Panopticon In Richard Wright's Native Son

In Richard Wright’s Native Son, Bigger Thomas feels forced to mask his identity to those around him. When around white people, he acts as what they want to see: docile and quiet. When around friends and family, though he shows more of the aggression he feels as a result of an anti-black society; this translates into a guise of external aggression and acting “tough.” As an African American man, Bigger is acutely aware that all eyes are often on him, expecting him to act a certain way or risk judgement, prosecution, or even violence.The effect of the panopticon is to restrict his actions and options until the only route he sees is to secretly take revenge on the society that is constantly watching him in an attempt to “keep him in line.” The …show more content…
Also of note in Smethurst’s comparison to Frankenstein is the shared visibility during both Bigger’s and the monster’s final fight. Forcing Bigger into the public eye controls his behavior, due to his still present fear of being visible to whites. During his trial, it becomes clear to him that the goal of the angry white mob is not only to have him killed, but to make him a public example in order to regulate the activity of other African American people. In his essay “‘A igger’s place’: lynching and specularity in Richard Wright’s ‘Fire and Cloud’ and ‘Native Son,’” focusing on the subjugation of African Americans through forced visibility, Miko Tuhkanen argues lynching as a way …show more content…
Mowatt, Bryana H. French, and Dominique A. Malebranche, arguing hypervisibility as a form of oppression at the intersection of being African American and female: “A final way in which we argue Black women experience hypervisibility is through personification of the angry Black woman stereotype. The angry Black woman, also referred to as Sapphire, is considered unintelligent, aggressive, domineering and emasculating, behaving in loud and offensive ways.” Bigger is also considered to act in loud or offensive ways, to the extent that he must warp himself completely in order to ensure his safety around white people. He thus resorts to making himself invisible and complacent to whites, as invisibility in the situation is not as dangerous as the hypervisibility the “angry black woman” experiences. White society at the same time oppresses African American individuals while keeping expression of this injustice sectioned off from white conversation. Through a feeling of constant observation, enforced by aggression and stereotyping, the anger of individuals is silenced. Bigger expresses to his friends his feelings of frustration and futility toward white oppression: “‘They don’t even let you feel what you want to feel. They after you so hot and hard you can only feel what they doing to you. They kill you before you