Native Son Notes

Plot
● Rising action:
● Climax:
● Falling action:

Conflict
Man vs. society
● Bigger is unhappy with his life because he’s always oppressed. This causes him to strike
out by killing Mary.
● Max argues that Bigger is a product of the environment he was brought up in.

Setting
● Takes place in Chicago in late 1930s, USA still not recovered from the Great
Depression.
● Bigger lives in Chicago’s black South Side ghetto.
● The Daltons (and other white people) live in much fancier places. The Daltons live in a
mansion but Bigger has to live in a small room.

Important quotes
Snow (in part 2)
● The snow is a symbol for all the whites chasing after him.

Context

About the author

● Wright was brought up without a father and moved to Chicago to a ghetto.
● His family was devout like Bigger’s but he was rebellious.
● He was often a victim of black hostility and he felt isolated from blacks and whites.
● Wright supported the Communist party.
● Native Son w​ as an instant bestseller. Sold 200,000 copies in THREE WEEKS. Like
damn.
Characters

Bigger Thomas
● He is a twenty-year-old black man.
● He is bombarded with white popular culture.
● His ignorance and poverty make him ashamed and scared but he doesn’t want to reveal
that because it would be humiliating to do so.
● He is angry at the whites because they are responsible for the oppression that reigns
over his life. He’s also frustrated with blacks because they don’t stand up for anything
and are passive.
● Bigger is a product of the environment he was brought up in.
● He is a self-destructive character.
● His name might have been derived from “Big” and “Nigger.” He’s based on several
people that Wright had met in his lifetime.

Rat
● The book opens with Bigger and his family finding a rat in their one-roomed apartment.
● Bigger is the only one who reacts violently against the rat, killing it.
● This reveals his violent and active character—he likes to take action and he enjoys it
whereas Vera’s reaction is to faint which shows the passivity of black people at the time.

Gun and knife to interview

● During the interview, Bigger takes his gun and knife with him. “He felt that he would be
safer if he took it” (pg. 73).

The trial
At the end of his trial, he’s asked if he has anything else to say but Bigger can’t speak.
● This shows that he still can’t connect to other people. He’s defined himself through the
killing as a murderer.
● He’s still stuck in his own prison and shows that Bigger’s fear and hatred of white people
hasn’t stopped.

Mrs. Thomas
● She’s a hardworking, devout woman who wants to keep the family together.
● She thinks Bigger is a troublemaker and wants him to get a job and earn money.
● Mrs. Thomas keeps nagging Bigger to do things and he gets angry at her for that.
● He’s even angrier when she begs the Daltons for help.
Bessie
● She is Bigger’s girlfriend and works long hours in a white woman’s kitchen.
● She drinks a lot.
● Bessie and Bigger use each other—there’s no real emotion in their relationship. Bessie
uses Bigger for money to get alcohol. Bigger uses Bessie for sex. However, she does
say that she’ll go with him and marry him which could show that she has feelings for him.

Mary Dalton
● She is a headstrong woman and supports the Communist movement.
● Her parents are opposed to this. There is irony because Mary donates to the Communist
party using her parents’ money who don’t support Communism at all.
● She wants to help black people like Bigger but she doesn’t understand how he feels.
She treats him as though he’s a representative of all black people.
● Mary makes Bigger feel ashamed of his blackness and confused because she treats him
like a familiar. This makes him hate her. He says that he felt like murdering Mary even
though he ended up killing her accidentally.

The Daltons
● They are an old, rich white couple who want to help black but they do so in ironic ways.
● They hire black people as workers and encourage them to go to school. Mr. Dalton owns
a real-estate company that owns the building where Bigger and his family live (in the
rat-infested room). They charge more for black people and don’t allow blacks to rent
homes in white neighbourhoods.
● Mrs. Dalton always wears white and is blind. This may be a symbol to how she is blind to
the plight of black people. Or that she is blind to racism.
● Both of them only see Bigger as another black person they should help rather than an
individual.

Quotes
● “You know, he does a lot for your people.” — Peggy on pg. 87. Shows that there is a
clear difference between black and white people.

Jan Erlone
● He is Mary’s lover and a member of the Communist party.
● There is character development because, at the start, he treats Bigger as an equal but
Bigger interprets this as mockery. Jan expects Bigger and him to be instant friends. But
at the end, Jan admits he was wrong to do so and forgives Bigger for killing Mary.
Boris Max
● He is a lawyer who defends black people. He’s also part of the Communist party.
● He believes that Bigger is a product of the oppressive society and that the society is
responsible for Bigger’s crimes. He also thinks that Bigger should have united with
others to demand racial equality.
● Wright uses Max as a vessel for his own ideas.
● Max sounds like “Marx” who founded Communism.

Reverend Hammond
● He is a black preacher who visits Bigger in jail.
● He tries to convince Bigger to turn to God and religion but Bigger rejects this.

Buckley
● He is the State’s Attorney and wants to advance his own career by condemning Bigger.
● Bigger sees him as a typical white person intent on destroying him.

Themes

Justice
The justice system is flawed. When the jurors are asked, “Would there be any reason why you
could not render a fair and impartial verdict in this?” They answer no.
● This is ironic because the system ​is​ flawed. Everyone is against black society.
● No one wants Bigger to win the trial.
● The jury is only made up of white people so there can’t BE a “fair and impartial verdict”
about the case as it’s against black people.

Fatalism
“[...] you whipped before you born” (pg. 380).
● Max and Bigger are having a conversation about why Bigger did his crime. Bigger says
how black people are expected to be a certain way.
● His fate was decided before he was born. All the cards are stacked against him.
● Since Bigger realises this, it shows that he has accepted his fate and is no longer
fighting it.

Bigger is a product of the environment he was brought up in.

 ● In Max’s plea at the end, he says, “It has developed a capacity for hate and fury which
we cannot understand” (pg. 420). He also says, “[...] his crime existed long before the
murder of Mary Dalton” (pg. 420).
○ This shows that Bigger is a product of the environment he was brought up in. All
his life, he had been treated horribly and all this pent up rage finally came out in
the form of murder.
○ His fate was written for him.
○ He was supposed to murder because society had imposed it upon him to make
him the bad guy.

“I hurt folk ‘cause I felt I had to; that’s all” (pg. 449).
● After Bigger has been sentenced, Max talks to him in his cell. He says this to Max.
● Shows that society had wanted him to kill. He felt forced by society to do what he did.

“What I killed for must’ve been good!” (pg. 453).

● Bigger has accepted his death sentence and believes that what he did was for the
greater good. This alienates him from Max because Max doesn’t believe so. But the
whole time Max was fighting for him.

Bigger is fully integrated into American society (psychologically) because America has raised
him to be hateful and fearful and his behaviour and justification shows that he’s a native son of
America because he’s a fearful and hateful man.

Racism
● Blacks have to pay more than whites.

Media distorts reality

● Pg. 59-64, Bigger and his friends go to the cinema and they see two films advertised.
One shows white people frolicking on beaches and dancing. The second shows black
men and women dancing to African drums and chanting.
○ The media perpetuates stereotypes about both races. Offers a caricature of
reality.
○ Or they could actually be created those stereotypes about people and Bigger and
others are influenced by them.
● Pg. 276, Bigger is called a “Negro rapist and murderer” by the media. Also called a
“sex-slayer,” and dehumanised, even called “an ape.”
○ Media is influencing the public. Turning the public against Bigger offering a very
one-sided view on the event.
○ He isn’t even seen as a human which furthers theme of racism because shows
that it was an inherent part of society and to such an extent that he was no longer
considered human.
Freedom
● “He had murdered and created a new life for himself” (pg. 135).
○ He feels that he is in control of his life and his fate. But this new life that he has
created for himself excludes his family and black society. Bigger feels
empowered and believes that he’s gone above and beyond them.
○ Hence, he is also, to an extent, alienated from society but this alienation was by
choice.
● “He felt that he had his destiny in his grasp” (pg. 179).
○ This is ironic as well because he doesn’t have his destiny in his grasp. He will
face the death penalty. He has to. He murdered someone.

Style

Language
Irony
● When Peggy shows Bigger his room, she says, “It’s plenty warm here.” But when they
go outside into the snow, “It was much warmer” (pg. 89). This is ironic because shows
that the Daltons aren’t that charitable. They’re treating Bigger as a lower-class person.

Imagery
“His own head lying with black face and half-closed eyes and lips parted with white teeth
showing and hair wet with blood [...] and the bell clanged so loud [...]” (pg. 195)
● The “and” signifies frustration and fear because he sounds out of breath. This is called
polysyndeton​. Conveys a sense of urgency as well.
● The bells clanging could serve as a warning for Bigger, that he’s going to have trouble in
the future.
● Decapitated head could foreshadow that Bigger is going to lose his head.

Point of view
● Third-person limited, from Bigger’s POV. This POV causes readers to better understand
what’s going through Bigger’s head but the white characters aren’t as developed as the
black ones.

Structure
● Divided into three books: Fear, Flight and Fate.
 ● Book 1 is about how scared Bigger is of the whites.
● Book 2, “Flight,” has a double meaning. He feels power and freedom from killing Mary
but he also is literally fleeing from the crime scene.
● Book 3, “Fate,” is all about how Bigger has resigned himself to a particular fate—death.

Symbolism and motifs

“The plane was so far away that at times the strong glare of the sun blanked it from sight.” (pg.
46)
● Serves as a symbol to show that all Bigger’s aspirations are out of his reach.
Snow

“[...] a particle of white rock had detached itself from that looming mountain of white hate and
had rolled down the slope, stopping still at his feet.”
● The mountain represents white society. Bigger finally understands that he may have
misdirected his anger at Jan and the “good” white people. The particle represents Jan.
● Bigger being able to see a white person as an individual is HUGE. He doesn’t see a
white blur anymore.
● His alienation from society has diminished slightly.