Richard Wright’s famous character Bigger in the novel Native Son was created by compiling characteristics of several real life individuals that Wright had known during his lifetime. Wright wrote of these inspirations for Bigger in his essay How “Bigger” Was Born. As a compilation of several African Americans, Bigger serves to better characterize the black identity a whole; as well as black consciousness, the awareness of one’s identity as a black individual. By revealing Bigger’s background, Wright’s essay How “Bigger” Was Born can be used as a lens to examine and reveal Bigger’s motives for his actions. Bigger’s discrimination and disfranchisement as a black man led him to a life of crime and on the road to prison, and through Bigger’s actions
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The constant discrimination Bigger faces by whites disfranchises him and denies him essential social mobility to escape his status in the bottom of society. He is envious of whites for their social status as he is on the absolute bottom of the social ladder. Bigger’s deep envy of whites as revealed through the lines “To Bigger and his kind, white people were not really people; they were a sort of great natural force, like a stormy sky looming overhead or like a deep swirling river stretching suddenly at one 's feet in the dark“ leads him to wanting to seek a new identity through acts of violence. In the lens: How “Bigger” Was Born, Bigger #2 held a great deal of animosity towards whites and like Bigger in the novel he was envious of their social status. Bigger #2 thus directed a great deal of aggression towards whites as demonstrated through actions such as refusing to pay for food or rent just as Bigger in the novel unleashed his aggression through violence. Bigger’s bitter animosity toward whites unfortunately caused him to distrust all whites and view them with the same negative opinion, even whites with pure intentions who were intent on helping him like Jan and Mary. Jan is understanding why Bigger has this attitude and expresses his sympathy to Bigger in the lines “Bigger, I’ve never done anything against you and your people in my life. But I’m a white man and it would be asking too much to ask you not to hate me, when every white man you see hates you” (267). Throughout the entire Novel, the only characters to really understand Bigger are ironically Jan and Mr. Boris Max, two white characters. As Communists, they both felt the deep exclusion from American society that Bigger felt and could empathise with his experiences being marginalized and
The constant discrimination Bigger faces by whites disfranchises him and denies him essential social mobility to escape his status in the bottom of society. He is envious of whites for their social status as he is on the absolute bottom of the social ladder. Bigger’s deep envy of whites as revealed through the lines “To Bigger and his kind, white people were not really people; they were a sort of great natural force, like a stormy sky looming overhead or like a deep swirling river stretching suddenly at one 's feet in the dark“ leads him to wanting to seek a new identity through acts of violence. In the lens: How “Bigger” Was Born, Bigger #2 held a great deal of animosity towards whites and like Bigger in the novel he was envious of their social status. Bigger #2 thus directed a great deal of aggression towards whites as demonstrated through actions such as refusing to pay for food or rent just as Bigger in the novel unleashed his aggression through violence. Bigger’s bitter animosity toward whites unfortunately caused him to distrust all whites and view them with the same negative opinion, even whites with pure intentions who were intent on helping him like Jan and Mary. Jan is understanding why Bigger has this attitude and expresses his sympathy to Bigger in the lines “Bigger, I’ve never done anything against you and your people in my life. But I’m a white man and it would be asking too much to ask you not to hate me, when every white man you see hates you” (267). Throughout the entire Novel, the only characters to really understand Bigger are ironically Jan and Mr. Boris Max, two white characters. As Communists, they both felt the deep exclusion from American society that Bigger felt and could empathise with his experiences being marginalized and