As a metaphor, the trapped and killed rat identifies Bigger's intense feelings of being trapped and hunted. Throughout the novel, Bigger alternates between the roles of predator (the rat that cuts veins) and the role of prey (the rat that is trapped and killed). Bigger's violence towards others resembles the rat's surmised violence; he threatens to cut his friend Gus, and just as the rat slashed a gash into his pants, Bigger slashes a gash in the felt of Doc's poolroom table. Bigger's ultimate act of violence, the defamation of Mary Dalton's dead body, is a struggle to cut the veins and bones of her neck, as she "sleeps," having been suffocated in her bed.
There are several contrasting metaphors, all of which evoke the images of "speed," travel and flight. In the morning, Bigger notices the "white birds" and then the "white pilot," "skywriting" an advertisement: "USE SPEED GASOLINE." Bigger considers his own poverty and struggles, ultimately considering the birds and flying pilot as a metaphor‹not of white freedom, but of his own entrapment. Indeed, when Bigger looks at the bird he admits to his friend Gus, that blacks were the only creatures in Chicago who are not free to go where they please. The metaphors of the caged rat and free bird may be a reverse of the more common caged bird and alley rat, but for Bigger, the implications remain the same: he is both trapped and doomed. Similar feelings are evoked in Bigger by automobiles; fast, sleek cars are sources of envy when they drive through his neighborhood. When Bigger is a chauffeur, driving a fast, sleek car, he only feels trapped.
The white world is "alien" and dangerous, and the black rat of the novel's opening scene foreshadows Bigger's inevitable invasion, offense, seizure and execution. The novel is heavy with foreshadowing; Ma "prophecies" the gallows and Bigger tells Gus that he fears some violence approaching. Besides the premonitions, Mary's appearance in the newsreel foreshadows her appearance in Bigger's life, and the advertisement for State Attorney Buckley foreshadows his own appearance towards the end of the novel. Bigger has carried a knife and gun long before he accidentally kills Mary, and this underscores the irony of Bigger's situation. Even when violence is obvious and fated, Bigger is not permitted to knowingly participate in his fate. Like any number of Greek or Shakespearean tragic cases, Bigger's accidents and passions mark the steps of his life and death. The structure of the novel foreshadows Bigger's crime of "fear," his "flight" and his "fate" in execution. In this regard, the foreshadowing produces a sense of dramatic irony in that, we are aware of Bigger's "fate" well before we see him go through the motions of his life. Similarly, the "cliffhanger" at the end of Book One is a false one; even if the death of Mary Dalton was unexpected; Bigger's self-assurance that he has covered his tracks is a specious one. Throughout the novel, Wright uses foreshadowing to build his argument that Bigger's "fate" has less to do with his individual actions and more to do with his circumstances. This provides some explication of the title Native Son and positions Wright well within the vein of "Naturalist" writing.
As the narrative structure suggests, both timing and sequence are crucial in Wright's writing and in setting up the inextricably linked chains of fate, Wright gives himself ample opportunities to reveal glaring ironies of American society. There are coincidences in the novel, like the fact that Mr. Dalton's paternalism reveals him to be Bigger's landlord and employer, but the irony comes in the fact that his (Communist-sympathizer of a) daughter glosses over this obviously Marxist setup and seeks to unionize Bigger. Coincidentally, Bigger and Gus "play white" and Jan and Mary "play black." It is ironic however, that Bigger and Gus were uncomfortably watching a white pilot fly over the black neighborhood, while Jan and Mary are chauffeured into the Black Belt, unwittingly making Bigger feel uncomfortable (again) as an accomplice in their invasion. While Gus and Bigger had to stay in their own neighborhood to improvise their game, Jan and Mary are able to "see the real thing," with Bigger as a tour guide.
There are other minor ironies in Book One. Ma's advice regarding the distinctions between rich and poor whites are exaggerated in the largesse of the Daltons and the deceit of Peggy, the Irish maid. She considers herself part of the upstanding, generous Dalton family but tricks Bigger into doing part of her work for her (unknowingly introducing him to the furnace where he will burn Mary's body.) Mrs. Dalton may be blind, but her hyper-sensitivity enables her to detect that something might be awry when Mary arrives home late; her presence however, provokes the pillowcase suffocation that her blindness prevents her from seeing.
Book one is entitled "FEAR" and the Fear is mostly Bigger's. Certainly, his fears of invaded white territory are matched with his fears of never having a free territory of his won. Another source of Bigger's fears come from the buffeting of his slightly inflated masculine ego and the concept of "Manhood" is one of four major themes that Wright presents in Book One. Bigger detaches himself from his family's misery‹not because he does not care about them, but because he knows that he is impotent to support them, that there is simply nothing to hope for. When Ma upbraids Bigger and questions his "manhood," her words spark one of the day's refrains: in Doc's poolroom, in the theatre with Jack, in the Dalton's car and in Mary's bedroom, Bigger seeks opportunities to display and augment his masculinity, usually unsuccessfully. While the episodes in the theatre and Mary's bedroom were more sexually tinged, Bigger primary definition of "manhood" is one of violence. He relies upon his gun and knife as physical displays of his masculinity and even if most of Bigger's violence stems from the racist lynching of his father and his present socio-economic condition, Bigger is biased towards displays of strength and oppression. Bigger is happiest when he is dangling the bloody corpse of a newly killed rat or frightening his weaker friends to tears. Bigger is more than a bully, for despite his oppression (as a "colored" man in 1930s America) Bigger roots for tyrants and enjoys hearing stories of Japanese invasions and Hitler's murderous oppression of the Jews. Bigger hopes to reassert his deflated manhood by tyrannizing those around him.
Book One's second theme initiates a discussion of youth and innocence. Early on, we learn that Bigger is only twenty years old. One of Wright's efforts in Book One, is to juxtapose Bigger's favorite youthful activities (masturbating, playing "white," poolroom fighting) with the grim adult activity that he unwittingly and then, knowingly commits in the end of Book One and the beginning of Book Two (rape, lying to police, murder). As much as Bigger has hardened himself into an adult, his criminal efforts belie his youth in that they are educated by fantasy and not by reality. Bigger kills by accident and afterwards, he tries to make something out of what he has done. Bigger does not want to rob Blum's deli, but he perceives the heist as an adult thing to do. Even though the Daltons have offered him a nicer room, after burning Mary's body, Bigger flees home to his bed with his brother, mother and sister surrounding. When Bigger wakes up in Book Two, he will be an adult and his "FLIGHT" is an effort to escape the Chicago police and also an attempt to undo the adulthood that has been foisted upon him. Neither of these endeavors succeeds, of course, but Bigger is able to mature once he honestly assesses the "adulthood" that has been forced upon him. Again, the title Native Son resonates in the loss of innocence that the "native son" suffers.
Blindness is a third theme in Book One, and Wright's initial treatment of "blindness" is partially allusive to the ancient Greek dramas (most notably, Sophocles' plays) that use physically and spiritually blind characters to foreshadow tragedy and fuel tragic fate. Certainly, Mrs. Dalton fits within this rubric, as the only physically blind character in the novel. It is her blind presence that causes her daughter's death and provides much of the suspense of Book One's conclusion. Mrs. Dalton's physical blindness is, of course, the physical manifestation of a "blindness that she shares with her husband, her daughter Mary, Jan and much of Wright's America. Wright makes deliberate efforts to suggest that America is self-blinding, seeking to address the symptoms of racism while remaining deliberately incognizant of reality. Jan's reverie at the lake, when he promises Bigger an ensuing revolution reflects a "lake view" blindness that is as glaring as Mary's insistence that Bigger join a labor union. And just as Bigger murmurs that his self-deluded family is blind to his reality‹that a job at the Daltons' is not going to improve their economic condition‹he too, blinds himself with intense anger and rash acts of violence. All of Wright's characters blind themselves, one way or another, so that they do not have to look at life's realities; and as a Naturalist, this blindness is just another one of the details that Wright uncovers.
Finally, the theme of "territory" is initiated in Book One and this will emerge as the most important theme of Book Two. In regards to the title of the novel, Wright is a little sarcastic in depicting Bigger as America's "native son." While Wright wants to make the argument that Bigger is a creation that can only be created in American territory, he also argues that part of Bigger's "native son-hood" is being treated as a non-native creature. As a result, the "Black Belt" ghetto of Chicago is what Bigger considers to be his "territory." All other areas of the planet‹excluding Harlem, but including Lake Michigan, the ditches of the US Army and the entire sky‹are part of what Bigger considers to be "alien, white world." Bigger tries to maintain the idea that the white world is "alien" and that there is a fixed barrier between his space and the white space, but this construction proves faulty. Bigger is afraid to rob Blum because his deli is in a white neighborhood but afraid or not, Bigger must trek into a white neighborhood to collect his menial chauffeur job. If this does not prove the permeability of the "color line," the idea of fixed territories is surely destroyed when Bigger drives Jan and Mary into the Black Belt so that they can "play black" at Ernie's Kitchen Shack. In effect, Bigger is forced into a realization that the "territory" that he considers his own, is not. The region to which black living space is confined is merely a "belt" within the city and in a most literal sense Bigger's family continually faces eviction by the South Side Realty Company owned by their landlord, Mr. Dalton. The relationship between America and her "native son" is little different from the medieval scheme that attached a feudal landlord to a throng of serfs. Trapped at home, in the streets and oddly enough, even while he is driving, Bigger has no "native" territory and Wright's effective thematic treatment of this question, rightly reduces Bigger's thoughts of "flight" to the realm of impossibility. Before it is written and read, Book Two: FLIGHT is a doomed, ill-fated fantasy.
Flight
Bigger does not get much sleep and when he wakes up in the bed that he shares with his brother Buddy, he slowly remembers the events of the previous night. As Bigger meditates on the murder he has committed, he looks around the small room at his sleeping family. It is Sunday morning and Bigger remembers that he must take Mary Dalton's trunk to the train depot. As he rises out of bed, Bigger notices that he has been extremely clumsy in his efforts to hide his tracks: Mary's purse as well as a bloody knife are only partially obscured in the chair where he set them. Bigger goes outside to throw the purse and knife away and he decides that he will keep Jan's pamphlets and put them in his dresser drawer at the Dalton's house, so that he will have evidence to cast doubts on Jan's character.
Bigger's mind is reeling and he thinks to return to the Dalton's home to see if Mary's body has burned, but then he wonders if it would be better to leave town immediately. Either way, Bigger will have to get his suitcase if only to move his clothes to his new room in the Dalton's residence. When Bigger returns to the apartment, his mother is awake and she asks him about his new job and salary, casually mentioning that she tried to stay awake waiting for him but she fell asleep a little after 2AM. Bigger insists that he arrived before 2AM. Ma does not press the issue but when Buddy wakes up, he tells Bigger that he stayed awake until 3AM to see him, but he fell asleep. Buddy also tells Bigger that Bessie stopped by to visit. As Bigger listens to his brother and observes his sister and mother, he becomes more and more convinced that his accidental crime has put him in a different world. They are blind, just like Jan and Mrs. Dalton. Bigger takes his suitcase and leaves the apartment after borrowing a half-dollar from his mother: even though he has the money from Mary's purse, he does not want to raise any suspicions.
Soon after Bigger leaves, Buddy chases after him and asks if he is in any trouble. When Bigger replies that he isn't, Buddy shows him a roll of cash that he has dropped in the apartment. Bigger is worried that Ma has seen it, but Buddy replies that he has covered Bigger's tracks. Bigger gives him a few dollars and asks Buddy not to tell anyone. Bigger continues his walk through the neighborhood and when he runs into his friends Gus, GH and Jack, he buys them a few packs of cigarettes and some beer. Bigger thinks about his crime and rationalizes that, instead of it being his fault, Mary has received what she deserved for putting him in an awkward situation. Still, Bigger feels a sense of pride in what he has done‹even if it was accidental; by the time he reaches the Dalton's mansion though, his pride has eroded and he is trembling.
Peggy is about to tend to the furnace and Bigger offers to take care of the job. Bigger can see the outline of Mary's body in the bed of burnt coals and so he re-fuels the fire. After this, he puts Jan's pamphlets in his room and then tends to the half-packed trunk that he is to take to the depot. Peggy mentions that the car was left outside over night and Bigger makes up a lie: Jan and Mary were in the car last night, parked in the Dalton's driveway, and they asked him to leave them outside. Jan calls and after treating him brusquely, Peggy explains that Jan is a "bad kid" and that Mary is a little wayward. Mary is not upstairs so Bigger takes the trunk to the depot anyway, at Peggy's suggestion that Mary will perhaps get to the depot on her own.
Mrs. Dalton is concerned and Bigger overhears her conversation with Peggy, during which she mentions that she smelled Mary's drunkenness the night before and notes that Mary did not pack all of the clothes that she intended to take to Detroit. Mrs. Dalton asks Bigger a few more questions and after he repeats his lying responses, Mrs. Dalton invites him to take the day off. As Bigger leaves, he wonders if he should have taken more money or actually planned the crime, and his inflated pride returns. Bigger decides to visit Bessie and as he is only interested in having sex with her, Bessie is concerned about the two white people that Bigger accompanied to Ernie's the night before. Bessie is especially worried that Bigger has taken a liking to Mary and that he is no longer interested in her.
To soothe Bessie's concerns, Bigger reveals his large sum of cash, about $125, and he suggests that Bessie use some of the money to buy something. Bessie is not as impressed by the money as she is frightened by the large sum and she demands to know what Bigger did to get the money. Bigger does not tell the truth; instead, he makes up a story about Mary eloping with Jan and reveals that he plans to write a ransom note for $20,000. Bessie is still worried that something else is wrong and even after they go out for drinks at the Paris Grill, Bessie thinks that they would be better off to simply leave town with the little money they have. Bigger tells his story of Mary's eloping and Bessie's concern is that Mary will return home, revealing Bigger's ransom note to be a fraud. When Bigger adamantly repeats that he is sure Mary won't show up, Bessie is alarmed and she cannot shake the idea that Bigger has done something to the girl. Again, she tries to convince Bigger to leave town, rather than play for more money. But when Bigger threatens to leave her, Bessie caves in and agrees to help Bigger.
Bigger heads for the Dalton's house to check up on things and his initial fear of the electric chair is dissipated. Now he feels that his destiny is within his grasp. When he arrives, he is told to return to the train depot to pick up Mary's trunk because she did not go to Detroit. Everyone is worried, especially after Bigger casually mentions that Jan was with Mary upstairs and that it was Jan who told him to take the trunk downstairs, for the depot. When Bigger returns, he feels a stronger impulse to leave town, but he convinces himself that he is strong enough to pull the whole thing off.
After taking the trunk down to the basement, Bigger is confronted by Mr. Dalton and his private investigator, Mr. Britten. They open the trunk and see that it is only halfway filled; after this, Mr. Dalton supervises Mr. Britten while the investigator asks several rounds of questions. Bigger reveals that he did not take Mary to school as he was supposed to and that Mary met her Communist friend Jan. Britten shows Bigger the pamphlets that were found in his dresser and he accuses him of being a communist. Bigger replies that he never met any Communists until the previous night and that Jan gave him the pamphlets. Mr. Dalton affirms that Bigger did not know Mary before hand, and that he did not understand her rhetoric when she was trying to unionize him. Britten brings Jan into the basement and Bigger feels a sense of shame, but this does not prevent him from repeating the same lies that he told earlier. Jan lies about not seeing Mary the night before and when this is revealed as an untruth, Jan looks increasingly guilty. After Jan storms out of the house, Britten assures Mr. Dalton that the police will pick Jan up and hold him for questioning.
Bigger flees the house and returns to his own neighborhood, stopping at a drugstore to collect a pad, pencil and envelope. After this, he goes to Bessie's apartment and he begins to write the ransom note. Bessie watches Bigger as his gloved hands scrawl a rather pitiful note signed "Red" (to implicate Communists). As he finishes, Bessie bluntly asks Bigger if he killed Mary. He begins to deny the charge, but Bessie says that she can look at him and tell that he has and that if he can kill Mary then there is little to stop him from killing her. Bigger admits his crime and hisses at Bessie, warning her not to snitch and threatening her that she is as guilty as he is.
Bessie begins crying that Bigger has ruined her life and she wishes for death. Bigger grabs the knife and warns Bessie to stop crying. He adds that if she screams, he will surely kill her. After Bessie quiets down, Bigger takes her outside into the blizzard; Bessie tries to convince Bigger that he should simply run away with the money he has. Bigger slaps Bessie and points out the building where she is going to collect the ransom money.
After this, Bigger returns to the Dalton's house for dinner and he decides that he will clean the ashes in the morning. Mr. Dalton bursts in with the news that Mary has been kidnapped; he has received the ransom note that Bigger has left outside. Britten is convinced that Bigger has played a role in the crime and he presses Bigger regarding his Communist ties, asking if the Communists have kidnapped Mary to raise money for their causes. Britten announces that Jan Erlone has been arrested and Mr. Dalton asks Bigger if there is anything that he has not told Britten. Bigger adds that Mary spent part of the night crying and that she got drunk with Jan. The press has arrived at the Dalton residence and they are planning a headline: "RED NABBED AS GIRL VANISHES." Bigger is told to keep quiet and not speak to the press. The reporters want to know if Mr. Dalton is pulling a stunt and they are intrigued by the alleged role of the Communists. At his press conference, Mr. Dalton reveals the ransom note and apologizes for Jan Erlone's arrest and he says that he is willing to pay the ransom and will follow the directions illustrated in the "Communist" ransom note that is signed "Red" and marked with a hammer and sickle.
The newspapermen want to ask Bigger a few questions and they are in the basement when he is clearing out the ashes. There is an unusually large amount of ash in the furnace and Bigger's inability to contain the flames draws attention. As the basement fills with smoke, Bigger flees the house leaving the newspapermen to discover an earring and chips of bone in the furnace. It does not take very long for them to realize that they are viewing the burned remains of Mary Dalton. When Bigger flees, he heads for Bessie's place and he announces that the plan is off and that the authorities will be after him in a short amount of time. Now, Bigger feels fear. Bessie guesses that they have found the girl and that he really did kill her. Bigger merely replies that there is nothing that can be done to change things at this point.
Bigger tries to explain to Bessie that he did not mean to kill Mary, that it was only an accident but Bessie begins sobbing because she knows that once Bigger is caught, he will be accused of raped. Bessie asks Bigger how they found Mary's body so easily and when he mentions that they saw bones in the furnace, Bessie begins howling. It is only at this point that Bigger begins to realize how lurid his crime was. Bigger rouses Bessie and says that they will have to leave her apartment and hide in the dilapidated houses because the police will soon be swarming the area. Bessie replies that she has no need to run off because she has not done anything, but Bigger forces her with him and drags her to a freezing cold warehouse where he rapes her. After Bessie cries herself to sleep, Bigger takes a brick and crushes her head again and again. After he is sure that she is dead, he throws her body down an airshaft and only then realizes that his wad of cash (now, $90) is in the pocket of her dress.
Bigger reflects that this is his first real murder, the other one being an accident. Bigger sense that he is in "a new world" and the changes occurring within him are irrevocable. In a few hours he is stalking the morning streets and his eye catches a glimpse of the headline: "HUNT BLACK IN GIRL'S DEATH." Bigger learns that 5000 police are searching the Black Belt and have already ransacked his home, he is assumed to be a murderer/rapist, white vigilante groups are rioting throughout the city and the chief of police is convinced that the blizzard snow has trapped Bigger within the city limits. Additionally, Jan Erlone has been exonerated by the absence of his fingerprints at the crime scene. Nonetheless, the police maintain that Bigger's crime is too elaborate to be the work of a Negro.
Bigger can only hide in the streets for so long and as he moves from building to building, he grows hungry as he listens to the bitter conversations of the blacks that live in the neighborhood. Many of them hate Bigger for all of the trouble that he has caused them. Not only must they suffer the indignities of police searches and violence, but also they will lose their jobs because many of the already-biased white population will think that all blacks are like Bigger Thomas. The police easily track Bigger Thomas down; amid the riots and tumult, the authorities raid over 1000 homes before chasing Bigger across the rooftops of a series of dilapidated buildings. A white civilian mob surrounds the police as Bigger is struck, beaten and dragged down a series of steps. His fingernails are ripped off and the "sea of noise" reverberates with the chant: "Kill that black ape."
Analysis:
Book Two marks the transition between Bigger's "flight" and "fate;" accordingly, this section is heavy with foreshadowing. There is a feeling of suspense that is sustained throughout Book Two, but this is not derived from the element of the unknown. Rather, the reader must watch Bigger become more and more entangled in the webs of fate. Certainly, Ma's warning of the "gallows" recurs as Bigger exhibits the "hubris" (pride) that precedes a great fall. Bigger's headlong rush towards his fate is not dampened when Bessie warns him that he will never be able to escape from the mobs and five thousand white police officers. And Bessie prophesies her own murder at Bigger's hands, adding that even if his confession of "accidental" homicide is valid, he will certainly be executed as a murderer/rapist. Bigger will be charged as the murderer/rapist of both Mary Dalton and his girlfriend, Bessie Mears, but it is his rape of Bessie that "proves" that he raped Mary. His brutal response to Bessie's foreshadowing brings an ironic sealing of his fate. When Bigger tells himself that he is entering a "new world," this foreshadowing is again, ironic. Certainly, Bigger is transforming into a "new person" living in a "new world," but the new worlds he will encounter are prison and the electric chair.
Bigger's scene with the rat opened Book One and the metaphor of the rat is continued in Book Two. Certainly, the rat remains a symbol of entrapment and execution, as much as it is a metaphor that testifies to Bigger's fate. Just as Bigger has been the predator of the rat (not to mention, Bessie and Mary), he has now become the prey. He is as ruthlessly stalked as the rat, and he too is trapped to be executed. The "rat" metaphor is strengthened in the scene of entrapment, when Bigger is surrounded by the mob. Among the slurs hurled, Bigger is described as "primitive" jungle thing. Someone cries "kill that black ape" and not long after a reference to Bigger as a "woolly black lizard," he is struck in the head by a metal object. This is not very different from the cursing that preceded Bigger's murder of the rat‹banging it in the head with a skillet; indeed, both the mob and Bigger say the exact same phrase "sonofabitch" after they have trapped their prey. And both Bigger and the rat rip and tear at their overpowering adversaries.
Book Two presents a darker sense of irony than the irony displayed in Book One. In one sense, Bigger is a young, inexperienced "petty thief" who has committed an adult crime. He is unable to keep track of the money he has stolen, he leaves visible tracks and his ransom note is pathetic. It is ironic that the authorities are convinced that Bigger has not worked alone because his crime is "too intelligent" to be the work of a black person. Even as Bigger's crimes are less than intelligent, Bigger's pride and overweening desire to prove himself push him to make unintelligent risks, losing his life in the gamble.
Wright presents a highly critical portrait of the news media, the private investigators and police detectives. Britten, a private investigator, is a parody of both "private eyes" and insular, racist thinkers. The height of Britten's investigation is a series of questions to determine whether Bigger is a communist‹a fact that will be proven if he "talks funny" having "spent time with Jews." Britten's ridiculous logic pervades a line of questioning that is girded by a fear of blacks mixing with whites. After the reporters arrive, the scene explodes into a farce. Wright now satirizes the pedantic journalists who are looking for an "angle" that might bring to light Bigger's "primitivism" and angst. At the same time, other reporters have taken on the role of police investigator, snooping in the Dalton's basement and discovering the ash of Mary's burned body. It is no surprise that the satirized press reports are full of hyperbole, portraying a "NEGRO MURDERER RAPIST" whose "primitivism" is brought to light in countless capitalized headlines of mob-inciting rhetoric.
Book Two makes several allusions, many of them to events well within Wright's social context as he was writing in 1939 and 1940. Wright makes references to the Scottsboro boys, and the "Lindbergh" and "Loeb" cases, situating Native Son within a certain vein of criminal-suspense novel. At the same time, Bigger's thoughts of how to commit a successful crime reveal that the tabloids are a poor education for the would-be murderer/kidnapper. Similarly, Jan's faith in the communist revolution is girded by the "Scottsboro boys" case. The hysteria and unique circumstances regarding these cases are ultimately of little value for the young, misguided characters. Wright's other major allusion in Book Two is to the ancient Greek dramas. Particularly in the "Oedipus" trilogy, the motifs of "hubris" and "blindness" were intertwined and Wright makes several direct allusions to the "tragic hero" whose angry pride leaves him spiritually blind. Bigger's fate robs him of his life, but this can only happen after his rage has robbed him of his sight.
There are two motifs that recur in Book Two. One of them is the motif of "time." This was initiated in Book One with the alarm clock of the novel's opening and the large clock that was ticking during Bigger's interview with Mr. Dalton‹both of these suggested that time was not on Bigger's side. This continues in Book Two, when Bigger must struggle to reconcile the details of his crime with the false time-schematic that he has constructed as an alibi. The section opens with Bigger's argument with Ma and then with Buddy, who both accurately recall falling asleep after 3am, waiting for Bigger to return home after his first evening at work. The clocks and eventually the "ringing" sound of police sirens, are all set against the "racing pace" inside Bigger's mind.
A second motif is the idea of "flight." Within the context of Book Two, Bigger goes to the "Paris Grill" with Bessie and as they become intoxicated, they discuss leaving for Harlem. In this time period, both Paris and Harlem are mythicized as havens‹not for criminals, but for black Americans in general. Certainly, Harlem was the more attainable of the two, but the "native son" is trapped at home and unable to free himself. The "flight" motif is also allusive in regards to the Greek story of Icarus: Bigger's dreams of "flight" create daydreams of being an aviator but in reality, he is running across the rooftops of dilapidated buildings, hoping to flee the mob. He is eventually caught and brought down low, unable to fly.
This "flight" motif is related to one of this section's three themes‹that of psychological escape. In the previous section, Wright casts Ma's dependence on religion as a placebo that makes her think that her son will work himself out, even as she is increasingly ineffective in her modish attempts to reform his character. Bessie is the closest parallel to Ma, though she finds her turns to the bottle, rather than the Bible, as the source of her escape from the weighty troubles of her life. While Bessie and Ma rely upon their modes of escape to ease and soothe their troubles, Bigger escapes in the opposite direction. Especially in Book Two, we find that Bigger's intention is to glut himself with pain and misery in order to blunt the senses by overcharging them into oblivion. Bigger thinks that if he can yell enough, kill and steal enough, he can harden himself from being able to feel any emotions. He might numb himself by the excesses of his crime. Instead, Bigger only becomes increasingly fragile‹he's trembling in Book Two and he will sob and sputter in Book Three.
Wright is especially unsympathetic towards characters who seek deluded, self-destructive and even spiritual escapes from the reality of the temporal world. Wright took issue with the established church, but he does not argue that religion is for the self-destructive or deluded, lumping churchgoers with alcoholics. Rather, religion like anything else in the life of a desperate, impoverished person can become a force that destroys the soul. A final thematic point worth noting is the violence that is enacted in the novel. Mary, the rat, Bessie and Bigger all suffer blows to the head, rather violent ones that snuff out their consciousness. In this Wright takes the literary principle of synecdoche "when a part of the body or organism comes to imply a condition for the whole," and turns it on its head. Just as these characters sought deluded escapes from reality, they lose consciousness before they die. (And in Book Three, we learn that Bessie survived the brick-blows to the head only to die of hypothermia in the air shaft, crawling in the direction of assistance.) The blows to the head imply a larger psychological condition, and of course, the blows to the head also have ramifications for the whole physical body because all of these creatures eventually die.
A second theme is the idea of blindness, which Wright connects to the ideas of youth and "hubris." In the reader's eyes, Bigger's proud announcement that he is entering a "new world" is a testament to his blindness. With so many opportunities to escape town and reject the destruction of violence, Bigger is trapped in the city. Ironically, Bigger is a chauffeur with access to a car and he drove this car to the train station. Bigger's pride and rage alternate to keep control of his mind and prevent him from seeing clearly. Consequently, Bigger's "flight" in Book Two is doomed before it begins and Bigger's "escape" is really a blind and headlong rush into the "fate" that is waiting for him at the end of the novel. Blindness is pervasive in the world of Native Son. Besides Mrs. Dalton's physical blindness, the distorting stereotypes and disfiguring violence of the "blindly raging" mob all serve as testaments to America's spiritual blindness. The Daltons believe that donating Ping-Pong tables to the dispossessed might give them hope; they are as blind as Bigger and the trauma of Mary's death is no assurance that they will be shaken out of their complacency.
The final theme of Book Two is "territory," continuing a thematic treatment begun in Book One. The "rat" metaphor and motif of "flight" interact in a way that heightens the importance of territory for Bigger. The ideas of the novel‹of racial segregation, of the predator and prey, invasion, capture and execution‹all of these are made explicit in Book Two and Bigger is the prey. He may have been emotionally trapped in Book One but in Book Two, Bigger is also physically trapped once the 5000 white police officers become a "swarm." With an vigilante sidekicks, the police easily close in on Bigger. Having invaded the Black Belt, they march from apartment to apartment until Bigger Thomas is found. Wright also makes "territory" an explicit concern by making the colors "white" and "black" literal. The swarm of police become a "sea of noise" and a "white and looming" force that is augmented by the white blizzard that is a "great natural force," complicit in its entrapment of Bigger. As Bigger sees the world, sky and snow are personified as more whites to augment and assist the white majority. At this point, the title of the novel is well past the point of irony, and the "native son" considers himself to be at war with his "native" land.
Fate
Book Three opens in the 11th Street Police Station where Bigger Thomas is detained. Bigger has not eaten, his eyes are sunken and he is trying to assert "his own will" despite the horrible situation that his accidental murder has produced. Musing over his fear of death, Bigger decides that he was "born unlucky" and amid the crowd that surrounds him in the police station, Bigger is easy to find the faces of Jan, Mr. and Mrs. Dalton. Bigger's overriding emotion is a feeling of shame and as he struggles in and out of consciousness, he notices that his fingernails have been ripped out. After he is fully conscious, Bigger wishes he were already in the electric chair.
An angry white mob has invaded the police station and when Bigger is taken to his inquest, they deride him as an "ape" and a "jungle beast." Everyone is well aware of the reality that Bigger Thomas will definitely suffer under the death penalty. Soon after arriving at the inquest, Bigger faints and this only stokes the hysteria that the journalists are fueling. Bigger awakens to find that he is again behind bars and his mother's minister, Reverend Hammond, arrives to visit Bigger in his prison cell‹at Ma's request. The Reverend urges Bigger to "turn to Jesus!" and in his rambling sermon, Hammond hopes to offer Bigger some hope of salvation and heaven, for he will surely be executed and in not very much time. Bigger resists the Reverend's invitation to salvation and after becoming frustrated with Bigger's obstinate antics, the Reverend intends to leave the boy, but not before setting a wooden cross necklace around Bigger's neck.
As Reverend Hammond prepares to leave, Jan Erlone arrives and Bigger is surprised that Jan is willing to talk to hi and is also willing to "apologize" to Bigger. Even though Jan does not understand Bigger's emotions and motives, he does understand that Bigger is partially reacting to his social condition. Jan explains that as a result of lynching, so many black families have suffered and he and his Communist friend Max want to help Bigger. Jan knows that Bigger simply sees him as a "white face" but he hopes that Bigger might also see him as an "honest face." Certainly, the Reverend is impressed with Jan's candid apology.
Soon after Jan tells Bigger that the Communist lawyer, Max, is willing to work for free, State Attorney Buckley arrives in the cell, joined by Mr. and Mrs. Dalton. Buckley assures Bigger that he has no need for tactics and that the young man is as already caught so he might as well confess. Mr. Dalton agrees and hints that things might be "easier" for Bigger if he says all that he knows and reveals the identity of his accomplices. Jan derides Mr. Dalton, arguing that Bigger's crime couldn't be prevented by the Dalton's generous donation of Ping-Pong tables for the South Side recreational center. Jan says that Bigger's crime testifies to a "fundamental" problem in America.
At this point, Bigger, Jan, Reverend Hammond, Mr. and Mrs. Dalton and State Attorney Buckley are joined by Ma, Vera, Buddy, Gus, GH and Jack, all of whom crowd into Bigger's jail cell (!) Ma is sobbing and Bigger feels guilty and is unable to look at her. Buddy is as rash and youthful as Bigger and he assures Bigger that he will defend his innocence and get a gun and kill four of five people himself. Buddy's comment is not accepted well and after Bigger learns that Vera is ashamed to go to school because her classmates mock her, he feels a mixture of hate and shame. He is ashamed of what he has done to his family, but he hates them for existing. Bigger wants to be unencumbered and he is only irked by Ma's pleading questions if there is "anything" that she can do to help him. Bigger replies that he is fine and that he will be out of jail in no time. His mother's face is incredulous and Bigger realizes that this is one of the few times in his life where admitting the ugly truth is better than sugarcoating reality. Ma gives Bigger another chance to answer her question and he responds that there is nothing that she can do.
Ma is rather unaware of the other people in the cell and she has a personal conversation with Bigger telling him to "go to God." Bigger replies that Ma should "forget" him, but Ma insists that all she has are her three children, not just the two non-criminal ones. Eventually, Bigger promises to "try" to pray and this is all that Ma has to sustain her faith. When Ma learns that the two people in the back of the cell are Mr. and Mrs. Dalton, she grovels at their feet, sobbing and begging for her son to be spared the electric chair. The Daltons insist that Bigger's fate is out of their hands but they will make sure that Ma, Vera and Buddy are not evicted from their $8/week apartment, as they are no longer able to pay. Ma's groveling only intensifies Bigger's feelings of shame and he is relieved when Gus, GH and Jack escort Ma, Vera and Buddy back to their home. After the Reverend, Jan and the Daltons exit the cell, Bigger is alone with Buckley and he succumbs to the State Attorney's intimidation.
Buckley warns Bigger that it will be better for him to confess. He describes Bigger as a wayward youth who has broken his mother's heart and surely, if he might escape the justice of the state, he would meet a far worse fate at the hands of the angry, frothing mob that is only growing. Buckley tells Bigger that the authorities have found Bessie, and she did not die from the brick blows that Bigger delivered. The police know that Bigger raped her and that he threw her body in an airshaft. Bigger thought that Bessie was dead but she was able to crawl for a small distance, regaining consciousness only to die of hypothermia, freezing in the blizzard. Buckley suggests that Bigger's only way out is to confess, admit who helped him commit the crimes and settle for spending the rest of his life in a "hospital." Bigger is piqued and he confesses to the crime, denying his insanity and the existence of any accomplices. Buckley is joined by a "man with a pad" who records Bigger's confession and after they leave, Bigger is alone in his cell. He hears them joking outside the cell about how "easy" it was to record Bigger's self-betrayal. They expected that he would be harder. Hearing the reality of his own self-failure, Bigger sobs in his prison cell.
The next morning, as Bigger is lead to his inquest, a member of the mob strikes Bigger in the temple and he is wounded. The theatrics continue in the inquest. Mrs. Dalton begins sobbing in the witness box when she discusses her family history and identifies the heirloom earring that was found in the ashes of her furnace. She adds that her family has given $5 million to various charitable causes. Jan is the next witness and he tries to evade Buckley's belligerent and insinuating questions. Jan and Bigger's lawyer, Max, argue that the State Attorney is trying to indict an entire political party as well as an entire race. Buckley is permitted to continue with few restrictions and he twists Jan's answers to cast aspersions on his character, suggesting that Jan offered Mary Dalton as Bigger's reward for joining the Party's efforts. Buckley also suggests that the content of the Communist pamphlets induced Bigger to rape and murder Mary Dalton.
Max is more vocal when Mr. Dalton is placed on the stand and he exposes the exorbitant rents and segregating practices and policies of the Dalton's South Side Realty Company. Dalton admits that he simply assumed that blacks were happier living in their own neighborhoods and after he prides himself on helping his employees get an education, he admits that he has never offered employment to any educated blacks. Soon after this, the State offers Bessie's body as a piece of evidence indicating Bigger's criminal mentality. This stokes the mob's fury because it was a previously unknown piece of information. The Grand Jury easily finds enough information to warrant Bigger's criminal trial and several spectators chant: "Burn that black ape." After the inquest, prosecutors take Bigger to the Dalton mansion, lead him to Mary's room and try to intimidate him into showing them the mechanics of his rape and murder. Bigger will not oblige, saying "you can't make me do nothing but die."
Bigger is returned to his cell, but on the trip to the jail, Bigger sees a throng of Ku Klux Klansmen who are burning a large wooden cross. They are delighted when they make eye contact with Bigger and he is confused by the burning cross and thinks that the Reverend has tricked him into a trap. Enraged, Bigger throws his cross away and after a prison guard tries to explain to Bigger that the cross around his neck is his only hope and that it is "God's cross" and not the Klan's cross, Bigger again throws the cross away. Bigger is soon joined in his cell by another young black man who has gone insane. He was a student at a local university and "too much reading" caused him to lose his mind.
When Max returns to see Bigger, Bigger tries to convince the lawyer that the case was already lost and that there is nothing that can be done. Max remains optimistic and he hopes that Bigger will have some faith in him. Bigger sees that he is living in a No Man's Land and even as he answers the sum of Max's questions, he feels Max's condescension and feels distance. Max focuses on Mary's rape and is puzzled when Bigger explains that he did not rape Mary, he did kill her by accident and he hated her even though she didn't do anything to him. As for Bessie, Bigger explains that he neither loved nor hated her; his hate is reserved for whites mostly, because they "own every thing" and prevent him from being able to live freely. He is told to "stay in a spot" and Bigger confesses that he was simply unable to live that sort of life adding that after committing the murders, he felt a sort of freedom that he had not experienced.
In his conversation, Bigger also explains that he is not religious and he would never let himself become so "poor" that he had to rely upon happiness in another world to guide him through the present world. Bigger insists that he will never believe in God and then changes to topic to Mary Dalton, explaining that he had to kill her because "she was killing [him]." Bigger rambles on to explain how the Communists and race leaders have done little for him, that even though he is too young to vote, he has already illegally signed up to vote for those who paid him to do so. Max seeks to convince Bigger that he is different and Bigger is admittedly moved that Jan does not hate him. Max explains that the trial verdict will be delivered by a judge and not by a jury and that Bigger will plead Guilty, rather than Not Guilty, hoping for life imprisonment rather than the death penalty.
The city is tense and the Governor has ordered troops to move into Chicago to calm the mobs. Several of these troops escort Bigger to the courthouse. Bigger can see Ma in the courtroom crowd and she is heartbroken when she hears the litany of offenses, punctuated by her son's "Guilty" plea. Buckley argues that the defense is trying to enter a plea of insanity coupled with a guilty plea and Max insists that this is not the case and that Bigger's motives might reasonably lessen or extend the sentence that he receives. Buckley responds that he will call sixty witnesses for the prosecution and many of his antics are an effort to intimidate the judge by stoking the mob outside. At one point, Buckley opens a window so that the judge might hear the clamor for "justice." While this judge is less tendentious than the inquest judge, Buckley is allowed to call his sixty witnesses, including over a dozen newspapermen, GH, Gus, Jack, Jan and several police officers. In contrast, Max's defense is a soliloquy that is as passionate as it is misguided. After Buckley has roused the passions of the racist mob, Max decries the very racism and misplaced passion that fuel Buckley's unjust cries for "justice." Max argues that racism, fear and the feudal relationship of Bigger to his landlord Daltons have all mitigated Bigger's motive. Max hopes that the judge might look beyond race prejudice and take a step in the direction of a greater understanding of race in America. After making his case, Max tells Bigger that he did the best he could.
Buckley swiftly derides Max's rhetoric as Communist propaganda and proclaims that Bigger's death is the necessary thing for justice and humanity in America. If Bigger is not killed, the law will have been mutilated and justice will have returned to the people void. Buckley maintains that the law is "holy" and that the court must "let law take its course." Buckley does not hide the fact that for both himself and the judge, there are high political stakes involved. The State Attorney does, however, shield himself from any potential accusations of inhumane or bloodthirsty vengeance. He reminds the court that sympathy belongs with the young, innocent, vulnerable victims of Bigger's crimes‹two rape/murders within twenty-four hours. Even if Bigger killed because of a racist vendetta, how are the rapes or Bessie's murder explained? Lastly, Buckley mentions Mrs. Thomas, a decent God-fearing woman whose hard work and faith were of little aid in her efforts to curb Bigger's wayward ways. Indeed, Bigger is thoroughly corrupted and irremediable. From the media editorials, from the mouths of his State psychologists and now, from Buckley himself comes the conclusion that death is the only tolerable "fate" for the twenty-year-old chauffeur, Bigger Thomas. The mandate to "crush the woolly head of that black lizard," is one of Buckley's final exhortations.
After the closing arguments of a hastened trial (this has all occurred in the span of consecutive days) the judge announces that he will take one hour of deliberations and there is little that Max can do to alter the course of events. He accompanies Bigger to his prison cell and makes an almost superhuman effort to have hope in its glaring absence. After the hour, Bigger and Max are summoned to the courthouse and the judge quickly sentences Bigger Thomas to death. At last, the mob becomes jubilant and they are sated because the judge has accommodated justice by speeding the process of execution, as Bigger's appeal seems unlikely. Max is more perturbed than Bigger, who is to be executed "on or before midnight Friday, March third." Bigger has tried to remain dispassionate but his spirit falters as his mind tries to sort out the reeling, whirlwind activity of the last few days. To recapitulate: On a Saturday, Bigger learned that he would have a job as a chauffeur for a millionaire family; he takes the job after rejecting the temptation to rob Blum's deli. Early Sunday morning, Bigger returns Mary Dalton to her home, accidentally suffocating her. Later Sunday, Bigger visits Bessie, forges a ransom note, discovers the "discovery" of Mary's earrings in the ash, returns to Bessie and rapes and kills her. Monday, Bigger is on the run and he is caught that very night. His inquest is on a Tuesday, his trial is on a Wednesday, and his execution is to be "on or before midnight," Friday.
Max is perturbed because he has little time to regroup and he is unable to convince the Governor to offer Bigger a commutation of sentence or stay of execution. After this final hope has expired, Bigger knows that his life is drawing to a close and he emancipates himself from his emotional stress. He is a broken spirit, no doubt, but Bigger is increasingly introspective and even if his reflections are to be faulted, he struggles to grow as much as he can before he dies. Max stays with Bigger for most of his final hours and the grim reality of Bigger's fate is revealed not in his imminent death but in the details of his conversation with Max. When Bigger sees that Max is disappointed and guilty, he consoles the lawyer by confessing "I'm glad I got to know you," which surprises Max considering the prejudices against Communist, Bigger's distrust of Jews and his fear of white people. Max tries to build solidarity with Bigger through politics, explaining the similarities between Bigger's suffering as a black man and his own sufferings at the hands of anti-Semites.
Bigger is not interested in political solidarity and as he tries to explain what he is feeling he recalls his earlier conversations with Max. Max does not understand what Bigger is trying to say and Bigger becomes frustrated and gives up his last hope of communicating. Uncharacteristically, Bigger is nagged by the thought and again, he tries to explain his "idea" to Max; he needs to "make him know" what he has been trying to express for his whole life. He recounts an earlier conversation when Max asked Bigger the political questions regarding his hate and fear of whites, his economic situation, etc. Bigger focuses on the question of "What would you have liked to do, if you were allowed to?" explaining to Max that nobody had ever asked him what he wanted to do, and so he had never spent serious time contemplating a future. Even though he felt disconnected from humanity, Bigger felt like a human and Max's questions helped Bigger realize how badly he wanted to live.
At this point, both Max and Bigger are fighting tears and Bigger shouts "How can I die?" His concern is not his own physical death, but the fact that he has lived his life around people who "didn't see him" and hated him, denying him an opportunity to reveal his potential for humanity. Bigger frightens Max when he says that if he killed Mary and Bessie then it must have been for "something good," because "when a man kills it's for something." Bigger is sinking into fright and delusion as the appointed hour looms and Bigger final request of Max is to inform Ma that he "was alright" and that she will not have to "worry" about him anymore.
Analysis:
In Book Three, Wright varies his narrative structure. After two sections of Bigger's thoughts and actions being played off of each other, Book Three dedicates a large portion of the section towards the courtroom scenes that depict Boris A. Max and David Buckley far more than Bigger. In contrast to Buckley's colorful prose and mob-inciting rhetoric, Max is a self-righteous bore. His statement on Bigger's behalf is well over 10,000 words and much of this soliloquy was excised from the original 1940 edition of the novel. Max's speech is heavy with communist theorizing and Wright certainly uses Max to forward some of his own theories. In this regard, Book Three shoulders a heavier political burden than the first two sections.
Book Three has far more hyperbole and develops several lingering images. Certainly, the image of the mob lingers for the entire work. Whether Bigger is conscious or unconscious, when he is in prison and even when he is the courtroom, the angry white mob is always nearby ready to inflict damage. Buckley uses the mob to his advantage. During the closing arguments, he turns the courtroom into a circus, opening a window to the angry screams of the mob outside, minutes after he explained the importance of preserving law and order. At times, Wright allows the court proceedings to degenerate into a farce, as the threatening, invasive chaos is always waiting in the wings.
Concerning these images, Wright employs the technique of juxtaposition, setting various images in opposition to one another. The staid court is juxtaposed against the vigilante mob that is waiting outside the window. The image of the dejected black prisoner who is taken from the courthouse back to the prison is countered by the parade of the fiery Klansmen who follow an opposite route. In Bigger's cell, Ma becomes the embodiment of Bigger's shame when she grovels at the feet of the Daltons asking them to "spare my boy." Juxtaposed against the groveling, black woman, the Daltons are austere and reserved, showing few emotions in the wake of their daughter's savage murder. Finally, the image of the Daltons as a philanthropist family that has donated millions to the NAACP, is juxtaposed against the image of the young black man who has answered their generosity by murdering (and presumably, raping) their daughter.
Most of the novel's central characters are relegated to unimportant roles in the prison cell scene where Ma, Vera, Buddy, GH, Jack, Gus, Reverend Hammond, Jan, Mr. and Mrs. Dalton, Boris A. Max and State Attorney Buckley have all managed to somehow fit in the cell. Ma is a symbol of Bigger's shame as well as the failure of her emotional religion to shield her from reality. The Daltons stand in the back of the cell, quiet and imperious. They are generous with Ma and express no feelings of vengeance though they are convinced that Bigger will (and should) die. The Daltons have essentially remained a symbol of power and blindness, the role that they occupied at the beginning of the novel. Reverend Hammond, a new character, plays the role of a "holy fool." His rural diction and excessive deference repulse Bigger, and Hammond is just as much a "holy fool" as Max is a failed messiah. The Public Defender takes on an exceptionally challenging case and asks Bigger to have faith in him.
For its use of the symbols and archetypal roles, Wright's prison scene is often considered to be allusive to Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. Played against the holy fools and failed messiahs, State Attorney Buckley is the Grand Inquisitor/Satan character who challenges Bigger, intimidating him under a barrage of questions. Buckley's psychological maneuvers are successful and Bigger "signs his soul" over to the State when Buckley seizes upon an opportunity and has a stenographer draw up a hasty confession for Bigger to sign. Bigger's pride has caused him to reject an insanity plea‹the one thing that might have saved his life. As Bigger sobs in his prison cell, finally aware of the finality of his error, Buckley cackles outside the cell, commenting on how "easy" it was to intimidate "the boy."
Book Three is highly ironic, in part of Wright's deliberate writing. Buckley's maneuver to outwit "the boy" comes after hundreds of pages of Bigger wrestling with a society that he feels is withholding his manhood. In another instance of irony, Reverend Hammond says all of the wrong things in his effort to win Bigger's soul to the church. Finally, he puts a wooden cross around Bigger's neck in the explicit hope that the symbol might inspire remorse and belief in Bigger's heart. Not long after Bigger has worn the amulet in the courtroom, he is greeted by the Ku Klux Klan. Their highly visible cross is burning strong and Bigger returns to his cell, flinging his cross off of his neck. He is convinced that Hammond has fooled him into a trap. One of the white prison guards perceives Bigger's confusion and, feeling sorry for Bigger, tries to explain the difference between "their cross" and "God's cross," but Bigger is no longer interested. That the Klan might corrupt the Reverend's cross is as ironic as the Governor's ambivalence: After sending the National Guard to Chicago to protect Bigger from the mob, the Governor refuses to sign a stay of execution. In a world of civilities and procedures, Bigger is increasingly unable to take "reality" at face value.
Stemming from the ironic symbol of the Christian cross, Book Three presents a very elaborate "crucifixion" motif. Buckley argues that Bigger's blood is a necessary expiation; there is no alternative, simply, Bigger must die. While Buckley says nothing that might imply Bigger's suffering, Max argues that Bigger has been created to die; fate has reared a "native son" for the sole purpose of his sacrifice. Max argues that "we are guilty," but Bigger alone will die. The image of the cross begins with Rev Hammond and continues with the Klansmen, but in between these two scenes, Bigger must march from the prison-house to the courthouse and his staggering journey is modeled after the "stations of the cross" of Christ. Rather than Romans, the National Guard accompanies Bigger to his fate as they play the role of protector/executor. Bigger looks at his fingers and sees that his "nails" have been ripped out, his wounds resemble those of Christ and both suffering the jeers of a malicious crowd. Wright builds detail upon detail to pull the motif off but he never makes the argument that Bigger is any sort of Messiah, nor are Bigger's violent crimes ever justified. For Wright, the very idea of a Messiah is a faulty one, criminal or saint.
Much of Book Three's thematic treatment comes towards the end of the section, and Bigger's prison cell, rather than the courtroom, becomes the focal point of the novel's final thematic developments. The theme of "territory" dominated the first two books but is exhausted once Bigger is captured by the authorities. Instead, there are four other themes that Wright presents in Book Three. Wright's literary focus begins to shift more towards "existential" concerns rather than "naturalist" ones, and the theme of "blindness" is the only one of the older themes that is continued in a substantial way. Besides blindness, madness, solitude and identity become the thematic concerns of the section. Considering that the protagonist is locked in prison and execution is imminent, the thematic shift is not so surprising.
It is in Book Three that Bigger Thomas is forced to confront his own blindness. It is easy for him to see the blindness in the eyes of his deluded Ma and his younger siblings who are incapable of understanding the world according to Bigger. It is easy for Bigger to see how blind the Daltons are, for believing that a donation of Ping-Pong tables would keep the underprivileged children away from the ghetto's most pernicious activities. In the end though, Bigger is forced to assess the "new world" he has entered. As is the case in the Greek tragedies, Bigger's angry pride has given him spiritual blinders. As he considers his actions and goes through the throes of agonizing introspection, spiritual sight comes at the price of physical sight‹again, hearkening back to the ancients. Bigger blacks out periodically, and just as he has reached the pinnacle of "sight" he is taken away to be executed, his eyes closed forever.
Madness emerges as a major theme of Book Three, after been relegated to the periphery of Bigger's thoughts in Books One and Two. Locked in his cell, Bigger is the victim of legal rhetoric in which "madness" is tossed back and forth by both the prosecution and the defense: Are Bigger's crimes the work of a madman? Or rather, is the madness merely evidence that Bigger's "intelligent" crime must have necessitated a white accomplice/mastermind? "Madness" is offered to Bigger as his one escape from certain death, but Bigger's pride is an obstacle and after offering the bargain to Bigger, State Attorney Buckley relishes the moment in the courtroom when he has several doctors attest to Bigger's sanity. All around Bigger, madness is erupting. A brief cell-mate is a young black man who has become "balmy" from reading too many books in the university. The "balmy" young man spends the night screaming "turn me loose." Certainly, Bigger's imprisonment coupled with the proximity of death, adds to the madness that Bigger has been carrying for the entire novel. Wright makes more of an effort in Book Three to reveal the lapses and distortions in Bigger's mind and after Bigger's "frenzied anguish" towards the end of the novel, there should be little doubt that Bigger's exceptionally sensitive mind has become exceptionally mad.
Bigger's prison cell experience also presents Wright with the opportunity to examine the theme of "solitude." At the beginning of the novel, Bigger had his gang for company and in fact, his friends, family and girlfriend appeared to be unnecessary and unwanted figures in his life. For the first part of the novel, Bigger appears to seek solitude, but once he begins running and is finally beaten and thrown in jail, many of Bigger's facades come undone. In his conversations with the Defender, Boris A. Max, Bigger confesses an intense loneliness that existed despite the company of his friends and family in close quarters. Bigger thinks about his life and explains to Max that he has never had "conversations" that focused on life, on ideas or on Bigger's desires. There is a kernel of reality and earnest interest in Max's questions and replies and Bigger easily perceives the difference between Max's conversation and the fantasies and miseries of the Black Belt. In the end, Bigger is able to enjoy Max's company but he is never able to place his faith in any institution or fellow human being. He goes into his death alone, convinced that he has "saved" his own soul.
Finally, the theme of "identity" is developed in Book Three. In his conversations with Max, Bigger tries to describe the person that he wanted to become, but he repeatedly mentions the fact that "white people own everything" and so the person he wanted to become has little connection to reality. When Max asks Bigger about his criminal motives, Bigger begins to admit the truth: that he has accidentally killed Mary and that he simply doesn't know why he killed "his girl," Bessie. Bigger is bothered by the "accidental" nature of his fate and he argues that he killed because that is who he is. Bigger derives an identity from his statement: "When a man kills, it must be for a reason." That undefined and unknown "reason" becomes Bigger's reason for living. Max sees Bigger's identity complex as a tragedy in its own right. Bigger's fantasy are large and complex because they have no bearing on reality. Bigger simply wants to be an aviator because he knows he can never become one and when he asked if he would be seriously interested in the job if it were possible, Bigger admits his lack of interest. That Bigger defines himself and his desires by what he is not allowed to do, might explain his crimes but it belies a larger problem. Wright's final argument that is even Bigger's psychological evolution is doomed. Even if Bigger feels some peace after his conversations, he has still defined himself by looking at the "Bigger" that the world sees. Bigger sees that distortion and names himself as its opposite, but that has nothing to do with who he really is. The final trap for the Native Son is yet another psychological trick that prevents him from knowing who he is.
Identity: In Book Three, the theme of identity is developed‹mostly in the scenes where Bigger prepares to face his death in the electric chair. In these final moments, Bigger must struggle to "come to terms" with what he has done and what he has become. In this regard, Bigger's identity crisis is more of a struggle to separate his own impressions from the projections of the racist society around him. Even as Bigger must accept responsibility for his crimes, he faces the complex task of asserting his own worth even as he can't ignore his crime. When Bigger is involved in the process of asserting his own worth, he finds that he is in a trap because he has been unable to act upon all of the dreams that he has. Bigger wants to define himself as an aviator or even as the leader of his gang, but these are all ultimately false. One important thing to note is that Wright's treatment of the identity theme resembles the philosophies expounded in several existentialist works. In particular, the prison scenes toward the end of the novel are intended to hearken back to the works of Wright's favorite writer, Dostoevsky. Particularly after his rejection of established religion, Bigger has the existentialist burden of searching for meaning in life without the traditional support systems offered by the church or other social structures. By the end of Native Son, it seems that Bigger is one man who is doomed to fight against the machinery of a hostile world.
Psychological Escape: This theme is very much related to the theme of madness and it recurs in all three books of Native Son. It is worth noting that many of Wright's moral and political ideas, derived from Communist ideology, never achieved common acceptance among his largely American readership. While Wright does draw some superficial distinctions between Bessie and Ma, his philosophy reduces both Bessie's alcoholism and Ma's ardent religion to "escapes" from reality. Through Bigger, Wright sums up Ma's religion as a sense of resignation in regards to the present, only permissible and justified by faith in heaven, a life after death. The "escape" aspects of organized religion are exaggerated by the Reverend's antics and when this "holy fool" is juxtaposed with the Dalton's frigid, unstinting compassion, much of Society's morality seems to be only surface-deep. While Bigger avoids Ma's escapism, he is less successful navigating through the Black Belt's "underworld" of sex, violence and drugs, portrayed in the Book One and Book Two. The ransom note, the half-attempts to escape to Harlem, the alcoholic atmosphere at the Paris Grill, like the movie-house in the beginning of the novel‹all of these are escapes that offer a temporary relief from life's misery, even as they leave the characters worse off and increasingly ill-equipped to get their lives in order. Ironically, these escapes both intensify and add to the miseries of the Black Belt. Mr. Dalton's ping-pong tables are farcical in comparison to religion and alcohol, but this donation indicates that Dalton is well aware that the Bigger Thomases of the world are in need of a diversion.
Territory: The very title of the novel, Native Son, invites the reader to think about ideas of "nativism" and "territory." From the opening scene of the novel, where Bigger is killing the rat-invader, to Bigger's execution at the novel's end, there is a tension between Bigger's "native" status and his lack of political rights. Bigger was born in Mississippi, not Chicago, and the idea of a "native son" applies more to Bigger's status as an American as opposed to his status as a Chicagoan. Indeed, for all of the squalor of the Black Belt, Wright continually presses the argument that Bigger would be no better off in Mississippi or in Harlem. As America's "native son," Bigger is born an American, but perhaps more important, the Bigger that he becomes, is a product of America's native soil. The novel continually presents Bigger's "trapped" feelings and his lack of personal, physical freedom. While this seems to contradict Bigger's title role as a "native son," Wright ultimately makes the argument that poverty and American racism has remade Bigger into the "native son" that he has become. When Wright presents a detail that seems particular to Chicago or the Black Belt, there is usually a larger argument or ideology that is attached to it. One example is the fact that Mr. Dalton is Bigger's employer and landlord. While this might have been a common occurrence, Wright fashions this detail within the rubric of Marxism. In this regard, Mr. Dalton is evidence of the essentially feudal relationship (property-owner vs. laborer) that is masked by and intertwined within capitalism. In his treatment of the "property" theme, Wright argues that capitalism and racism reify one another, conspiring to insure Bigger's poverty and misery.
Bigger Thomas - As the protagonist and main character of Native Son, Bigger is the focus of the novel and the embodiment of its main idea—the effect of racism on the psychological state of its black victims. As a twenty-year-old black man cramped in a South Side apartment with his family, Bigger has lived a life defined by the fear and anger he feels toward whites for as long as he can remember. Bigger is limited by the fact that he has only completed the eighth grade, and by the racist real estate practices that force him to live in poverty. Furthermore, he is subjected to endless bombardment from a popular culture that portrays whites as sophisticated and blacks as either subservient or savage. Indeed, racism has severely curtailed Bigger's prospects in life and even his very conception of himself. He is ashamed of his family's poverty and afraid of the whites who control his life—feelings he works hard to keep hidden, even from himself. When these feelings overwhelm him, he reacts with violence. Bigger commits crimes with his friends—though only against other blacks, as the group is too frightened to rob a white man—but his own violence is often directed at these friends as well.
Bigger feels little guilt after he accidentally kills Mary. In fact, he feels for the first time as though his life actually has purpose and meaning. Mary's murder makes him believe that he has the power to assert himself against whites. Wright goes out of his way to emphasize that Bigger is not a conventional hero, as his brutality and capacity for violence are extremely disturbing, especially in graphic scenes such as the one in which he decapitates Mary's corpse in order to stuff it into the furnace. Wright does not present Bigger as a hero to admire, but as a frightening and upsetting figure created by racism. Indeed, Wright's point is that Bigger becomes a brutal killer precisely because the dominant white culture fears that he will become a brutal killer. By confirming whites' fears, Bigger contributes to the cycle of racism in America. Only after he meets Max and learns to talk through his problems does Bigger begin to redeem himself, recognizing whites as individuals for the first time and realizing the extent to which he has been stunted by racism. Bigger's progress is cut short, however, by his execution.
Critics of Native Son are divided over the effectiveness of Bigger as a character. Though many have found him a powerful and disturbing symbol of black rage, others, including the eminent writer James Baldwin, have considered him too narrow to represent the full scope of black experience in America. One area of fascination has been Bigger's name, which seems to combine the words "big" and "nigger," suggesting the aggressive racial stereotype he gradually assumes. As Max indicates, however, Bigger does not have a great deal of choice. The title of the novel implies that Bigger's descent into criminality and violence is an inherently American story. Indeed, Bigger is not alien to or outside of American culture—on the contrary, he is a "native son." With Native Son, Wright makes an undeniable case for Bigger's inclusion in the larger narrative of American cultural history.
