Symbolism In Bigger's Native Son

Throughout literary works, symbols are used to play the critical role of conveying the theme of the work through a simple, perhaps everyday, object. When reading a novel, many may analyze the more larger and obvious symbols. However, small and inconspicuous symbols shed a brighter light on literary works. In Native Son by Richard Wright, Wright tells the story of a negro boy, Bigger, who struggles to live while neglecting the fact that he does not maintain the inalienable rights that his equals (as he believes) have. His conflict in not being able to overlook this matter leads him to oversee the larger picture of oppression that him and his people face. On one occasion, Bigger’s fear of this image leads him to kill a white woman and steal the …show more content…
Therefore, they do so by instilling in negroes “the feeling of resentment and the balked longing for some kind of fulfillment and exultation---...in actions more or less conscience…,” (402). These “actions” that are done without thought are evident in occurrences such as when Bigger kills Mary. After the incident, Bigger takes the roll of money left in her purse as a symbolic defiance of white superiority. However, the roll, in fact, symbolizes Bigger’s limited freedom. As Bigger feels the sense of what it is to have wealth, he flaunts it; as visible when he buys all of the gang packs of cigarettes. Yet, like all money, it eventually runs out. Bigger then acknowledges the limitability he has when he tells Mr. Max “they draw a line and say for you to stay on your side of the line,” (351). In doing things such as segregating negroes, charging them high rent and implicitly setting up social barriers, whites are belittling negroes so that grievance builds up inside of them to the point where they must release the anger they feel. When Bigger retrieves the roll of money, it is but a subtle reminder of the misery he experiences. Whites lead Bigger to this realization, as evident when Mr. Max bluntly says “we planned the murder of Mary Dalton,” (394). This recognition leads Bigger to build a frustration that leads him to do the absurd thing white society “wanted him …show more content…
Knowing that he is eventually going to run out, Bigger gives into white society’s scheme: to drive one negro to the brink of insanity in order use his condemnation “as an excuse to terrorize the entire negro population,” (385). Through the roll of money, one is able to see the desperation in negroes. Their desolation stems from the fact that whites tell them “what to do; where to live; how much schooling he could get,” and “...what kind of work he could do…,” (394). In receiving a bit of wealth, Bigger feels a sense of equilibrium, a sense in which he desires to surpass so that he can then become superior to whites. In creating this delusion of being able climb up the social hierarchy, Bigger sets himself up for his own damnation as well as the rest of his kind. Both his own, and his race’s doom is evident when Bigger gets caught and when he hears a man say “he made the white folks think we’s all jus’ like him,” (251). By setting himself up for a failed insurgence, Bigger is lighting a match to a brand new fire; one that will spark the hearts of the negro men and women who are just as blind as the whites. Their fires will then cause them to constitute a frustration within themselves that will lead them to the irrational actions that will give whites an alibi to kill off their entire