Native son
Richard Wright's "Native son" demonstrates how evil can be created by power driven, racist white society. His novel depicts one black man, Bigger Thomas as being forced to commit violence by his social circumstance. The story is an eye opener, one who's main purpose is to bring awareness to many blind and racist whites. In order to reveal to them that they are part of the problem. That they too play a large role in creating the very creatures they can't stand. "Native son" contains many messages, the novel focuses around violence, oppression, and lack of hope for the future and fear in society. Wright tries to express that Bigger Thomas is not so unique, but rather is a representative of young black men. Bigger Thomas was set up to fail from the beginning of his life in one way or another by the status allocated to him by society. It is not so hard to conceive that a man could commit horrible crimes when he was forced to grow up in a life situation which left him option less. Bigger like his fellow blacks was given a choice by the oppressive, fearful, racist white society. He could be miserable and work or be miserable and not work. Between these options there was little room for happiness, a
However, the main purpose of the novel is to show how society plays a role in the creation of a man who resents, hates and fears the white race who confine his life and make it so narrow. They tell him what to do, where he can live, and where he can work. This type of dominance produces both a person lacking a sense of identity and a person capable of horrible acts. Because Bigger Thomas was deprived of the means to live a decent life, he became a time bomb waiting to explode into a violent rage. Wright wants to reveal that society is shaping numerous Bigger Thomas's and if we want them to stop growing and murdering we have to take the first step and change the racist society which is creating these monsters who are set up and expected to fail. Creating a person who has no opportunities or hope can only produce monsters who feel they have nothing to loose but everything to gain. sense of hope or the opportunity to better his situation in life. Even if Bigger did work no matter how hard he worked he could never have moved out of his neighborhood because blacks weren't allowed to move anywhere else. It was this institutional racism which prohibited Bigger to feel a sense of identity or gain feelings of individualism. White society feared loosing their power over blacks, which is one of the main reasons why the white landlords forced blacks to pay high rents and live in the slums. By keeping the African American race in debt and constantly out of money they were forced to rely on white people and be subservient to them. The life of Bigger Thomas living in a one bedroom apartment with his whole family and rats is what most black families had to endure. This lack of space provided no room for an individual to grow and be alone. Producing a race of people who had no sense of identity. It was
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Approximate Word count = 1216
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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