Native Son

Richard Wright's Native Son was in the category of books that I like more at the end than at any point in the middle (Crime and Punishment is another).

Native Son traces Bigger Thomas's murder of Mary Dalton, the daughter of his new employer, and his girlfriend, Bessie. Richard Wright examines race relations as Bigger Thomas (who is black) is apprehended and tried for his crime. Honestly, I find it to be very jarring to get inside the head of a murderer, especially when it's done well. I guess it must have been done well in this case. We see Bigger shove dead Mary Dalton in the furnace to get rid of her, for instance.

At two levels the novel was frustrating to me: a) The fact that Bigger Thomas' murder of Mary Dalton was an accident is never dealt with sufficiently. Not that this would necessarily have been an effective defense, but Bigger doesn't convey it to Max (his lawyer), and Max doesn't convey it to the jury. This accident aspect changes everything for me. b) At first, it seems like the novel is going to be something like The Stranger--a sort of existential novel in which the character discovers important truths about himself and the world by committing a murder. And it sort of is. On the other hand, Wright does not defend the murder itself, but rather gives a richer understanding of the background and the context of the murder (although it isn't clear to me from the end that Bigger Thomas agrees with Wright).

What Wright does best is both communicate the fear of the white people that resulted in their attempt to oppress black people, and communicate the way in which Bigger's violence was an attempt to escape that very oppression (without, as I said before, justifying murder itself). It was an attempt to create and accomplish something. Given the state of society at that time, Wright shows how it may have been one of the only ways for Bigger to express that aspect of himself. Wright points to the need to re-order society.

The Communists in the book come out as wonderful people: Jan, Mary's boyfriend on whom Bigger tries to blame her murder, forgives him and finds a lawyer to defend Bigger. Jan sees a commonality in the oppression of the Communists and the black people. On the other hand, the novel shows how it is precisely the Communists' attempt to eliminate injustice at the individual level that led to Bigger's crime. Here again, Wright points to the need for a restructuring of society as a whole--individual attempts to mitigate injustice may be counterproductive.

Mr. Dalton, Mary's father, is an example of the ineffectiveness of individual attempts to mitigate injustice: Mr. Dalton is a rich business owner (and renowned philanthropist) who both donates money to poor black people and is a force in their oppression (by, for instance, with other landowners, charging more for apartments for black people than for white people).


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