1186 Wright, Richard
Survival is represented in more general terms in
the novel’s closing sequence when Bigger stands trial
for double murder. Chicago comes to represent a city
in which the survival of the races, black and white,
depends on how the causes and effects of cases like
those of Bigger are dealt with in the unpredictable
future that lies beyond the courtroom. During the
trial, we learn of retaliatory acts of white-on-black
violence in the city, dwarfing, numerically at least,
Bigger’s two acts of murder.
Kaleem Ashraf
vIoLence in Native Son
Bigger Thomas, the young protagonist of Native
Son, resorts to violence as a means of dealing with
his intense feelings of alienation, rejection, and
despair. This is especially exemplified by three major
scenes in the novel. The first is the fight with Gus
in the poolroom, the second the killing of Mary, and
the third the murder of Bessie.
Unable to admit his fear of robbing a white
man, Bigger resorts to an act of brutal violence in
order to spoil the plan to rob Blum’s grocery with
his friends Gus, G. H., and Jack. Bigger singles out
Gus for being “late” to the poolroom, grabs him by
the collar, and kicks and punches him. Bigger is
said to strike at Gus automatically, showing a type
of predatory instinct, and his act of making Gus
lick the blade of his penknife is fueled by a sadistic
energy. Yet these actions also underline Bigger’s
desperate need for control in a world in which he
is powerless. By obtaining Gus’s pleas for mercy
and his total capitulation, Bigger temporarily feels
in control. Equally, ignoring calls to stop by Doc
(the poolroom owner) and the others lends Bigger
a sense of power. Of course, his sense of author-
ity is an illusion, symbolically undermined when
Gus manages to throw a billiard ball at him and
escape through the door. In this return to the status
quo, Bigger is angered by his friends’ laughter, so
he lashes out again by taking his penknife to the
cloth of the pool table. These actions show Big-
ger’s capacity for self-destruction as well as violent
aggression, because he has just ruined all possibility
of returning to the poolroom in the future, either
alone or with the gang.
During a period of growing suspense, Bigger
drives Mary Dalton home late at night following
her evening out with her boyfriend, Jan. Drunk and
playful, Mary sits next to Bigger in the front seat of
the car instead of in the back, then she puts him in
the precarious position of having to help her into
the house. Fearful of being discovered, experienc-
ing a mixture of sexual desire and contempt, Bigger
freezes at the sound of Mrs. Dalton outside Mary’s
bedroom. In an effort to keep her quiet so as to avoid
Mrs. Dalton’s attention, Bigger silences Mary with
a pillow, accidentally killing her in the process. His
suffocation of Mary is not a representation of his
gratuitous violence, as in the poolroom scene; rather,
it is the physical manifestation of his fear of the
white world. Repeatedly, Mrs. Dalton is described
as a “white blur” in the darkness, like a ghost whose
impending visit will condemn Bigger forever. In this
matter of survival, Bigger tries to stay in charge of
his actions, but he loses control of the situation in
a dramatic way. He has killed a white woman, for
which the consequences are severe.
In the portion of the book entitled “Flight,” fol-
lowing the discovery of Mary’s bones, Bigger rapes
and murders his girlfriend Bessie, pummeling her
with a brick as she sleeps. There is a raw, violent
energy to Bigger in these passages as he brutal-
izes Bessie, uses her for his sexual needs, and then
disposes of her altogether. Later on, when he is
defended by his lawyer Boris Max, Bigger is said to
be a product of his conditions, and yet the passages
detailing Bessie’s murder show how he cannot be
merely considered a product of the black American
experience as, before anything else, he is a complex
and tragic human. Quite apart from Mary’s acci-
dental death, Bigger’s murder of Bessie—a young,
hardworking black woman who has only tried to
help him—is alarmingly willful.
Native Son must, then, be considered in terms
of the powerful relationship it draws between Big-
ger’s actual violence and the motivations for his
violence. Bigger is rendered incapable of engaging
emotionally with the world. After the fight with
Gus, he stifles his need to cry. Upon his conviction
of double murder, he tears a cross from his throat.
These actions show how deeply Bigger’s experiences