Native Son by Richard Wright is a powerful novel about the racial disparities in urban culture in early 20th century America. This novel depicts a young man who lives in inner-city Chicago and runs into deep trouble while trying to do the right thing. The opening scene of the first book begins with a ringing alarm clock and proceeds to foreshadow the book with alarming subtlety and depth. The alarm itself wakes the reader up to the idea that the book will be fast-paced and the first scene will make the reader dive right in.
The first sign of foreshadowing is Bigger and Buddy turning their heads so that Vera and Ma can dress. It is a sign of dignity, a feeling that many characters strive to acquire in the rest of the book. The desire for dignity is what motivates Bigger to run from the police. He doesn't want to get caught right away by the police, so he flees, both shredding his dignity for the future and preserving it in the short term. The other important factor that dignity plays in the novel is the separation between the races. Bigger seems to feel that this separation ruins his dignity by forcing him below the "white world."
The other feeling that motivates Bigger throughout the novel is fear. This is very visible in the first scene when the rat is running around the room and Bigger has to kill it. He then holds up the rat playfully, causing his sister to faint. Bigger is highly motivated by fear. He knows that if he is found in Mary's bedroom he will be severely punished, so for fear of being caught, he silences her with a pillow. Bigger is also motivated by fear when he kills Bessie. He knows he can't take her because she will slow him down, but he also knows that if the police find her, he won't be safe. So, out of fear of being caught again, he kills Bessie.
The foreshadowing in the first scene sets up the rest of the book, but you don't realize it at first. You only realize after you go back and re-read it. The only thing that is easy to identify from the first scene is a sense of inevitable doom.
Thanks for reading!
Maggie
When Bigger (rather cruelly) taunts his little sister with the dead rat, it's not obvious that he's motivated by fear. Like the later scene with Gus, this behavior looks like cruelty or aggression, but the reader can see it as part of an effort to shore up his "front" of toughness. The narrator tells us that he "enjoys" his sister's fear--but part of what's going on here is Bigger "performing" someone who is not (or no longer) afraid of the rat. But the reader knows that the fear was mutual--the rat and Bigger are terrified of each other--and we see in the rat a model of fear making someone (or something) lash out aggressively. Of course, all of this sets the groundwork for the pivotal act of violence motivated by fear in the novel--the one that takes place in Mary's bedroom.
ReplyDeleteI think your point about Bigger being motivated by fear is really good and I can see that throughout the novel, but I don't quite understand your examples about dignity. I'm not really sure how dignity motivates Bigger and Buddy to turn their heads while Vera and Ma dress. I could understand that out of shame they avert their eyes, but I don't understand saying they did it out of dignity. If you're going to turn this in as an essay, maybe expand on that a little bit more, and flesh out why you think it's out of dignity that they did it.
ReplyDeleteI like this post a lot and I thought you made a good point about what was motivating Bigger. I guess similarly to what Mikella said earlier I question the idea of dignity here. I think you're exactly on the right track, but I think dignity is a slightly different idea then what I pictured Bigger being motivated by. There definitely is an idea of shame being associated with the color of his skin, and an idea that the way in which he lives is shameful. But I think Dignity implies that Bigger has some sort of personality and character that he fears losing. To me, dignity means some amount of liking something about your life and having something to lose, a trait we do not see commonly in Bigger.
ReplyDeleteI thought your points on Bigger's motivation were really interesting. Fear and dignity seem as though they would have opposite effects, and yet they are both two of the main forces that drive Bigger's decision making process throughout the book and at some points even combine to precipitate a single action. For example, when Bigger is running from the police he prolongs the chase both because he wants to die a noble death, but also because he is terrified of what will happen when the police do inevitable catch up with him.
ReplyDeleteI thought your analysis of Bigger's character was good, however some of the points you brought up, like holding up the rat, and your analysis of his desire for dignity. I think that the first paragraph would have been much better put together if you had defined whether dignity drives Bigger, or if dignity as a whole was an underlying theme for the book. Additionally, the part about the rat doesn't really tie into the idea of Bigger being motivated by fear with the context you give it, as it seems rather shoehorned in.
ReplyDeleteThis notion of fear which Bigger possesses is exemplified by the fact that he strives to always be aloof and shut off from the realities of the world. Due to the nature of Bigger's avoidance of his social and economic disparities when compared to white people, when he is forced to make a decision or confront such topics, such as the scene where they discuss robbing a white man, or when Jan and Mary act so friendly despite being white, he feels more fear than he would have if he simply faced life in a straightforward way. This budding sense of fear in Bigger, especially during the scene with Jan and Mary, in conjunction with the fact that he tends to block these types of thoughts from his mind, makes him feel all the more scared in the bedroom scene, and thus act more rashly than he might have otherwise.
ReplyDeleteI liked that you pointed out Wright's use of foreshadowing in Native Son. I think that he subtly plants the emotional themes of fear and dignity in the novel, allowing the reader to gradually understand why Bigger reacts to his environment so viscerally. We only realize the extent that he has crafted these ideas into the plot once we reread Book 1, and I think that was definitely intentional on the part of Wright.
ReplyDeleteI agree with many of the comments above in that the idea of foreshadow was cleverly put into the opening chapter of the book. Only until we started analyzing the characters of the story (specifically Bigger) did I realize that the his showing of the rat to Vera was not just to scare her, but to prove to himself and to others that he was tough, or at least he seemed to be on the outside. As we analyzed the character of Bigger further, we saw the recurring theme of "showing his toughness" to others was part of his character, not just a random thing he did at the start of the book. The idea that the aspect of fear, pertaining to Bigger's character, was introduced in the first chapter of the book, is very interesting and illuminating to the reader, and I'm glad you pointed it out so well.
ReplyDeleteYou make very good points that I had not thought about in relation to the dignity the characters desire. The place that I differ in opinion is in relation to the foreshadowing of fear. Although the first section can be interpreted in numerous different ways, I always thought that the rat's fear and aggression was a symbol of Bigger's future actions in the novel.
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