Native Son, A Critical Review :: essays research papers

bigger, Crime, and parliamentary lawIn the heated trial that determines whether larger Thomas will rest or die, his supportive defense attorney exclaims, You cannot kill this worldly concern, your Honor, for we have do it plain that we do not recognize that he lives Living in the Chicago slums as a deplorable, uneducated young black man whose only confidence can come from acts of violence, Bigger Thomas of Richard Wrights novel Native Son is destined to meet a poor fate. Anger and hopelessness are a daily reality for him as he realizes that his life has no real meaning. When he unintentionally murders a young, rich, white woman, however, his actions begin to have meaning as he accepts the curse as his own, even while he lies to the authorities. Bigger is, of course, taken squander by a society who takes offense at the remarks of his supporters and seeks to justify itself. Bigger himself is doomed, only if his emotions, his actions, and his motivations all help to give the reader a windowpane into the mind of a criminal and a repressed inner metropolis African American.Fear, flight, fate. These are the three simple and meaningful words chosen by Wright to mark Biggers sad existence. Growing up angry at the white world, he is forced into working as a chauffeur for a rich white family, the Daltons, to support his fight family. He is frightened and angered by the attempts of Mary Dalton and her Communist mate Jan to be friendly to him and interprets their actions as condescending. As he tries to stifle a drunken Mary to avoid detection after carrying her upstairs, he accidentally kills her. In a time of panic, he burns the body in the furnace and concocts an elaborate lie imputing the Communist Party. He lies, dodges questions, and even tries to demand ransom, but this can only last for so long before Bigger is named as chief suspect. He brings with him in flight his girlfriend Bessie and later kills her, as she cannot continue with him nor return hom e. After being caught and brought to trial he is supported by attorney Boris Max who defends him intensely with his own suavity and conviction. Bigger discovers that the man, though white, feels genuinely for him, but in the end, as determined by fate, he is sentenced to death and is granted no clemency by a society refusing to take any responsibility for a share for whom it has failed to care.