"The World He Fears" - Native Son
Richard Wright's Native Son envelops us in an intense narrative of Bigger Thomas, a scared, angered, and often violent African-American man. His motivations and impulses stem from his fear of the white world around him, leading him onto a dark and desperate path, one that is seemingly predetermined by his native environment.
Richard Wright immediately gives us a front seat view of this environment in the first few pages in the "rat chase" scene. While changing with his family in the same cramped room, Bigger chases and tries to kill a rat that starts to terrorize his mother and sister. Though the rat puts up somewhat of a fight, Bigger eventually manages to kill it. While this scene gives us an idea of the living conditions that Bigger has grown up in, it also provides us with a symbolic representation of Bigger's future struggles. Wright states, "The rat's belly pulsed with fear. Bigger advanced a step and the rat emitted a long thin song of defiance, its black beady eyes glittering, its tiny forefeet pawing the air restlessly" (6). Just as Bigger's fear leads him to kill Mary, the rat's fear causes it to emit a "song of defiance," a representation of Bigger's resistance. Even the rat's forefeet "pawing the air restlessly" may suggest that the rat is hostile towards Bigger, and that hostility is a direct result of its fear of Bigger. On the same page, Wright states that "the rat scuttled across the floor and stopped again at the box and searched quickly for the hole; then it reared once more and bared long yellow fangs, piping shrilly, belly quivering." The antagonistic nature of the rat (rearing and baring its fangs) is another symbolic representation of how its fear shapes its intentions towards others, much like Bigger in the next few chapters.
Much like the rat, Bigger's fear causes him to act aggressively towards the people around him. This aggression is illustrated on p. 25 and p. 26, where he redirects his fear and hatred of white people towards Gus, one of his "pals." Bigger and his friends consider robbing a white man's store, something they've never done before, and they are understandably scared to do so. Bigger has to maintain his tough exterior, but he really doesn't want to rob the white man. The tension builds up inside of him, the fear penetrating his fake exterior. Wright describes the stress Bigger feels and the complexity of the situation as "a man about to shoot himself and dreading to shoot and yet knowing that he has to shoot and feeling it all at once and powerfully" (25). Dreading that he has to rob the store but knowing that he must rob it is tearing him apart. Eventually, he turns his fear onto Gus by calling him "yellow" and stating that Gus is scared to rob a white man, cussing him out and fantasizing about splitting his skull. Wright states, "In a split second he felt how his fist and arm and body would feel if he hit Gus squarely in the mount, drawing blood; Gus would fall and he would walk out and the whole thing would be over and the robbery would not take place. And his thinking and feeling in this way made the choking tightness rising from the pit of his stomach to his throat slacken a little" (26). Just the thought of beating his friend senseless is enough to abate the physical symptoms of his fear. His fear is creating a single-minded personality inside of Bigger, disregarding the consequences that his drastic actions might have.
When Bigger finally enters the "white world" to work for the Dalton's, his attitude and personality change so that he reflects better on the society around him. He even needs to take a gun into this "new world" so that he may feel a sense of equality to the people surrounding him. Wright states, "He was going among white people, so he would take his knife and his gun; it would make him feel that he was the equal of them, give him a sense of completeness" (43). Even when stepping into an innocent family home, he is afraid. Just to be on equal ground, he needs to take weapons that can inflict serious harm into a seemingly harmless white family's home and neighborhood. This fear of the Dalton's is ultimately what causes him to kill Mary. After Bigger virtually drags a drunk Mary up the stairs, Mrs. Dalton walks into Mary's bedroom out of concern for her daughter. In fear of being caught in such a situation with a white woman, Bigger stifles Mary's voice by pushing her head into a pillow, his fear clouding his awareness of what is actually going on. His fear focuses his efforts on not being caught rather than keeping Mary safe and well. He accidentally kills Mary in an effort to keep her quiet, all stemming from this "world he fears," as he describes it.
Ultimately, fear is a major motivation for the murder of Mary and numerous other violent crimes. Throughout the novel, his fear of the world around him creates a single-minded personality, inciting conflict and breeding chaos. His fear continually leads him down a predetermined cascade of events that eventually land him in prison, alone, desperate, and helpless.
Great post! I agree with you that fear motivates Bigger in a huge way throughout Native son (which is why I wrote my blog about the same thing). I think your post is structured very well, and I liked your explanation of the rat scene in the beginning, using it as a metaphor for Bigger and his life! Great job!
ReplyDeleteWe don't always remember to note that Bigger brings a gun when he enters the Daltons' neighborhood--this is a telling reflection of how unsafe and out of his element he feels when he is there, and it's also an ironic detail. When a reader is told that a gun is in the picture, they tend to expect it to go off at some point: this seems like an ominous sign as Bigger heads off to interview for his new job. But the gun never is fired, it's mostly forgotten about, and yet Bigger is still a murderer by the end of the evening, with the weapon being a pillow. It's wild to think about the pistol in Bigger's waistband the entire time he's sitting pinned between Jan and Mary.
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