Native Son Shines On

In Native Son, Bigger Thomas, a young black man, murders a teenage white girl, smothering her in her own bed, shoving her body into the family furnace, and cutting off her head so she can fit. Richard Wright does everything he can to make this experience difficult for his white readers. Mary Dalton, the murdered girl, is a young revolutionary who wants to help bring about a world of racial equality. Her mother and father hire Bigger knowing he's had a troubled past with the purpose of bettering him and his family. In addition, Bigger is something of a thug and a bully. When we meet him earlier, we see him intimidate and fight with his friends, turning fear into violence, masking his insecurities and worries by lashing out and humiliating others.

And in spite of stacking the deck against Bigger, Wright makes us feel for him, makes us understand him.

In 1940, the same year Native Son was published, Wright authored an essay entitled "How 'Bigger' was Born." In it, he talks about his motives for making Native Son difficult to react to emotionally:

"I had written a book of short stories which was published under the title of Uncle Tom's Children. When the reviews of that book began to appear, I realized that I had made an awfully naive mistake. I found that I had written a book which even bankers' daughters could read and weep over and feel good about. I swore to myself that if I ever wrote another book, no one would weep over it; that it would be so hard and deep that they would have to face it without the consolation of tears."

There is still one other passage in "How 'Bigger' was Born" that makes me truly appreciate how difficult it must have been for Wright to write this novel with Bigger at its center:

"I felt a mental censor--product of the fears which a negro feels from living in America--standing over me, draped in white, warning me not to write. This censor's warnings were translated into my own thought processes thus: 'What will white people think if I draw the picture of such a negro boy? Will they not at once say: "See, didn't we tell you all along that niggers are like that? Now, look, one of their own kind has come along and drawn the picture for us!"' I felt that if I drew the picture of Bigger truthfully, there would be many reactionary whites who would try to make of him something I did not intend. And yet, and this was what made it difficult, I knew that I could not write Bigger convincingly if I did not depict him as he was: that is, resentful toward whites, sullen, angry, ignorant, emotionally unstable, depressed and unaccountably elated at times, and unable even, because of his own lack of inner organization which American oppression has fostered in him, to unite with the members of his own race."

Bigger is why this book is so gripping. Don't get me wrong; the plot is incredibly well-crafted. By about page 50, I was thoroughly convinced that the Cohen Brothers needed to turn this book into a movie. While they have never really dealt with black America, I could see them treating the murder and Bigger's attempt to conceal the body with such skill. And the kidnapping idea? And the newspaper men gathered about the furnace? And the detective grilling Bigger in the cellar? So many scenes with such intensity, a single bad decision unfurling into a catastrophe. So, yes, the plot was top notch. But Wright's truly wonderful feat was how fully realized Bigger was, and how we are made to understand his impulses and desires whether we feel like him or not. Wright has done an incredible job.

The book on this reading list that I kept thinking about as I read Native Son was Dreiser's An American Tragedy. Both novels deal with the murder of a woman by a man who attempts to cover it up. In both novels the man is motivated by something uniquely "American" (at least as their authors' understand them). Both authors' took the basic story of the murder from current newspaper headlines. And both novels end with a lengthy trial scene and the state-sanctioned murder of the murderer. Dreiser's Clyde pre-plans his murder in an attempt to climb the social ladder by marrying a rich man's daughter. For Dreiser, this desire for wealth and social success is the thing that American society breeds in us. Wright's Bigger is the titular native son, a product of American Jim Crow culture. For as unpleasant as Bigger's character is, those unpleasantries are created by the restrictions and limitations that surround and press upon Bigger like the humid air of Chicago's Southside in Summer. He murders not by design, but by fear, a sudden impulse to survive. These are the origins of all Bigger's actions. Both authors use the trial to build sympathy for the murderer as the overzealous prosecutors attack them, trying to make their horrible crimes even more horrific. I would not be surprised to learn that Wright had Dreiser's novel rolling around in the back of his head.

Wright uses that last section to lay out the thesis of his book, and that portion of the book has been attacked as the weak link. I can understand that. After the gripping drama of the first two books, the pondering pace of the third section is something of a let down. But it feels like Wright is doing more than giving a defense of Bigger's actions. His lawyer's speech is a small portion of the section. Instead we watch as Bigger's actions are interpreted by the prosecutor and as crimes he didn't commit are laid upon him. And we watch as Bigger tries to find his place to live in this world. When he finally comes to peace in the last few pages, I don't know what to make of his lawyers reaction. Mr. Max seems scared of what Bigger says. Is he scared because Bigger's revelations are scary? Or is he scared for Bigger himself and his knowledge that he is on his way to the electric chair?

This entry is long enough, so I will not delve into the importance of communism in this novel, and while I suspect no one reading this (if anyone reads this) will care to join in, I leave that as an open question: Does communism hold the hope for a world of racial equality in this book? And I would also like to write a whole section on the role the newspapers play in shaping and skewing public opinion. Especially as it transforms the question of rape into a certainty. What role do newspapers play in oppression here?

If you haven't read this book, go out and read it now, even if I just spoiled half the novel's storyline. It is a wonderful read!