Native Son is a powerful novel written by Richard Wright, one of America’s most influential black authors. First published in 1940, the book was an instant success, it sold over 215,000 copies in just three weeks.
Set in Chicago during the 1930s, a time of deep racial injustice and economic hardship (the Great Depression), the novel follows the tragic life of Bigger Thomas, a young black man caught in a society that leaves him with few choices and no real future.
Native Son is a work of social criticism. Wright uses Bigger’s story to expose the deep inequalities faced by black Americans. The novel forces its readers to confront harsh truths about racism, poverty, and the fear that shapes people’s lives. It challenges them to see how racism and social injustice can trap and destroy lives.
Unlike Wright’s earlier stories, which sometimes softened the reality of black suffering, Native Son is intentionally raw and unsettling.
Wright uses two major literary styles in the novel: naturalism and existentialism.
- Naturalism is the idea that people are shaped by their environment. Bigger, the “native son,” is a product of the harsh world around him. He doesn’t fully understand the forces that control his life, and that confusion leads to terrible choices.
- Existentialism focuses on life’s meaning or the lack of it. Bigger feels lost and meaningless throughout the novel. But by the end, he begins to accept responsibility for his actions and he finally acknowledges who he is.
Native Son is not an easy book to read but that’s the point. Wright’s honest, unflinching portrayal of Bigger Thomas has made this novel a milestone in African-American literature and a crucial part of America’s literary history.
Plot Summary of Native Son
Native Son tells the gripping story of Bigger Thomas, a young black man living in Chicago, whose life spirals into tragedy.
The novel begins with the harsh ringing of an alarm clock. As his family prepares for the day, their routine is disrupted by a rat in their apartment, which Bigger kills in a frenzy. This violent episode introduces the themes of fear and anger that continue throughout the novel.
Bigger and his friends plan to rob Blum’s store. However, Blum is white, and they have come to see the white people as an overwhelming impregnable sky. This fear of the white people stalls the execution of their robbery plan. Besides, they are more accustomed to targeting fellow black people. Overcome by fear, Bigger fights with Gus, a member of the gang, and cancels the robbery.
Soon after, Bigger is hired as a chauffeur by the wealthy white Dalton family. His first task is to drive Mary Dalton to her university. Instead, Mary asks to visit her boyfriend, Jan. The three go to Ernie’s Kitchen Shack on Chicago’s South Side and drink heavily. Mary becomes so drunk that Bigger has to carry her to her bedroom.
While Bigger is putting Mary to bed, Mary’s blind mother enters the room. Afraid of being caught, Bigger smothers Mary with a pillow. To hide the crime, he burns her body in the Daltons’ furnace, cutting off her head to make it fit.
As a search for Mary begins, Bigger tries to shift suspicion onto Jan and even involves his girlfriend, Bessie. When he confesses everything to Bessie, he realises she could expose him. He rapes her and kills her with a brick while she sleeps. He then flees across the South Side, hiding in abandoned buildings, until he is captured on top of a water tank and taken to jail.
The final part of the novel focuses on Bigger’s inquest and trial at Cook County Jail. During the inquest, he faints and is returned to his cell. There, he reads sensational newspaper stories that describe him using racist stereotypes. He receives a visit from Reverend Hammond, who gives him a wooden cross, and from others who have shaped his life. At the inquest, Bigger’s lawyer, Max, a member of the Communist Party, defends him.
Evidence presented includes Mary’s burned bones and Bigger’s written confession. The deputy coroner questions Mrs. Dalton and Jan, while Max challenges Mr. Dalton. Max argues that Mr. Dalton’s ownership of the filthy, cramped apartment where Bigger’s family lives contributes to the tragedy. Bessie’s battered body is brought in, and the jury concludes that Bigger raped and killed Mary. He is returned to jail to await trial.
Before being taken back to Cook County Jail, Bigger is forced to reenact the crime in Mary’s room but refuses, stating he did not rape her. On the way back, he sees a burning Ku Klux Klan cross. Back in his cell, he discards Reverend Hammond’s cross. Max visits again, and Bigger opens up about his hopeless life.
At the trial, Max argues that society created the conditions that led to Bigger’s actions. But Max’s rhetoric is not enough to save Bigger.
Bigger is found guilty and sentenced to death by electric chair. His final appeal to the governor is denied.
Structurally, Native Son is sectioned into three parts. The first is titled “Fear”, themed after Bigger’s fear of the whites and his withered dreams that all end in the murder of Mary Dalton; the second is titled “Flight”, reflective of his run from the law; and the third part is titled “Fate”, which is definitive of his trial in law court and before court of public opinion.
Characters in Native Son
The characters in Native Son include Bigger Thomas, Mrs. Thomas, Buddy, Vera, Bessie, and several others.
Bigger Thomas
Bigger is a twenty-year-old black man from the South Side of Chicago, trapped by poverty, racism, and a deep sense of fear and anger. He feels powerless in a white-dominated world and lashes out violently as a result.
Although he commits terrible crimes, the novel shows him as a product of a society that denies him dignity, opportunity, and identity.
Mrs. Thomas
Mrs. Thomas is Bigger’s mother. She is a religious woman who wants her son to be responsible and stay out of trouble.
She copes with poverty and racism through faith, but Bigger sees her as blindly accepting the suffering forced on them.
Her deep concern for her children contrasts with her limited ability to protect them.
Buddy Thomas
Buddy is Bigger’s younger brother. He looks up to Bigger and tries to follow rules to stay safe in a world stacked against black people.
He represents the next generation of black youth already shaped by fear and social limitations.
Vera Thomas
Vera is Bigger’s sister. She is a quiet, obedient girl who keeps to safe, approved activities like taking sewing lessons.
Like her mother, she avoids confrontation and tries to survive by following society’s expectations.
Bessie Mears
Bessie is Bigger’s girlfriend. She is an alcoholic who has given up on finding joy or escape from her harsh reality. Her relationship with Bigger is based on alcohol and survival, not love.
Though she is powerless and fearful, she becomes a tragic victim when Bigger kills her to silence her.
Mr. Dalton
Mr. Dalton is Bigger’s landlord and employer. He sees himself as a generous man who donates to black schools, but he profits from renting poor, rat-infested housing to black tenants like the Thomases. His charity covers up his deeper role in maintaining racial inequality.
Mrs. Dalton
Mrs. Dalton is Mr. Dalton’s blind wife. She is physically blind and symbolically blind to Bigger’s humanity. She treats him like a cause rather than a person and speaks about him as if he can’t understand. Her “good intentions” are misguided and rooted in condescension.
Mary Dalton
Mary is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Dalton. She is a rich, liberal young woman who tries to be friendly to Bigger. But her friendliness crosses social boundaries that put him in danger. Her casual disregard for the consequences of her actions plays a role in her own tragic end.
Jan Erlone
Jan is Mary’s boyfriend. He is a white communist who tries to treat Bigger as an equal, but his friendliness makes Bigger uncomfortable.
Jan’s attempt at racial equality, though well-meaning, ignores the fear and pressure black people live under. Still, he later shows maturity by trying to help Bigger during his trial.
Boris Max
Max is Bigger’s communist lawyer. He defends Bigger in court where he argues that society, not just Bigger, is responsible for the crime. He is passionate and tries to understand Bigger’s pain.
Though his defense does not stop the execution, he earns Bigger’s trust by seeing him as a human being shaped by injustice.
Themes in Native Son
The themes in Native Son by Richard Wright include fear, racial oppression, violence, illusion of white benevolence, fate, blindness and many others.
Theme of Fear
Fear is the most powerful force shaping Bigger Thomas’s life. From the very beginning of the novel, we see how fear controls his thoughts, actions, and even his sense of identity.
Living as a poor black man in 1930s Chicago, Bigger constantly feels threatened by the white world around him. He knows that one wrong move could ruin his life or get him killed.
For example, when Bigger accidentally kills Mary Dalton, it is not out of anger or hatred but pure panic. He is terrified of being seen in a white woman’s bedroom by her blind mother. He is afraid that the society would have accused him of raping a drunk Mary Dalton. The mere accusation is death sentence for a black man. His fear overwhelms his sense of reason.
Later, he kills Bessie, his girlfriend, not because he wants to, but because he is afraid she might tell the police. Fear pushes him deeper into violence.
Wright uses fear to show how oppressive systems psychologically trap black individuals. Bigger is not born violent. His fear is a reaction to a racist society that constantly reminds him of his inferiority.
Besides, the theme of fear is also evident in the cancelled plan to rob Blum. Bigger and his gang could not proceed with their seemingly foolproof plan because of their fear of the white men and the looming white system they’ve enabled.
Theme of Racial Oppression
Native Son paints a clear picture of how deeply racism is woven into every part of Bigger’s world. Bigger lives in a segregated neighbourhood, has limited education, can’t dream beyond low-paying jobs, and is judged immediately by the colour of his skin. His entire life is shaped by a society that tells him he is less than human.
Mr. Dalton, who claims to be generous because he donates money to black schools, still overcharges black families for rent.
The court, the media, and even the police don’t care about Bigger’s story. They just want a quick conviction. The system is not designed to give Bigger a fair chance.
Bigger believes from early on that he is meant to fail or end up in jail. This belief that he has no future comes the constant pressure of a racist world that limits his choices.
Racial oppression in Native Son is about a whole system working to keep people like Bigger at the bottom.
Theme of Violence
Bigger’s violent actions are disturbing, but Wright wants readers to ask why he becomes violent. The answer lies in how society has dehumanised him. Without doubt, Bigger’s violence is a response to dehumanisation.
From birth, Bigger is treated like he doesn’t matter. He is poor, uneducated, and constantly made to feel ashamed of his blackness. Eventually, he feels so trapped and powerless that violence becomes the only way he can express himself or take control.
When Bigger kills Mary, he feels for the first time like he is in charge. In his mind, he becomes someone important, not a worthless black boy, but a man who forced the white world to pay attention. This is a tragic and twisted sense of empowerment, but it shows how desperate he is to escape the feeling of invisibility.
Later, when he kills Bessie, he does with cold logic. He believes that to survive, he must destroy anything that could stop him. While the reader may not agree with his choices, Wright uses this violence to raise a serious question: What happens when a person is pushed so far that they no longer feel human?
There is a little analogy from the rat incident in the opening scene of the novel. When the rat is chased to wall, it turns back to leap at its assailant before it is killed with a skillet. This scenario mirrors Bigger’s social condition.
Wright shows that when people are constantly devalued, they may eventually turn to destruction as the only way to be seen. Bigger’s killing of Mary is unintended, but his other actions afterwards are not accidental: from the butchering of Mary’s body to fit in the furnace to conceal his crime; the framing of Jan Erlone for murder; the kidnap ransom note; the murder of Bessie Mears; to the shoot-out between him and the combined forces of police and vigilante. They show his inclination to respond to dehumanisation with violence.
The Illusion of White Benevolence
In Native Son, Richard Wright explores how the kindness shown by some white characters is often shallow or self-serving.
Mr. Dalton, for example, thinks of himself as a good man because he donates money to black schools and gives Bigger a job. However, he still overcharges black families rent and does nothing to challenge the racist system that keeps them poor. His “benevolence” doesn’t change Bigger’s reality. It only makes Mr. Dalton feel better about himself.
Similarly, Mary Dalton and her boyfriend Jan try to be friendly to Bigger by treating him “like an equal.” But their attempts are awkward and insensitive. Mary drags Bigger into her personal life without considering how uncomfortable and unsafe that makes him feel. Her kindness is more about showing off her liberal values than truly understanding Bigger.
Wright uses these examples to show that so-called “good” white people still benefit from and often help maintain the racist system. Their help is often more illusion than action.
Theme of Fate
From the beginning, Bigger believes he is doomed. He feels that no matter what he does, his life will end badly. This sense of fate is linked to his race, his poverty, and the limitations society places on him. He even says that if he ever let himself fully understand his life, he would have to kill someone or himself.
Wright presents Bigger as a product of his environment. The cramped apartment, the rat in the opening scene, the fear of white authority—all of these suggest that Bigger is trapped in a system he did not create.
His choices are few, and none of them lead to a good future. His eventual arrest feels inevitable because his society leaves him no other way to define himself or feel powerful.
Theme of Blindness
Blindness appears both literally and symbolically in the novel. Mrs. Dalton is physically blind, but Wright uses this to represent something deeper: the moral and emotional blindness of white society. She cannot see what’s really happening in her own home or in Bigger’s life. She thinks she is doing good by helping black people, but she is blind to their real struggles.
Bigger himself also struggles with a kind of blindness. He doesn’t fully understand his feelings, and often acts before he thinks. He is blind to other ways of living, believing violence is the only path to power. In this way, all the characters are blind in some way.
Theme of Trust
Trust is a complex issue in Native Son. Bigger does not trust anyone: white or black. He hides his feelings, avoids forming real connections, and keeps people at a distance.
His life has taught him that trust is dangerous, especially with white people. That’s why he panics when Mary treats him like a friend. It confuses and terrifies him.
However, after he is arrested, something changes. Jan, who should hate Bigger for killing Mary and framing him for her disappearance, offers to help.
Later, Max, a white communist lawyer, defends Bigger and listens to him like no one else has before. For the first time, Bigger begins to trust someone cautiously and painfully. This shift is important. It suggests that trust, though rare and difficult, might be a small step towards understanding.
But Wright doesn’t make it simple. The trust between Bigger and Max is fragile, and doesn’t undo the system of racism that surrounds them.
Theme of Alienation
Bigger lives in a world that constantly tells him he doesn’t belong. He is alienated from society, from white people, from other black people, and even from his own emotions. He doesn’t feel close to his family. He doesn’t really love Bessie. He doesn’t understand Jan and Mary. He is completely alone.
This sense of isolation grows after he commits the murders. Though violence gives him a brief sense of identity, it also deepens his separation from everyone around him.
In jail, he starts to reflect on his life, but still struggles to connect with others. Even when Max tries to understand him, Bigger feels misunderstood.
Alienation in Native Son is mostly the result of systemic racism, poverty, and fear.
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