Native Son Essay

Janise Marvin Native Son Essay March 6, 2009 Significance of Fear, Flight and Fate in Native Son To break something down into different parts invites an opportunity to explain something in detail and for an audience to understand the point more clearly. Richard Wright wrote his novel Native Son in three parts for that reason. The separate sections, Fear, Flight and Fate, each give Wright the chance to develop the protagonist, Bigger Thomas, in a different way. The title of each piece, as well as the title of the book, is relevant to the plotline chronicled in it. Bigger experiences different types of growth and learning through the events described in each part. These events all connect in some way and bring some meaning to Bigger about himself and the culture around him. Wright titled his novel and the sections inside it according to the plot and discoveries Bigger makes within them. The title, Native Son, alone brings up ideas of belonging and being indigenous to a certain place. Bigger was not born in Chicago, where the novel takes place, he was born in Mississippi. His sense of belonging applies more to America, rather than Chicago. The problem with Bigger is that even though he is an American, the racism against him counteracts that feeling of regional acceptance. Because Bigger is black, he doesn’t fit in with the white society around him. In the beginning of the novel, Bigger’s mom wants him to get a job working for a white family. Bigger does not want that because he doesn’t feel like he belongs in that position. He feels more comfortable hanging out with the other blacks in the town, even if they do terrible things. It is hard to feel like a “native son” of America or Chicago because of the segregation between whites and blacks. There

seems to be more like two societies existing instead of the one, just because of the color of their skin. Wright wrote Native Son and titled it accordingly to call attention to this problem and to try to bring about a change in society. The first part of Native Son is entitled Fear. In this section, Bigger encounters fear almost immediately when a black rat races across the room where Bigger lives with his mother, brother and sister. Bigger’s mom asks him to kill the rat, which he does with great pleasure. “The rat’s belly pulsed with fear…it attacked” (Wright 6), shows that even thought the rat was afraid, it still attacked. Bigger gains a sense of power in slaying the rat. Bigger enjoys having power and he plays to the weaknesses of others. “Bigger laughed and approached the bed with the dangling rat, swinging it…enjoying his sister’s fear” (Wright 7). Bigger likes to feel powerful because in the world he lives in, he doesn’t get much power from others. When Bigger kills Mary, it is out of fear of being accused of rape. He was trying to help Mary get up the stairs after she was too drunk to do it alone, but while he’s placing her on the bed, Mrs. Dalton walks in and Bigger cover’s Mary’s face with a pillow so she won’t say anything. Instead of helping, Bigger kills her, and once again is afraid to get caught, so he hides the evidence. The morning after killing Mary, he finds a power in killing Mary, and Bigger doesn’t get the chance to feel powerful or great in other things. “He looked around the room, seeing it for the first time” (Wright 105)