D. Setting Native Son takes place in Chicago, during the post-Depression years, approximately in the 1930s. The opening scene of the novel takes place in a dusty, dark, and cramped apartment where Bigger and his mother and two siblings live. In a stark contrast, the Dalton family lives in a lavish household with multiple rooms and floors, and, upon entering, this makes Bigger uncomfortable. This prompts Bigger to say to one of his friends, "Goddamnit, look! We live here and they live there. We black and they white. They got things and we ain't. They do things and we can't. It's just like livin' 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" (20). Bigger's world is so different from the Dalton's because his world is so small and restricted while the white men write the laws and say where the black people can and can't live. This quote compares Bigger's current life to a life in prison, which is foreshadowing Bigger's fate later in the novel. In the third book, the setting actually moves to a
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For example, the rat that he kills in the opening scene of the novel is a representation of Bigger himself, while Bigger portrays the white population of Chicago. Even though the rat runs as fast as it can to avoid death, Bigger ultimately kills it and throws it away. As Bigger finally executes the rat in his apartment with his shoe, he cries out, "You sonofabitch!" (6). Similarly, as the police drag Bigger through the streets after they capture him, the angry white mob of people call for him to be lynched, but they also exclaim, "That black sonofabitch!" (270). This shows that the rat in the apartment and Bigger are metaphorically the same thing, and end up being in the same situation. After Bigger is executed, the white people of the city end up throwing his body away as if it were a piece of unwanted trash, which is what he was to
For example, the rat that he kills in the opening scene of the novel is a representation of Bigger himself, while Bigger portrays the white population of Chicago. Even though the rat runs as fast as it can to avoid death, Bigger ultimately kills it and throws it away. As Bigger finally executes the rat in his apartment with his shoe, he cries out, "You sonofabitch!" (6). Similarly, as the police drag Bigger through the streets after they capture him, the angry white mob of people call for him to be lynched, but they also exclaim, "That black sonofabitch!" (270). This shows that the rat in the apartment and Bigger are metaphorically the same thing, and end up being in the same situation. After Bigger is executed, the white people of the city end up throwing his body away as if it were a piece of unwanted trash, which is what he was to