Theme Of Sympathy In Richard Wright's Native Son

In the frozen climate of Chicago, Richard Wright’s historical fiction novel called Native Son takes place. Bigger Thomas is a young African American man that grapples the challenge of living as a black man in America during the 1940s. Richard Wright effectively creates sympathy for Bigger by showing Biggers physical pain, along with the newspapers dehumanizing him, and by describing his family's condition. Wright uses the harsh winter climate of Chicago to inflict pain on Bigger multiple times in the book to make sympathy for Bigger. “He felt cold, freezing; his blood turned to ice, it seemed.”(268) This creates sympathy because nobody should feel so cold that there blood feels like it turned to ice. Not only is the Chicago climate in winter extremely cold, towards the end of book two they get him of the top of the roof with a water hose. “The icy water clutched again at his body like a giant hand; the chill of it squeezed him…”(268) Wright uses this to create sympathy for Bigger because not only was he freezing before but now he is soaking wet in freezing temperatures. Although he did kill an innocent white girl Wright is still able to create sympathy for Bigger by using the physical pain he endures to create …show more content…
The sub zero temperatures of Chicago during the winter almost seems like an ongoing battle for Bigger. Countless times Wright mentions how cold Bigger feels. The newspapers accuse Bigger of committing a crime although they don't have any solid evidence that Bigger was actually the criminal. They send out an army of angry police officers and volunteers. Almost the entire city turns against him for the crimes that the newspapers accused him for. Bigger wants to help his family but he can’t, and because of this he hates himself and his family. All of these examples are examples of how Richard Wright effectively creates sympathy for