Oppression (Native Son)

A detailed Summary of Oppression (Native Son)

In the novel Native Son written by Richard Wright a young adult named Bigger Thomas goes through a metamorphosis, from sanity to

insanity. He starts out a normal trouble youth, living in a run down

housing project, where all he does is hang out with his gang. But the

city relief program gives him an opportunity to work and make

something of himself. All he has to do is chauffeur for a very rich

family. But on his first job everything goes wrong and he ends up

murdering the family's daughter. Through this novel Bigger meets

many other people, which have the same oppression as him but handle

it in different ways. Some of these people include his mother, his

girlfriend, and Max his lawyer. All of these people have a certain

amount of oppression given to them by the outside world. The only

difference is the way each one of them handle it.

Ever since Bigger was a little boy he has felt very oppressed by the world because he was black. Bigger feels that he has nothing to be proud of so he takes this oppression to the heart and turns it into fear. The only way that he could express himself was to show the world that they should not oppress what they don't know the power of. Bigger demonstrated tha

Max doesn't come into the book until the last chapter, but he plays a very key role not just as Bigger's lawyer but as a symbol of hope for Bigger, his mother and all the other oppressed people in the book. Max is a very oppressed person because he belongs to the communist party during the cold war. But Max takes a very different approach to his oppression, he fights back and he tries to insite other people to fight back as well. During one of his numerous talks with Bigger he tells Bigger that "...you're facing a sea of hate now and that's no different from what you've faced all your life. And because it's that way you've got to fight. If they can wipe you out, then you can wipe others out, too."(p. 400) From this quote you can see that Max is the light at the end of the tunnel for allot of people. Later on in the book Bigger realizes what Max is trying to do, he is not trying to set him free he is trying to show that people are equal and if treated equally then there will be no problems. When Bigger realizes that he thinks to himself that he has "this new sense of the value of himself gained from Max's talk."(p. 418) He symbolizes hope because all the other people in the book fell victim to their oppression when he fought back for everyone.

family all day long, they work her like a slave. Bessie tries to not to express herself, but tries to run from this problem by chronic drinking. You can see this because the first time she comes into the book she is already asking for alcohol. Right after her and Bigger finish "being intimate" her own words where "Lets get dressed and go out and get something to drink."(p. 157) Thi

Some common words found in the essay are:
Bigger God's, Bigger Thomas, Ms Dalton, Bessie Bigger's, Lord Lord, Richard Wright, Native Son, people book, bigger feels, , bessie tries, bigger realizes, rich family, bigger killed, drunk forget, bigger's mother, oppressive world, oppressed person,

Approximate Word count = 1108
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English