Native Son
After Bigger Thomas, the central character of this novel, has "murdered a white girl and cut her head off and burnt her body," he thinks that he has "created a new life for himself. It was something that was all his own, and it was the first time in his life he had anything that others could not take from him."(Native Son- Book 3:Fate) Richard Wright may well have felt the same way as Bigger felt about his bloody act of violence, about the act of writing Native Son. It gave Wright an opportunity to express his thoughts and feelings to the world. Wright came to understand through writing this story, that words could be used as weapons. His protagonist, Bigger Thomas, has a background which resembles Wright's. Like Bigger, he was brought up without a father; like Bigger's family, Wright's also left the South for the urban ghetto of Chicago; like Bigger who was schooled only to the eight grade, Wright finished with the ninth, and like Bigger, the author of Native Son grew up a loner and a rebel, whose devoutly religious family assumed he lived a life of crime. During Wright's childhood, Southern Whites prevented blacks from voting, maintained separate educational institutions
Bigger Thomas is angry. You first see him in conflict with his mother and sister, then he turns in fury on one of his best friends, Gus. "Bigger held the open blade an inch from Gus's lips..."Lick it, I said! You think I'm Playing?" Gus looked around the room without moving his head, just rolling his eyes in a mute appeal for help. But no one moved. Bigger's left fist was slowly lifting to strike. Gus's lips moved toward the knife; he stuck out his tongue and touched the blade. Gus's lips quivered and tears streamed down his cheeks." (Native Son- Book1-Fear) This incident was extremely disturbing and horrifying. From that point on I lost most if not all respect for Bigger. To be forced to go an extreme like that on one of his best friends, however, made me realize he must be exceedingly struggling internally. He is also enraged by Jan and Mary. He frequently thinks of "blotting out" the people around him. And some of his moments of greatest happiness occur when he vents his hostility in violence. It seems to me that Bigger's anger is closely connected to his sense of racial identity. He expresses his thoughts and feelings through rage. He is infuriated by both blacks and whites; blacks for their passive responses to their treatment by whites, and whites for making him feel self-conscious and ashamed. I think that Wright prese
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Approximate Word count = 910
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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