The novel Native Son by Richard is set in Chicago during the 1930s. It follows the story of Bigger Thomas who is a 20-year-old African American. He lives in poverty with his family in the beggarly south side. Bigger needs to get a job to help support his family but he is self-centered. Bigger prefers to go to the pool house and smoke with his friends. Nevertheless, Bigger, goes to work for the Daltons. These novel reveals that the environment you grow up in influences the choices you are willing to make in order to prevail, and that society shapes you into their own mold.
To begin with, The Daltons are white millionaires. Mr. Dalton is a real estate who earns his money by charging black tenants twice as much as he does white tenants. Yet he claims to be a supporter of black Americans. At the end of the first book Bigger has killed Mary Dalton. The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Dalton. He burned her body in the furnace and fled to his old home. Mary’s murder gives Bigger a sense of power and identity he has never known. Bigger’s girlfriend, Bessie, makes an offhand comment that inspires him to try to collect ransom money from the Daltons. They only know that Mary has vanished, not that she is dead. However, Mary’s bones are found in the furnace, and Bigger flees with Bessie to an empty building. Frightened that she will give him away, beats her to death with a brick after she falls asleep.
Wright writes a gruesome tale using Bigger as personification of black rage. It’s not a light-hearted story he’s the embodiment of rejecting the idea that black men should be begging for their income or working 2x as hard to earn ½ of much. Bigger is not a complex character, and this done here to fulfill one purpose which is to elucidate a very pressing issue. Racism. However, the situations in the events are arise around Bigger are the things that are complex, and the book is wonderful due to this. The racism was over the top out of line and generally unbelievable. Violence against black people was devilish. Daily racism was unrestrained. The most interesting thing of all of that Bigger’s crime could have been easily avoided if he was white. When you look at Bigger’s actions overall, they seem clear cut in an objective sense what he should have done seems like an obvious thing but when you bring in the factor that he was black everything gets turned on its head
In book three Max is defending Bigger. His case is based on Bigger being a “test symbol” who embodies and exposes the ills of American society. Max explains that his intent is not to argue whether an injustice has been committed, but to make the court understand Bigger and the conditions that have created him. Bigger is a violent and ruthless protagonist who’s a product of the society he lives in.
In conclusion We either sit back and do nothing which is contributing to the problem or there are some of us who are actively doing this because they want to. This book is really dark but that’s what makes it so good. There are these problems and these issues that happen and the only way to change them is to change our mentality and change like how we view other people. We need to view other people as people and not as less than or not equal to.