Laura Mohmand 1

Laura Mohmand

Mr. Janosch

English

March

Title

The racism towards african american people influenced on Bigger’s superego and psychoanalytic

theory of the book.

Bigger makes his living through crime. He is a part of the gang. From day to day he lives being

feared of white people, feared of life itself, and shamed at the way his family lives:

“ He shut their voices out of his mind. He hated his family because he knew that they were

suffering and that he was powerless to help them. He knew that the moment he allowed himself

to feel to its fullness how they lived, the shame and misery of their lives, he would be swept out

of himself with fear and despair. So he held toward them an attitude of iron reserve; he lived

with them, but behind a wall, a curtain. And toward himself he was even more exacting. He

knew that the moment he allowed what his life meant to enter fully into his consciousness, he

would either kill himself or someone else. So he denied himself and acted tough. (1.122-129)”

In the quote above we can see how Bigger fights his superego in himself and towards his family.

He hates his family because there’s nothing he can do to help them. He acts thought and careless

to not to show what he really feels : hurt and fear.

Bigger and the gang make a plan to rob a store owned by a white man named Mr. Blum. The

gang has committed other robberies, but never one against a white man, partly because Bigger

knows that white policemen are largely unconcerned with black-against-black crimes. Robbing a

white man would mean entering new territory, “a symbolic challenge” to white rule. Inside,
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Bigger feels the fear of the plan and he doesn’t want to do it. He picks a fight with one of his

friends and he’s glad he got away from the robbery.

The key point of book one is the death of Mary and the main question is did Bigger really mean

to do it ?

The opening of Book Two inaugurates a new phase of Native Son that corresponds with a turn in

the novel’s events. Mary’s death represents a key turning point in the plot, both in terms of the

narrative and in terms of Bigger’s development as a character.

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