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It's 1940's America. African Americans are seated in the backseat of city buses, toileting in designated 'For Coloreds Only' public restrooms; banned from voting, segregated geographically, psychologically, and banned from most tertiary universities. A national issue, segregation at the primary and secondary levels, white school boards grossly underfunded black-only schools, failing to provide adequate facilities, textbooks and instructional materials, or qualified teachers. And yet, in 1940, Richard Wright became the first African American to publish a novel to be featured in the Main Selection in the Book of the Month Club. A colossal achievement in retrospect, Native Son dared to go where no man ventured before him, and created the genre of inner city naturalism for African Americans.
Native Son reads like a poetic psychological thriller, a political statement, and an intensely personal, page to page unraveling of the black American pre-civil rights mindset that is both terrifying and sympathetic. Bigger Thomas, the central character in the story, lives the self depreciating life of a black man in Chicago's ghettos until he gets his ticket out of enslavement to neoslavery: hardly an aspiration, and yet a vied one amongst many of the impoverished black men at the time. Stricken with muted fear, he enters the home of his new employer: a wealthy, white self congratulating philanthropist who prides himself on his generosity to Chicago's urban myth of black freedom. Mr Dalton is the owner of the overpriced, rat infested one room apartments on the 'other' side of town -- Bigger Thomas's side of town -- designated to house the second generation of escaped slaves who migrated north to Chicago. The year is 1937.
The character of Bigger Thomas becomes unwittingly entangled in the underground Communist movement, as a chauffeur to the Boss's rebellious, activist daughter, Miss Dalton, who renders an unconditional acceptance to Bigger as a symbolic gesture of social equality. Bigger is as suspicious and distrustful as a suffering post traumatic syndrome victim; and postures like a wounded, severely abused three legged dog might receive a stranger's hand. He is reluctant, avoids eye contact, and stutters his words. But Miss Dalton presses on: invites him for a cocktail with her Communist boyfriend, Jan, who is equally oblivious to Bigger's resentments and insecurities. Bigger answers their open ended questions with only "yes sum's" and "no sir's."
Miss Dalton drinks beer and smokes cigarettes, as her piercing blue eyes shift from Bigger, back to Jan, and back again to Bigger. They give him a handful of pamphlets in support of the ' Reds', but he refuses. Instead he is aloof, restless in his chair, and the tension mounts as his silence stands stubbornly, filled with confusion and ambivalence.
The story climaxes with the accidental murder of the intoxicated Miss Dalton, smothered by a pillow to silence her from her approaching blind mother investigating Ms Dalton's whereabouts in her bedroom where Bigger carried her from the car at the end of the evening. Mrs Dalton feels for her body with a sixth sense, and exits the darkened room with peace of mind.
From that moment on, Bigger plunges deeper and deeper into depravity as he attempts to hide the body in a gruesome scene, dismembering the body and dispensing it in the families furnace. He attempts to cover up her disappearance as a kidnapping with a badly misspelled letter left at the doorstep a few days after the alleged 'disappearance'. As suspicions point to Bigger, he flees, and his murderous tendencies are compounded. He escapes with his girlfriend, Bessie, only to brutally murder her with extreme prejudice as she threatens to expose him to the chasing police.
His flight is followed throughout the city in abandoned warehouses as the enraged white population begins a witch hunt for the negro killer. He is captured, and the mobs outside the courthouse scream and demand his execution by hanging. The twist in the story rests upon the defending communist party, who excuse his brutal crimes as poetic justice for all of the atrocities that the African American must endure in a society of prejudice and segregation. Yet, Bigger is shockingly apathetic to his fate. He is uncooperative to his own defense, and instead wishes to die, quickly and without apology.
Overall, the story may only be compared to the OJ Simpson supporting culture, who feels that revenge against the 'white man' is justifiable, regardless of the brutality of the crime. Centuries of building resentment, abolished through a symbolic 'eye for an eye'. Native Son'is a story of conflicting messages. And it is remarkably ahead of its time in its themes. It is a story to be read, and reread, and its profoundness rests in its unanswered questions. Why would Richard Wright create a character such as Bigger Thomas to represent the black community in such a negative light? Was Richard Wright a communist? What exactly does communism have to do with the case? Is this a story about racial inequality or blind sighted justice or governmental structure or all of the above? Truly, a fascinating and complex story.
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