Native Son Essay Research Paper 1 Native

Native Son Essay, Research Paper

1. Native Son by Richard Wright; 1940

2. At the halfway point of this book, I find myself amazed at the segregation and racism going on. Never have I read a book that has so clearly accounted for the African American’s feelings towards white people. The hate that brews inside of the African Americans is unbelievably strong, yet quite appropriate. I am enjoying trying to see the racism from the African American’s point of view, rather than the “white view” I think I have had all along. The stark contrast in living conditions between the Dalton family and the Thomas family is undeniable. Mr. Dalton says he supports African Americans and gives them money, yet he owns a real estate company that only sells houses to blacks in certain areas, and charges them more money than whites for dirties places. Bigger Thomas is going to be caught. The authorities will not let him escape. By leaving the house after the bones were located, Bigger basically announced his guilt to all of Chicago. The fact that he is black will not help either. That just makes him that much worse and that much guiltier. The white society already has him condemned and sentenced for life. What he did certainly was wrong, but it was accidental. He cannot run like this, because running makes him look worse. Right now he is trapped by his own inner fears and really has no other choice but to continue running until he gets caught. Nobody will spare him any mercy now. Actually, had he admitted right away to killing Mary, and had he not burned her, he probably wouldn’t have been spared any mercy anyway. That is really hard for me to understand. I cannot understand why whites hate blacks with such passion that they force them to live in subhuman condition for outrageous prices. Bigger just has to keep going and not look back. Eventually he will be caught, and I only hope that he isn’t hurt in anyway when he is caught.

3. (A) The protagonist of The Chosen is Bigger Thomas. He is from the lowest rung of the American social ladder of Depression-era Chicago: he is black, and he is poor. He has been trapped his whole life by the white society, and he has a burning, eternal hate for them. White people made him live the life he lived. By not letting him become anything but a servant, they led him to a life of crime and hate. For so long, too long, the whites saw every black the same. They were all bad and dirty and awful people. In turn, Bigger saw all whites as being bad. To him, every white man is out to hurt him. He returns the racist attitude presented to him by all of the white folk. He does not know how else to act. He only does what he knows how to do. He follows the white man’s example. Bigger proves, though, that he can change. He is willing to learn and to change. He proves that he can be taught, that he is not just an ignorant Negro. Jan Erlone and Boris Max helped him to see this. They encouraged Bigger to fight and to believe in himself as a human. Bigger begins to see that “whiteness” is really individual people, and racial conflicts aren’t simply “whiteness” vs. “blackness.” He gives Max more of a chance than a whole society gave him. Everyone automatically assumed that Bigger raped and murdered Mary; their minds never were really open to anything else. Bigger opened his mind. He gave white folk a chance. Max treated him like a man, a person, and Bigger was grateful for that and he let Max know that by talking to him. If only the white folk could have realized that they needed to give him a chance. Had they treated him like a human being then maybe he would have told them all they wanted to know. Bigger let Max see that the mind of a killer isn’t always the bad one. The mind of the society that wouldn’t give him the chance he gave them was the real killer.

4. (B) Bigger’s most important virtue is his intelligence. He does not let the white folk know how smart he really is. He disguises his intelligence with short, simple answers such as “Yessuh,” or “Naw.” He lives in a world within himself. He struggles with himself and his inner feelings every single day but lets nobody know. The authorities think he is a “dumb Negro” and that he is not capable of committing such a horrible crime all by himself. “How could a black man think of such a complex crime?” is the question burning on all of their minds. Bigger doesn’t let anyone inside of him; he keeps everyone at arms length so they can’t know how intelligent he really is. If they cannot know how intelligent he is, then they cannot know how fearful he is of them, how much anger he has towards them, or the reasons for his killing either. Bigger’s intelligence leads him to believe that he is the only one in the entire world that is not blind. He understands himself, so he thinks he understands everything. He realizes though, that he IS blind. He realizes that in order for people to understand him and for him to feel in control of his life he must admit his guilt. But if he blames racism entirely for his crimes, then he would be admitting that racism controlled him totally right from the start. Bigger is smart enough to be open minded and let in white people, and yet still be close minded and lock everyone, except Max, out of his mind and heart.

3. (D) The main conflict in Native Son by Richard Wright is character vs. society. He resents, hates, and fears the whites who make the confines of his life so narrow.