|
Wright makes it clear that Bigger's violence stems from his internalization of the social taboos upholding Jim Crowism. He shows the extent to which Jim Crow demands interfered with relations between black and white peoples, to the point where neither side trusted the other and their mutual hatred was pathological. The most obvious effect that these laws had was to paint black people as dangerous to white society, thus helping to lead white people to the view that blacks needed to be segregated in black ghettos. Bigger's reaction to segregation, and to the inequalities it embodied and propagated, shows the extent of his anger towards and resentment of whites.
This section focuses on the particulars of Richard Wright's text to study the
central character Bigger Thomas's reaction to Jim Crowism and shows how Wright uses this
to explain Bigger's first murder. Accordingly, it examines the murder scene in detail,
looking at how Jim Crow violence and customs shape Bigger's motivations in one of the
most defining and impressive works of Wright's career, Native Son.
Native Son became the first bestselling novel by an African American writer and
the first Book-of-the Month Club selection. It sold over 200,000 copies in less than
a month and put Wright on the map of
20th century literature. In 1941 in recognition of
his achievement, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
awarded him the prestigious Spingarn Medal in Houston. In addition, the novel was adapted into
a stage drama, the script of which Wright wrote in collaboration with Paul Green.
Today, the novel is crucial to an understanding of
20th century American literature.
The chief significance of Native Son, however, lies in its protest against
racial discrimination in America - as seen in Jim Crow laws and customs, segregation, and
poverty - imposed on African Americans by the dominant white society. This novel brought
wealth and fame to Wright and made him recognizable as the `father of Black American literature'. |
