The Sense Of Agency In Native Son By Richard Wright

The sense of agency is formed through the responsibilities and interaction with others. It is essential in life, but how is one’s life different if they do not have that sense of agency? Native Son is written by Richard Wright. The protagonist named Bigger Thomas is a poor, uneducated, and 20-year-old black man. He lived in a one-room apartment with his mother, little brother, and little sister. Bigger was originally part of a gang, but then he left and got the opportunity to work for Mr. Dalton. However, on the first day of his job, he accidentally killed the daughter of Mr. Dalton named Mary Dalton. In my opinion, Bigger portrayed as a person who does not have agency over his life. The factors that formed Bigger into a person with no control …show more content…
After Bigger finish killing the rat, he went to eat breakfast. Ms. Thomas told him: “The relief offers you a job you won't take it till they threaten to cut off your food and starve you! Bigger, honest, you the most no-countest man I ever seen in all my life... “If you get that job,” his mother said in a low, kind tone of voice, busy slicing a loaf of bread(Wright, 9) and “I can fix up a nice place for you children. You could be comfortable and not have to live like pigs.”(Wright, 11). The quotes revealed how the family is a burden on Bigger so he cannot do what he wishes. Ms.Thomas represent the pressure and a reminder that he needs to be the breadwinner since he is the oldest male. Bigger is living a poverty-stricken life. Therefore, his path has been pre-decided which is to make money. Wright compares the way they lived to pigs’ lifestyle. Living like pigs reveal how bad their living condition was. Wright also used words such as threaten and starve to show how important it is to live the life that is planned out by his mother. Assuming that he disobeys his mother words, the whole family could face consequence such as death from hunger. If Bigger was came from a well-off family, he may be able to do what he wants and become in charge of his own life. Overall, poverty has caused him to follow a life that is controlled by his mother which is the loss of …show more content…
Mary was having a conversation with Bigger and asked him several questions. She wants to help out the African American. After she left the car for a moment, a thought occurs to Bigger. It was “The hard fact that she was white and rich, a part of the world of people who told him what he could and could not do”(Wright, 65). In this quote, Wright showed how Bigger is destined to never be equal to the whites or have the same power. He categorized Mary as “a part of the world” which represent the existence of segregation in society and how his life is influenced by it. People from that part of the world may tell him something but in his mind, it seems like an order. Wright used the phrase “hard fact” to symbolizes that it is the truth so it cannot be changed. In Bigger’s world, it is a reality that does not want to accept. Racial discrimination put them at a different standard from birth which contributes to the fact that Bigger is unable to obtain control over his