Victim of Society?
Throughout Native Son we are exposed to the mind of a young man who lives in a state of perpetual fear. He fears the oppressive white superiority around him and he fears a sense of an unstoppable tragedy that forebodes his future. Through the series of events in leading up to not only the murder of Mary, but also that of Bessie, Bigger finds himself creating not only more fear, but also a sense of wholeness through these actions. What is the true cause of these emotions though? Is it the environment of oppression Bigger exists in that caused his grave actions or is he merely a man born into a fate of committing these crimes as he has feared his entire life? The prosecutor of Bigger's trial, Buckley, using terms of labeling such as "maddened ape" and "demented savage," portrays Bigger as a mindless killer, but obviously from our perspective we know this not to be the case. What is Wright trying to say about the society that Bigger lives in and is eventually consumed by?
1 comment:
I think Wright is trying to show the readers that society doesn't see Bigger the way we the readers do. He's showing how society as a whole usually functions. Most often, murderers will be condemned by the majority of the society, but there are always those select few that know the condemned more intimately and therefore know that they aren't the rutheless killer that we all say they are. Wright is portraying us, the readers, as those select few that know who Bigger really is, whereas everyone else in the book is society that condemns him.
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