Symbolism In Native Son Essay Research Paper

Symbolism In Native Son Essay, Research Paper

The novel Native Son was published by Richard Wright

in 1940. The book represents the tragedy of Bigger Thomas,

a black boy raised in the Chicago slums during the great

depression. Wright uses symbolism extensively in the novel.

There is even symbolic meaning behind the titles of each of

the three parts of the novel. It is symbolism that allows

Wright to explain the entire novel in the first few pages.

Even though symbols are widely used in the novel, there are

only three that are very important. The three most

important symbols are the black rat, blindness, and the

kitchenette.

One of the major symbols in Native Son is the black

rat in the first chapter of the novel. The rat symbolizes

the fate, feelings, and actions of the main character. The

parallels between the rat and Bigger Thomas are

unmistakable. The black rat is seen as an invader and is

killed. The same eventually happens to Bigger later in the

novel (Lee 50).

Robert Lee argues that the black rat is symbolic of

several things. According to Lee, one symbolic function of

the black rat is that it sets up a motif that resonates

throughout the novel. The rat points forward to the figure

Bigger himself will become, the part-real, part-fantasy

denizen of a grotesque counter Darwinian world in which

human life-his own, Mary.s, Bessie.s-seems to evolve

backward into rodent predation and death. Whether in

pursuit or the pursued, Bigger becomes damned either way,

just as he victimizes others while doubling as both his own

and society.s victim. These inner meanings of the novel

also lie behind Wright.s three-part partition of fear,

flight, and fate (Lee 51).

Secondly, the rat is symbolic of the terrified

helplessness of the Thomas family and Bigger.s response to

it: .The rat.s belly pulsed with fear. Bigger advanced a

step and the rat emitted a long thin song of defiance..

Bigger crushes the rat utterly and, in triumphant bravado,

flaunts the bloody corpse in his sister.s face, enjoying

her terror. Lee recognizes the significance of this

episode of fear, rage, and violent action. He states that

the entire novel is an extension, with the roles inverted

of this chilling metaphor (Lee 58).

Finally, the killing of the rat is symbolic of

Bigger.s attempt to assert himself as someone important.

Lee argues that Bigger actually hated his family. He hated

them because he knew that they were suffering and that he

was powerless to help or protect them. The killing of the

rat represents, perhaps, Bigger.s one chance to protect his

mother and younger siblings as the patriarch of the Thomas

family (Lee 68).

Edward Margolies views blindness, which affects

everyone throughout the novel, as the most important

symbol. He believes that Wright uses blindness to

illustrate the relationship between the races. His

symbolic use of blindness illustrates how blind whites are

to the humanity and existence of black people. Whites

prefer to think of blacks in easily stereotypical images-in

images of brute beast, or happy minstrel. They are

incapable of viewing blacks as having sensitivity and

intelligence. Even well meaning people like the Daltons

are blind to the suffering of blacks. The Daltons lavish

millions of dollars on black colleges and welfare

organizations-while at the same time they continue to

support a rigid caste system that is responsible for black

degradation in the first place (Margolies 45).

To support his belief, Margolies illustrates how this

symbolic blindness affects all of the characters. Bigger

is blind to the realities of black life as well as to the

humanity of whites. Bigger vaguely discerns the white

enemy as white tides, icy white walls, and looming white

mountains. He is therefore unable to accept Jan.s offer of

friendship, because he blindly regards all whites as

symbols of oppression. Mary, Jan, and Max are just as

blind to the humanity of blacks as the others-even though

they presumably want to enlist blacks as equals in their

cause. For Mary and Jan, Bigger is an abstraction- a

symbol of exploitation rather than someone whose feelings

they have ever tried to understand. Mrs. Dalton.s

blindness is symbolic of the blindness of the white liberal

philanthropic community (Margolies 50).

Margolies believes that in all cases but Mrs. Daltons,

blindness is psychosomatic. Like others, however, Mrs.

Dalton has a spiritual handicap as well as a physical one.

She and her husband, as Max points out, cannot see the

malevolent condition, which they serve and perpetuate.

Similarly, Mary and Jan cannot see the emptiness of their

charity. At different points in the nove

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