Native Son Bigger Thomas Essay, Research Paper
It is also Bigger s fault
In the third and last book of Richard Wright s novel Native Son, the main
character Bigger Thomas changes a lot, he must be able to realize, at
least partially, some of his own failures for which he had blamed the
society that surrounded him and produced his character.
From the beginning of the novel Bigger is fighting a raging war between
himself and the outside white world. After he murders Mary Dalton he
feels stronger. He sees Mary Dalton as a personification of the white
society that surrounded him and that he suffered under. One example for
this is that he keeps on repeating, white folks got everything and we got
nothing . As a result of this Bigger is brutal and aggressive against
whites. In most of his conflicts he serves as the aggressor, for example in
the pool room where he starts a fight.
Wright s thesis is that Bigger Thomas is there to show the reader a
portrait of a man and the reason he revolts. Bigger Thomas isn t a sole
character, he represents a large faction of the blacks in America in the
beginning of the last century. He stands for all black men who cannot be
conditioned by the white man s laws.
In the third and last book of this novel this picture of Bigger Thomas
starts to change. Now Richard Wright allows Bigger Thomas to face
some of the realities of life, but at the same time, does not destroy all of
Bigger Thomas concepts about the evil of racism and its effects upon the
black experience.
When Bigger Thomas is finally brought to court and confronted with the
white crowd his will to live rises up again, after he had been depressed
for a long time. This is made obvious in the third book in sentences like
this, Bigger was starring straight before him,… . His talking to Max had
evoked again in him that urge to talk, to tell, to try to make his feelings
known.
At the end of the novel Bigger Thomas is an existential man. He is alone,
yet able to comfort himself in the face of death because he takes the
individual s responsibility of being what he is. One of the last things he
says it, I m all right. For real I am.