Native Son (idea)

Born without conscience, murderers are different than everyone else; they are amoral and consist primarily of the criminally insane, the evil, or the simply sadistic. Society is full of such misconceptions. The social hierarchy would do anything to avoid implications that their oppression plays a major factor in violent crimes, and in doing such, they create monsters, communal carcinogens that corrode the State’s, culture’s, and community’s morality. The murderer’s habitat manifests itself into a haven for the parasites that infest the strict social code that has been enforced since the murderer’s creation. In an attempt to circumvent cultural beliefs, Richard Wright’s novel Native Son delves into the circumstances under which a normal human being is driven to violence. It is under a constant but always changing set of circumstances that we live, and are shaped. Morality is a variable, not a coefficient. Bigger Thomas demonstrates that morality, and conscience, are not the independent variables, but the dependent ones, constantly changing and evolving to the structure of their environments.

An environment in which the bourgeoisie distributes its wealth unevenly breeds a constant disdain from the proletariat. The lower class of a society in a caste system is an angry one. Brooding in their squalor, many social-rejects called this writhing, contempt-ridden, squalor their home. A home to poverty, envy, and ultimately crime, Chicago in the 1930’s was a haven for bankrupt morals and despicable actions. According to the theory of socialization, which is, “typically referred to as the social development of human beings, specifically the process of ‘making fit for society’” (Cairns 279), mankind has an inherently neutral alignment, and simply waits for the social training, the molding of fears and guilt. Unfortunately, sometimes the system lets some of the lower class slip through the cracks, breaking their spirit, and denying them their place among their peers. Without society’s rules and regulations to act as detours, Bigger Thomas writhes in his own ignorance, compulsiveness, and inability to amount to anything.

While the sentiment of inequality festers amongst Bigger and his friends, he imagines he is someone else, anyone, in order to escape his circumstances. He yearns to be someone stronger, with more opportunity. Someone less black.
“That’s Buckley!” he spoke softly to himself. “He’s running for State’s Attorney again.” The men were slapping the poster with wet brushes. He looked at the round florid face and wagged his head. “I bet that sonofabitch rakes off a million bucks in a graft year. Boy, if I was in his shoes for just one day I’d never have to worry again.” (Wright 16)
To no avail, he lives each day as if he may someday succeed. Refusing to accept his fate in society as an impoverished Negro boy, Bigger Thomas sets himself up for disappointment with his dreams of flying. Like Sisyphus who was destined to push a boulder up a mountainside, only to watch it plunge to the bottom again each time he neared the lip, forcing him to start over. In accordance with this Greek myth, Bigger Thomas was doomed to repeat the actions of his everyday routine with no hope of ever succeeding. All the while, Bigger’s helpless situation pushes him further from the culture that created him.

His distance from society is what many murderers and rapists feel. Set apart from others, he feels isolation and imprisoned by his habitat. Based in racial, and economic issues, Bigger comes to the realization that he will never be happy with what he can achieve in this society. His blood bubbles with his feeling of helplessness, the feeling of being born black, or as Houston Baker phrases it, being born “in the hole” (NEONS 90). Baker asserts that, “the hole thus stands as an ironic indictment of the commercial birth of modern man.” (NEONS 90). There is a point to be made in this. When one is born poor, which in 1930’s is synonymous with being born black, one is at a place that is beyond recovery. If one is born so far away from the top of the hole, such that he spends his entire life trying to climb out, then it is argued that, one should have never been born at all. So, in describing birth into the minority as an automatic disadvantage, Baker pinpoints a factor that plagues Bigger’s conscious mind throughout Native Son. “We live here and whites live there. We black and they white. They got things we ain’t. They do things we can’t. It’s just like living in jail. Half the time I feel like I’m on the outside of the world peeping in through a knot hole in the fence…” (Wright 19) Crippling social stigmas, which are created by economic status, are the driving force behind Bigger’s madness. The economy creates the hierarchy of society, and in that society, the caste system is put in place to maintain its structure and assure wealth stays in the same place. His reasoning, and actions deteriorate throughout the book, so much so that by novel’s end he has notched two murders, and a rape, all escalating from his job acceptance with Mr. Dalton, an occupation that he would have done anything in his power to avoid, were it not economically his only course of action.

One, who is condemned to a life that one doesn’t choose, but is forced to lead, struggles in a net of oppression. Such was the case for the black inhabitants of Chicago during the 1930’s; struggling and permanently stifled, they were forced to live their lives constantly enduring the racism, capitalism, and segregation that they were born into. Bigger realizes that he is not free to do his own will, so he’s “maddened… that he doesn’t have a wider course of action” (Wright 16), a fate so terrible that one would do anything to avoid it, possibly even kill, anything to avoid destiny. The attempt to escape what he was. Unfortunately, the opportunity to escape could not arise, not in a Calvinist society, which America practically is. According to John Calvin, salvation was not a choice, but was rather pre-decided by God from the beginning of time. A leader of a sect of the protestant reformation, Calvin believed that, “As God seals his elect by vocation and justification, so by excluding the reprobate from the knowledge of his name and the sanctification of his Spirit, he affords an indication of the judgment that awaits them” (Calvin). Which technically means that before birth, there is an inherent way you are going to act, determining whether or not you get into heaven. Depending on how you act, people would believe that you were either chosen, or condemned by God from the beginning, and once you are one or the other you can’t repent or rectify your actions. In the society in which he was raised, Calvinism was an unstated belief. The people must know their roles, and fulfill them as best they can, while never surpassing their predetermined status in the community, even if that means being destroyed by what they have become. But Bigger doesn’t want to be destroyed by what he has become; he wants to soar, “‘God he’d like to get up there in that sky’” (20). But in the same thought, bigger acknowledges why the white man doesn’t want him to fly: “‘’cause if he took a plane up he’d take a couple of bombs along, and drop ‘em, sure as hell’” (20). The systematic oppression of the lower class blacks in the 1930’s, the campaign to “keep that nigger boy running” (Ellison 2), was enforced out of fear. The white man was afraid of what the black man was capable. But what the system of white government officials didn’t realize was, they were harvesting a new race of anti-social criminals. The environment, put into effect to produce diminutive and submissive blacks, was failing, and instead sporadically producing an uncooperative vigilante who yearns for greatness.

It is the nature of every American to want to succeed, but everyone goes about it differently. For Bigger Thomas, he was required to hide a dead body, and flee the authorities, all in an attempt to accomplish the American dream, a dream that is one of all mankind, but one that isn’t accomplishable by all mankind - impoverished Negroes need not apply. Is it because the Negro is born inferior, or without work ethic? Although neither is the case, “Some say the Negro is childish, lazy, etc. These ideas find their way in one form or another even into text books taught in public schools” (Kinnamon 47), says Richard Wright in a conversation about anthropological beliefs about the black man’s nature.

The nature of Bigger is that of many black men in his situation: poor, oppressed, lied to, angry, dreaming, and most of all, doomed. But Richard Wright portrays Bigger in a way that is set back from the reader, therefore disallowing the ability to emote with him. Not to deprive us from his thoughts, we are keyed into his thoughts for a lot of the book, but rather, to deprive us from understanding his feelings and motives. Wright does this to prove a point. Bigger is emotionally stunted, his humanity has been persuasion, allowing the reader to make their decisions based simply on the situation at hand. Wright knew what he wanted to express, “the extreme poverty of a Negro and the contempt in which whites hold him made him unhappy – not stronger, but miserable. And he finally killed. And then the whites said: ‘see how all blacks are criminals’” (Kinnamon 88). Upon killing his employer’s daughter by accident, he is thrown into a turmoil not known to the average human being. He knows that he has no hope of ever ascending the social ladder; no black man in his situation could hold a chance. With nothing to lose, Bigger Thomas became free to do anything.

The void of morality that consumes Bigger spawns from the void of dignity he has been treated with his entire life. This void in morality is his absolute freedom, one in which his actions are only reactions to his situations. This type of freedom is not granted by the constitution, but by lack of conscience and morality. Nihilistic in his approach to his crimes, Bigger Thomas believes that his actions are neither good nor bad, but real. Real, and reactionary, he never wanted to do anything that would hurt himself, but he had to, because that was the hand he was dealt, and when dealt a hand, one must play that hand, for you can’t make use of cards that you don’t have. Bigger has a hand dealt to him harsher than many could ever imagine. He’s black, he’s poor, and he’s American. Bigger is born into an environment that already had him marked before he came out of the womb. He knows he’s the victim of a predetermined outcome, a victim of Calvinism, and he doesn’t know how to react. The white men claim that black people are born to rape and pillage, and, “when folks says things like that about you, you‘re whipped before you‘re born. What’s the use?” (Wright 325). Bigger’s attempts to pull himself from his web of oppression only ensnares him deeper into the pre-conceptions whites had of lower-class black people. So if all he does is null, why continue to struggle. The realization here brings the novel to a completely different end of the spectrum. Originally Bigger understood the social pressures being inflicted by the white man, but attempted to rise above them. By the end of the book he embraces his inability to overcome, and becomes the poster child for “native sons” everywhere. Wright uses the term “native son” to relay a strong reading of the book in two simple words. He intends to present the arguments, and piece in such a way that exhibits Bigger Thomas as a socially native member of his habitat. He was born into this society, and shaped from it.

Bigger is conscience of everything he does, he isn’t insane, or in a fit of rage. He actually takes the time to write a note and sign it “red”. Is this an action of an ignorant Cro-Magnon? Not at all, Bigger is simply using what he knows to try and avoid trouble. He knows that the society around him hated only one thing more than blacks, and that is the communists. Which makes it extremely confusing to the prosecuting attorney when Max, a communist lawyer, takes Bigger’s case, at the request of Jan Erlone. Max believes that, “The boy got this idea from the newspapers. I’m defending this boy because I’m convinced that men like you made him what he is. His trying to blame the Communists for his crime was a natural reaction for him” (Wright 271). Max was strangely enough, the voice of Richard Wright in this case. He was the objective viewer who was there to interpolate Bigger’s actions. Max, while having various other motives, namely the communist party, is a key element for the reader to understand Bigger’s mental state and feelings about his crimes. Wright uses Max in an attempt to dissolve common misconceptions about communism. He uses it to show that while not a sole conclusion, it is an impeccable ideology, especially for the economically oppressed, especially for the black people. This is reflected throughout the course of the trial, Max is one of the few individuals that Bigger opens up some of his thoughts to, including his beliefs of what shaped him.

Nothing but his environment could lead to Bigger’s fate. Inarguably, he received many bad breaks, but is these random bad breaks, causation for his actions? It could be argued that regardless of a person’s cultural adaptations, there is something that makes them act differently. An argument regarding the functioning ability of a person says that:
There are some environmental occurrences that lead to changes in the makeup of the organism; they affect what the organism has and how it functions. In short, these factors change the constitution of one’s physical and/or physiological processes. (Lerner 97) Does this argument consider Bigger any more accountable for his actions than his environment is? Not necessarily. If the situations at hand are of the magnitude that would drive a human being to rape and murder, then the creators of the situations must be prosecuted as well. This is what Richard Wright was aiming to prove in his writings, that “man is both strongly conditioned by environment and able in certain ways to transform himself and his environment through consciousness and free will” (Butler 110). Bigger is held down by his environment, which is why Wright uses him as an example of the morally decayed. It’s under his circumstances, caged and bound like the animal that he is, that the ethically corrupt of society can best be viewed. The creation of Bigger Thomas isn’t easily definable; the reader doesn’t know the functions of his id, mainly because Bigger himself can’t comprehend it. Bigger knows that the way the world is set up impedes his progress, but he neglects to focus on each factor individually and grow as a person from them. By the end of the book, he has grown, and begins to understand the conditions that affect his personal character. This growth in Bigger’s character was employed by Wright to convey the ineffectual nature of post-oppression compensation. Wright makes it understood through Bigger, that sometimes, you can’t repent, for sometimes the damage is too great. Clearly demonstrated in his monologue before his death, bigger asserts what he has observed from his experiences here on earth. “But really I never wanted to hurt nobody…”, Pleads a rationalizing and truthful Bigger Thomas, “I hurt folks ‘cause I felt I had to; that’s all. They was crowding me too close; they wouldn’t give me no room. Lots of times I tried to forget ‘em, but I couldn’t. They wouldn’t let me” (Wright 388). He knew what made him snap. The push of society kept coming, and when Bigger finally gets to the point where he pushes back, he is immediately condemned. Unfortunately for Thomas, he’s ignorant to these facts, and not versed in defense techniques against oppression.

Swiftly the night falls on the day that is Bigger Thomas’ life. He writhes, as he gets into the electric chair, perfectly salient of what is going to become of him. The thought crosses his mind that he was forced into this. “If it weren’t fate, if the white man didn’t want me here, none of this would have happened if I was in their same situation” (Wright 388). The shame and resentment of the novel echoes from Bigger’s mind, as it has since he’s been in contact with the white oppressor. He knows that no matter how helpful the whites try to be, they only demean and hold him down more. He is strong enough to defeat the self-loathing that comes with one’s actions in order to avoid punishment. Not once does Bigger plead for mercy, not once did he feel sorry or upset for killing Mary Dalton. It was accident, nevertheless, and what good would it do to feel sorry for it now?

But he does think about it, regretfully as it may be. He considers the fear of death, and considers what he has done. Bigger actually sits down and does some thinking. Which is quite a scary thing for someone who is going to die. He laments for the fact that Max treated him like a man, and asked him questions that makes him think: “sometimes I wish you hadn’t asked me them questions… They made me think, and thinking’s scared me a little” (Wright 387). He knows of his misfortunes now. He spent time and reevaluated his actions and the consequences thereof. Bigger Thomas now needs to cope with his actions, and their repercussions. He knows of his problems and now must fact up to them. Ultimately, Bigger Thomas is a parasite, growing and changing based on the environment that surrounds it, soaking up everything that makes it function correctly. These morally raped and depraved humans biologically adapt with the sole purpose of success. Unfortunately, the only way to obtain success, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in their situation is to draw their livelihood from the bloodlines of others. And sometimes these for these parasites to ascend, they create a situation that is detrimental strictly of coincidence. So it is for many criminals that have done acts of violence, whether accidental or not, they have been done by circumstance, in due course demonstrating that morality, and conscience, are not the independent variables, but the dependent ones, constantly changing and evolving to the structure of their environments.

Works Cited
Butler, Robert Ed. The Critical Response To Richard Wright. Westport: Greenwood Press. 1995.

Butler, Robert. The Emergence of a New Black Hero. Boston: Twayne Publishing. 1991.

Calvin, John. The Institutes of Christian Religion. Henry Beveridge Trans. London: Bonham Norton. 1599

Ehrlich, Paul R. Human Natures: Genes, Cultures, and The Human Prospect. Washington DC: Island Press. 2000.

Ellison, Ralph W. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage. 1995.

Hakutan, Yoshinobu. Richard Wright and Racial Discourse. London: University of Missouri Press. 1996.

Kinnamon, Keneth and Michael Fabre. Conversations With Richard Wright. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press. 1993.

Kinnamon, Keneth ed. Critical Essays on Richard Wright’s Native Son. New York: Twayne Publishers. 1997.

Kinnamon, Keneth ed. New Essays on Native Son. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1990.

Lerner, Richard. Concepts and Theories of Human Development. New York: Random House. 1986.

Magnusson, David ed. The lifespan development of individuals: behavioral, neurobiological, and psychosocial perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1996.

Wright, Richard. Native Son. New York: Harper and Row. 1940.