Examples Of Fear In Native Son By Richard Wright

Richard Wright declares in his book The Color Curtain (1956), “I am an American Negro. I have had the burden of race consciousness. I have worked in my youth as a common laborer and I have had class consciousness” (qtd. in Dow, 161). Native Son, written in 1940, is an explicit example of these two burdens – race and class, Wright knew and experienced throughout his life. Wright demonstrates in the novel how much it could be devastating for people when only race and class act as measurements to judge people’s morals, ethics, status, caliber, potentials, and abilities. In this context, this paper explores the environment of racial and social discord and acrimony that dominated American terrains during the early decades of the twentieth century.

Richard Wright, wrote the fictional novel Native Son, using three intellectual forces, which include: Naturalism, Existentialism, and Communism. He uses these forces, along with racist ideology, to shape the life of a young black male, Bigger, living in the ‘Black Belt’ of Chicago in the 1940’s. Wright refers to the ‘Black Belt,’ as a ‘black world’ where violence is directed towards other American Americans, and warns that this violence will be aimed at white people. Bigger, is used to depict the criminal actions that come along with living in racial confinement under the fear of white people during this time.

Richard Wright’s “Native Son” Bigger shows us the short end of the stick of how it feels to be seen as a second-class citizen for being black. His speech talking about how he feels like a prisoner in this world just because he is black. (Wright P.17) This prison pain of Bigger in Wright’s novel shows how the negative effects of fear and discrimination affect minorities in our society. This discrimination just for existence is mirrored in the “Diary of Anne Frank” and “The Color of Water”. In the Diary of Anne Frank, spends two years of her life in an attic with her family and other Jewish people, hiding from the government trying to capture them just because they are Jewish. In “The Color of Water” Ruth McBride describes how the KKK was a huge part of her hometown. That whenever a car full of white hoods drove past, any African Americans in the store would run home, Ruth did the same thing, knowing her family was also in danger. (McBride P.58)

In the mid 1900’s, different parts of society struggled with power due to the idea of racial supremacy. The idea of a superior race lead to the racial oppression of blacks, which had deep and lasting effects on society. This can be seen in Native Son by Richard Wright. During this time, power was heavily dependent on race: a concept Bigger Thomas struggled with throughout the entire novel. This can be seen on Bigger’s journey to understand and grasp for power, and the lasting effects of racial oppression on not only himself, but the black community as a whole.

According to Frederick Douglass, “it was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass. It was a most terrible spectacle. I wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I beheld it (p.4).” Frederick Douglass and Toni Morrison literatures examine the stigma of slavery, and the perceptions of its dangers. They illustrate what life was like and the mental as well social impact it had on enslaved African-Americans and their life after gaining freedom. Richard Wright convinces his audience in Black Boy that he was tired of the limitations and outcries in the South “I was not leaving the South to forget the South, but so that some day I might understand it, might come to know what its rigors had done to me, its children (284).” Alice Walker obtains her readers attention by transforming young women into their own characters with a voice using spiritual guidance. In Native Son, Bigger has achieved is lost after being apprehended and brought into captivity, as he transitions back into silence and passivity and begins to recover only in his final confrontation, whereas Douglass in the same prevailing convention, only heals after the regaining of his freedom. Through these literatures, and many others, African-Americans find multiple ways to alleviate and recover from the intensity of undesired bondage and bigotry.

James Baldwin's "Notes of a Native Son" contains many themes such as social injustice and family values. Underlying all his work are anecdotes of how prejudice affected him both when he witnessed other people making judgments as well as making his own judgments growing up. Baldwin discusses his experiences to show how prejudice can create different perceptions among others.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “You can do anything you set your mind to.” Franklin is conveying to us that we must not limit ourselves for perseverance and mindset is key to accomplishing a certain goal. Black Boy by Richard Wright is an insightful and compelling autobiography that should remain in the English one accelerated curriculum for the power of racist and prejudice events to cause people that do not identify as a person of color to realize the privilege that has been instilled for them for hundreds of years and its power to convey the concept that no matter how many hardships you endure, with enough determination and drive, you can overcome any obstacle. Throughout the novel, Black Boy, Richard Wright withstands many racist and

  In Native Son, Wright employs Naturalistic ideology and imagery, creating the character of Bigger Thomas, who seems to be composed of a mass of disruptive emotions rather than a rational mind joined by a soul. This concept introduces the possibility that racism is not the only message of the novel, that perhaps every person would feel as isolated and alone as Bigger does were he trapped in such a vicious cycle of violence and oppression. Bigger strives to find a place for himself, but the blindness he encounters in those around him and the bleak harshness of the Naturalistic society that Wright presents the reader with close him out as effectively as if they had shut a door in his

Richard Wright separates his novel “Native Son” into three sections. He names the parts “Fear, Flight, and Fate”, and in each book, a progression of critical occasions jump out at its protagonist, Bigger Thomas. Every occasion is associated and has a hidden significance in which Bigger obtains something critical about himself and society. The first part of “Native Son” is called Fear.

In Native Son, By Richard Wright, Mary Dalton is killed by Bigger Thomas out of fear of getting caught in Mary Dalton’s room. Bigger , Mary cospher , lets Mary talk him into taking her to see Jan,which lead to them going to a restaurant and getting drunk. Bigger wanted to make sure she got to her room safely ,but after that all went wrong. Mary being as drunk as she was trying to kiss bigger , And bigger was almost pulled into to do it as Mrs.Dalton walked in .Even though Mrs Dalton is blind, Bigger grabbed a pillow and put it over mary dalton’s face in a attempt to silence her . In that moment he acting off his fear .he forget that he had the pillow over her face suffocating her. After he realized that she was no longer making any noise or

Evelyn Natal Analytical Essay Revised 12/3/2014 Prof. Pilgrim Effects Of living In Fear Richard Wrights Native Son novel tells the story of Bigger Thomas an African American male who was a native to Chicago's South Side ghetto. The 1930’s life was divided by class and race, racism was in its full effect and because of this violence was a personal necessity in Bigger’s mind being that he was oppressed by all these factors in his life. Mr. Dalton lived in a white upper class society and didn’t have the struggles and hardships as Bigger who was black and of a lower class. Mr. Dalton had the control of his life and freedom for Bigger he had no control and violence made him feel free and control of his own feelings and life when he committed a crime.

When analyzing Bigger Thomas, Richard Wright’s protagonist in the novel Native Son, one must take into consideration the development of his characterization. Being a poor twenty-year-old Black man in the south side of Chicago living with his family in a cramped one- bedroom apartment in the 1930’s, the odds of him prospering in life were not in his favor. Filled with oppression, violence, and tragedy, Bigger Thomas’ life was doomed from the moment he was born. Through the novel, Bigger divulges his own dreams to provide for his family and to be anything but a “nobody.” Although Bigger struggled to fight through obstacles to pursue his dreams for the future, his chase for a better life came to an abrupt

Throughout the novel Native Son by Richard Wright, Bigger struggles with his fear of the white community because of the segregation and violence that has been inflicted upon him as a part of the black community. Bigger’s whole life he has lived within Chicago’s ‘black belt’, the only area of the city where relators will rent houses to people of color. Likewise, Bigger has been denied access to clean housing conditions, quality education, and well-paying job opportunities. By having two distinct sides in the visual that is representing Bigger’s struggle to live a life free of fear, the segregation and the distinct difference between the races that is present in society and effects Bigger’s day to day life is being displayed. In addition, skin

In the novel Native Son, Wright constantly demonstrates that restrained fear, stemming from racism and oppression, can boldly manifest itself through uncontrollable actions. Throughout the plot, Wright focuses on Bigger’s fear to act in a dominant white community which had continually restricted him and his ambitions. Due to the racially segregated Chicago that surrounded him, Bigger was afraid to live his life for fear that he would further be limited by the white society. Therefore, in moments of interaction with them, Bigger’s consciousness quickly becomes disabled, restraining only so much of his fear until it externalizes into bold actions that allow him to live, but in the worst ways possible. Bigger first shows his fear when he and a group of friends conspire on robbing the store of a white man.

Richard Wright’s novel, Native Son, depicts the life of the general black community in Chicago during the 1930’s. Though African Americans had been freed from slavery, they were still burdened with financial and social oppression. Forced to live in small, unclean quarters, eat foods on the verge of going bad, and pay entirely too much for both, these people struggled not to be pressured into a dangerous state of mind (Bryant). All the while, they are expected to act subserviently before their oppressors. These conditions rub many the wrong way, especially Bigger Thomas, the protagonist of the story. Though everyone he is surrounded by is going through all the same things that he is, growing up poor and uneducated has made Bigger angry at the whole world. You can see this anger in everything he does, from his initial thoughts to his final actions. Because of this, Bigger Thomas almost seems destined to find trouble and meet a horrible fate. Wright uses these conventions of naturalism to develop Bigger’s view of the white community(). With all of these complications, Bigger begins to view all white people as an overwhelming force that drags him to his end. Wright pushes the readers into Bigger’s mind, thoroughly explaining Bigger’s personal decay. Even Wright himself says that Bigger is in fact a native son, just a “product of American culture and the violence and racism that suffuse it” (Wright).