive through our domestic and socialmilieu that provides us with the tools to overcome our helplessness. "Mary hadserved to set off his emotions, emotions conditioned by many Marys." The real tragedy surfaces, when we see that not only is Biggeralienated from white society and his Black origins, but totally alienatedfrom himself. . . But in his ruminations on theft, it is not his action which concernsus in characterizing Bigger as a hero, but the conflict which drives him todo it against his better judgment. It is his resistance to joining the "white world" as one of theiremployees, feigning obsequiousness which is often vital to a Black inworking for a white employer, and the fact that he is only given towchoices which makes him a hero: (1) the dishonesty of character inherent in"Uncle Toms" who sacrifice their own respect in the wake of whiteprejudice, or (2) the dishonesty that comes in seeking revenge againstthese forces - dishonest in that you often end up hurting yourself morethan those whom you seek to condemn. We cannot learn to read if there are no books at our disposaland a teacher to guide us. Bigger is an existentialhero in his awareness of his dilemma and of the forces which negate hisovercoming this dilemma. . Mary Dalton, who befriends him, whilecaught in a situation beyond his powers of reason and control. She made me do it! Boston: The Beacon Press, 1955.Wright, Richard. Anyone who iscontinually told they are ignorant, inferior and incompetent, will mostlikely develop an image of themself which fits this description. Bigger was born guilty. left me alone." Heis thus acting on the generations of violence ingrained in his genes; aviolence that has been directed against his race, and a violence whichBigger, in a symbolic heroic gesture, turns back against his oppressors. In this way, Biggeris perhaps not an existential hero either because he fails to rebel in anymorally conscious or constructive pattern. But he had to go through with it now."[v] However, his raid atBlum's is temporarily side-tracked when he accepts the job at the Waltons.Again, misfortune strikes, and we are left wondering if Bigger is a victimof his own self-fulfilling prophecy of doom, or of the color of his skinwhich renders him helpless in the white world. "You crook . The Waltons' behavior toward Bigger goes against everything he hasbeen prepared for. ForBlacks, this task is made more difficult by being born into a situation -economically, racially, and socially inferior by virtue of skinpigmentation - in which these tools are not immediately at their disposal.The Black who is born poor into this society (and at the writing of thisbook such was the case for the majority - today Blacks have moreopportunity), must seek the teachers who have the insight into thisproblems to guide him, the friends who are faithful enough not to misleador deceive him, the parents who provide a helping, rather than punishinghand; and neighbors and public authority who will not discriminate againstor be too harsh in judging him, for he needs all the support he can get. . . Is it in his rejection ofthe standards set before him by societies' mores that it is virtuous towork and despicable to evade this duty? He chooses the former, but is doomed for failure at eitherattempt. Notes of a Native Son. . . . When the word isout that Bigger is responsible for the murder of a White Girl, violentsouthern prejudice, having been dormant through most of the story, isroused and unleashed on the Black population unmercifully, as lynch mobsrun rampant, black servants and chauffeurs are fired, every black personbecomes the reincarnation of Bigger, as if there were a million Biggerswalking the streets. It was no longer a matter of dumb wonder as to what would happen to him and his black skin, he knew now. This research paper is about the character, Bigger Thomas, portrayedin Native Son by Richard Wright, as the existential hero and his alienationfrom society and from himself. Unlessthe Flack is able to respect his origins, his history, himself and not denythis tradition or cast it off as shameful, unless he is able to cling tohis ties, he will stand alone. "[vi]In attempting to justify his violent deed. To be a "real" hero, Bigger must not only findthis justice, but expose it so that others become aware of it, too, and acton it. 9 .Ibid., p. Seeing, or being aware, is the first step.Action, constructive and self-serving, rather than self-destructing, is thenext step. x.James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son (Boston: The Beacon Press,1955), p. you let whoever pays you off win!"[iv]This is revelatory in that he is astute and experienced in his awareness ofthe corruptive elements of society (even the law is dishonest and will takebribes), but also in that there is no change, in conditions or habits,where silence reigns. In this case,Bigger is portrayed as a man caught in a double-bind. Although we are immersed inthe details of slum life, toward the end of the novel we have a clearerview of how Negroes are controlled in this society and the methods theyhave evolved in dealing with this, through the characters he creates inBigger's family and friends who are more revealing - his conscientioussister, his diligent, overworked mother, and even his street buddies aremore discernible figures in their visible relation to society, than Biggerhimself. The sudden changes in his life - inenvironment, patterns of relating, job routine, style of dress - are allcompounded into an overly stressful situation. He is the incredulous child, overcome bycircumstances and events beyond his understanding, and the insight he doespossess, he is unable to act on. . It has been noted thatpeople who undergo too many changes at one time are being put under unduestress which is bound to affect them physically and mentally. It is the injustice of justice itself which also rendershim a hero, for if there is no refuge in justice where do we go but on asearch for the quality of justice which exceeds the ranks of socially andlegally defined justice. And yet, he remains unable to speak in his behalf tohis last day, when he is finally able to utter some consolation that he isdying for a cause, even though only his lawyer is present to hear him. . . If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

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