Somewhat Disorganized Thoughts on The Driving Force of Native Son

As any young, poor, black man living in the 1940s, Bigger has few options in life.  Racism is unhidden and rampant in Chicago, however somehow Bigger Thomas' personality emerges in these conditions. is ambitious and proud, disgusted by his surroundings.  As I've said before, Bigger is like an idealogue without an ideal.  He wants desperately to be something great and powerful, but has no idea where to begin.  His options were closed so early in his life that he never even had the luxury to fantasize.  Like most other men in his position, Bigger is terrified and submissive around whites, and understandably so.  However his greatest fear is to be a failure, a nobody.  

This combination of his immense pride and fear causes him to become the angry and isolated character he is.  Instead of being closer to his community as a result of that fear, he lashes out at them, as evidenced by his irrational assaulting of Gus.  Bigger does not wish to associate himself with what he sees as weak failures, or perhaps associate with anyone early on in the novel.  This only drives him deeper and deeper into his ocean of fear and isolation.  Although Wright is writing from a third person perspective, it seems first person in nature.  The reader is so firmly attached to Bigger in all his actions and thoughts that to us it seems he is the only character.  Bessie is clearly just a tool to Bigger; something that exists for his immediate gratification, and when she is no further use to him, he does away with her.  When we encounter the naive but well-meaning Mary, a character with ideals that many of us share such as social equality, the reader can't help but resent her with the same hate that Bigger feels.  Not only is he confused by her seemingly unrestricted social conduct, but she associates Bigger with members of "his community".  To Bigger there is no greater insult.  

It is this isolated, angry, arguable sociopathic character that ultimately takes Mary Dalton's life.  The action was out of immense fear and impulse, and yet Bigger convinces himself that it was murder.  This was perhaps the most shocking and revealing aspect of the novel, the climax.  Not the murder itself, but when Bigger happily takes on his role of the dangerous, cold, and calculating murderer.  At this point Bigger knows somewhere within him that he has no future, and yet he hasn't accomplished his goal yet: to become something.  He does not resent fate, for he was "always killing": always killing in his head those who stood in the way of his success.  He was always prepared to die for his ambition, and to him it was a small price.

In a certain sense I see Native Son as a protest novel.  However it is just as unique in its accomplishment of this as Bigger Thomas.  Whether or not Wright intended for this to be a protest novel, Bigger represents what is in my opinion the most vital and powerful aspect of the human psyche: humanity's pride and ambition.  This is what makes him understandable to the reader, if not sympathetic.  Wright uses racism as a tool to show how society can crush ambition, and therefore, to me Bigger Thomas is a very real character despite his extremities. Wright said that there were many Biggers, more than he could ever convince us of.  I do see Biggers everywhere; people that have yet to find that outlet.  Some have said that Wright was unfair to Bigger Thomas' character.  He was too much a product of his environment, and didn't give any credit to his own individuality.  I see Max as Wright's self-criticism on this topic; Max sees Bigger as a faultless representation of something bigger, but in the final scene of the novel Bigger makes it clear that he wants his actions to be his and his alone: the actions of an individual human.   Wright didn't want to create a mere protest novel, but something that could examine the human soul.