Book Summary
Richard Wright’s Native Son is a Harlem Renaissance era novel which utilizes a unique type of protagonist that, unlike most characters from social justice novels at the time, exhibits a very violent demeanor. From the very first scene, Bigger Thomas, a 20-year old African American man living in 1930s Chicago, is shown to be aggressive towards his family and friends. He and his gang make their living by robbing the people in their neighborhood, taking advantage of the fact that the police wouldn’t care enough to arrest them so long as their victims were members of their own race. However, once the gang turns their sights on a white man, Bigger, unwilling to admit to his fear, brutally assaults one of his friends and creates an excuse …show more content…
The overbearing societal oppression has glaring negative effects on Bigger’s sense of self due to the repression of ego promoted by the white majority. The conditions in which African Americans are forced to live is unreasonably scarce in good education, job security, and affordable housing. This deplorable environment is systematically maintained through a cycle of whites withholding opportunities for betterment from blacks and taking advantage of their positions of power to force inescapable poverty upon them. However, poor lifestyles are not the only thing being manipulated by whites. Through the perpetuation of black stereotypes, whites deny African Americans their individuality in the eyes of society. An immortalized idea of blacks as either unintelligent and timid or deranged rapists is so deeply ingrained in white society that African Americans have little control over their own identity, being forced to suppress any part of their character that the whites refuse to accept. Not even Mr. Dalton, a supposed supporter of civil rights, is immune to prejudice, as he “is utterly naïve to the black’s dilemma and knows no other way to expect [Bigger] to be…” (Elder 10). This racism through the normalized practice of imposing preconceived images on a minority is a prime example of selective perception. By actively choosing to see blacks as inferior and refusing to recognize their individuality, the white majority can mistreat an entire race and avoid being overwhelmed by guilt because, to them, African Americans are not
Richard Wright’s Native Son is a Harlem Renaissance era novel which utilizes a unique type of protagonist that, unlike most characters from social justice novels at the time, exhibits a very violent demeanor. From the very first scene, Bigger Thomas, a 20-year old African American man living in 1930s Chicago, is shown to be aggressive towards his family and friends. He and his gang make their living by robbing the people in their neighborhood, taking advantage of the fact that the police wouldn’t care enough to arrest them so long as their victims were members of their own race. However, once the gang turns their sights on a white man, Bigger, unwilling to admit to his fear, brutally assaults one of his friends and creates an excuse …show more content…
The overbearing societal oppression has glaring negative effects on Bigger’s sense of self due to the repression of ego promoted by the white majority. The conditions in which African Americans are forced to live is unreasonably scarce in good education, job security, and affordable housing. This deplorable environment is systematically maintained through a cycle of whites withholding opportunities for betterment from blacks and taking advantage of their positions of power to force inescapable poverty upon them. However, poor lifestyles are not the only thing being manipulated by whites. Through the perpetuation of black stereotypes, whites deny African Americans their individuality in the eyes of society. An immortalized idea of blacks as either unintelligent and timid or deranged rapists is so deeply ingrained in white society that African Americans have little control over their own identity, being forced to suppress any part of their character that the whites refuse to accept. Not even Mr. Dalton, a supposed supporter of civil rights, is immune to prejudice, as he “is utterly naïve to the black’s dilemma and knows no other way to expect [Bigger] to be…” (Elder 10). This racism through the normalized practice of imposing preconceived images on a minority is a prime example of selective perception. By actively choosing to see blacks as inferior and refusing to recognize their individuality, the white majority can mistreat an entire race and avoid being overwhelmed by guilt because, to them, African Americans are not