THE WORLD OF BIGGER THOMAS

NOTE: The following was written as an assignment for the American Experience course at The University of Texas at Austin in Spring 1974. The nature of this course is described in the note for another item I wrote for this same course ("The Dream"). I refer readers to that item for this information rather than repeat it here.




Blindness, fear and the oppression of black people by white people are prominent themes contained in Richard Wright's novel NATIVE SON. These particular themes are highlighted in the breakfast scene that occurs on the morning after Bigger Thomas has murdered Mary Dalton. On this occasion, as Bigger sits at the table in his home, he makes a number of perceptive observations concerning other characters in the novel. It is these observations that serve as vehicles for theme revelation.

The first item to be revealed is that of blindness, and Mrs. Dalton is the pivotal figure around whom this them is centered. Her physical blindness has been referred to in the novel several times previously, but it is at this point that Wright makes it apparent that things would be no different even if she had eyes that could see. For her real failing is not physical, but intellectual, blindness. She is unable to perceive the world in any way that differs from her preconceived notions of the way things should be. Thus, on the night of Mary's murder, when Mrs. Dalton went to Mary's room, she could not have suspected that Bigger was in that room, because "He was black and would not have figured in her thoughts on such an occasion." (1) But blindness is not limited to Mrs. Dalton. For in this same scene, Bigger perceives Jan and Mr. Dalton as being blind, and Mary as having been blind. Many references are made throughout the novel to people being blind, and this is perhaps best exemplified in the final scene of the novel, when Bigger becomes aware that even Max is blind. Mrs. Dalton's physical blindness actually serves as a symbol for what Bigger perceives as the intellectual blindness of the white race.

As Bigger continues to sit at the table, he shifts his thoughts to the members of his own family, watching their physical actions an seeing the history of his race written in those actions. His brother Buddy, he discovered, was as blind as Jan and Mr. Dalton. Buddy's life consisted of nothing more than meaningless motions and empty dreams. Buddy's big wish is to have a job like Bigger's. Such are the ambitions of black men in a white man's world. And Buddy is not just himself, but Gus and G.H. and Jack, all blind. Intellectual blindness is not solely the possession of the white race.

Then Bigger's attention focused on his mother, as he noticed her defeated look and her slow, shuffling movement. "There was in her heart, it seemed, a heavy and delicately balanced burden whose weight she did not want to assume by disturbing it one whit." (p. 103). That burden was the burden of white oppression. Although such an interpretation might not be possible if this scene is considered without relation to any other, no other reading is possible when this scene is considered in the context of the entire novel. This view is strongly supported by the following passage:

To Bigger and his kind white people
were not really people; they were a
sort of great natural force, like a
stormy sky looming overhead or like
a deep swirling river stretching
suddenly at one's feet in the dark.
As long as he and his black folks
did not go beyond certain limits,
there was no need to fear that white
force. But whether they feared it
or not, each and every day of their
lives they lived with it;..." (p. 109)

Finally, Bigger turns to his sister Vera, and sees in her the fear that is the black person's heritage in a white world. He observes "she seemed to be shrinking from life with every gesture she made.. The very manner in which she sat showed a fear so deep as to be an organic part of her;..." (p. 104). He knew that fear; whether she realized it or not, it was the fear of the white man. That was the fear that had prompted him to assault Gus rather than attempt to rob a white man's store; that was the fear that had led him to kill Mary rather than be caught alive with her in her bedroom; that was the fear that had led him to burn Mary's body rather than admit what had happened and face the white man's justice. He knew that what he saw in his sister was an organic part of his race, and he knew that as a result of that fear his brothers and sisters would continue to live by responding to the demands of the white world, unable to create a world in which their own actions had any meaning.

Wright goes to great lengths to create a literal white world in his novel, as evidenced by such items as his reference to Mrs. Dalton as "the white blur" (p.85), the significant role of the white cat, and such descriptions as "a white-topped table" (p. 55) and "the white walls of the kitchen." (p. 55). Snow, however, is the most significant element used by Wright in the creation of this white world. This is true for two reasons. First, a world covered with snow is literally a white world, and this is the background against which Bigger's flight takes place, so that he really has no way of escape from that white world that is pursuing him. Second, there are innumerable references in the novel to snow-covered objects, such as the Dalton's automobile "all covered with a soft crust of snow" (p. 110) and "the snow-covered sidewalks" (p. 110), and statements to the effect that snow is falling or appears to be about to fall. For the most part, these references have no readily apparent significance, but they are found spread throughout the second book of the novel. And in fact, these descriptions and statements provide a very subtle means by which to burn an image of whiteness into one's consciousness. The scene discussed in the paragraphs above opens with the sentence, "He sat at the table watching the snow fall past the window..." (p. 102). By itself, this sentence would be of little significance, but it is most important as an element in the creation of Wright's white world.

It is this world in which Bigger Thomas is seeking the answer to a riddle. Wright describes him as "...a man who had been long confronted and tantalized by a riddle whose answer seemed always just on the verge of escaping him, but prodding him irresistibly on to seek its solution." (p. 20). The question to which Bigger Thomas is seeking the answer, though he dare not admit it, is "Who is Bigger Thomas?" Wright uses the technique throughout the novel of forcing Bigger into contact with others who force him to see something of himself in them. This process begins with Gus, or perhaps even the rat, and ends with Max. And in the breakfast scene discussed above, as Bigger sits at the table making observations concerning the members of his family, he is actually discovering a little more of himself, moving ever closer to the answer to the question, "Who is Bigger Thomas?" which might more accurately read, "What does it mean to be black in white America?" Wright argues in his prologue that Bigger Thomas can be white, and it may be true that some white people are forced by oppression to respond to their environment in meaningless, automatic motions. But the experiences of the Bigger Thomas of the novel are such an organic part of the heritage of blackness that no white person could define himself as this Bigger Thomas.

(1) Richard Wright, NATIVE SON (New York: Harper and Row, 1940), p. 102. Hereafter page numbers are given and refer to this edition when Wright is quoted.