Andra-Elena Agafiței

American Studies
MA, I

The Image of the Negro in Richard Wright’s Native Son and Black Boy

When it comes to defining a nation, a people’s identity, one usually tends to look up for
information in areas of knowledge such as Anthropology, Psychology, Sociology and History
but one does not seem to be aware of the fact that these fields are a little bit “fixed”, “rigid”
and that the data they provide may not offer the best view on the subject under discussion.
Consequently, we consider that Cultural Studies, especially Literature represents one of the
best options in order to achieve it.
Why Literature? The answer comes naturally: because, on the one hand, literary works do
something more than “to tell a story”, they also offer the readers the necessary knowledge
regarding the socio-historical context of the age and they “block in” the atmosphere and the
spirit of the age; on the other hand, the greatest opportunity provided by them is the fact that
we can learn much more about certain realities just by reading between the lines.
One of these realities that caught our eye was the one “exposed” in Richard Wright’s novels,
Native Son and Black Boy. Although different from many points of view – such as plot,
character development and narrative perspective – these two books, “linked” by common
themes – oppression of the racism, individual versus society, alienation – and motifs –
religion, Communism, violence – succeed in shaping the image of the Negro born and raised
in the Jim Crow South, image formed by the blending of two different perspectives.
Let us now begin with Native Son. In his introduction to the novel, Richard Wright states that
the birth of Bigger Thomas goes back to his childhood, where he saw many such people. For
a further better understanding of the character, we shall present some of their features.
When I was a bareheaded, barefoot kid in Jackson, Mississippi, there was a boy who
terrorized me and all of the boys I played with. If we were playing games, he would
saunter up and snatch from us our balls, bats, spinning tops and marbles. We would
stand around pouting, sniffling, trying to keep back our tears, begging for our
playthings. But Bigger would refuse. We never demanded that he give them back; we
were afraid, and Bigger was bad. We had seen him clout boys when he was angry and
we did not want to run that risk. We never recovered our toys unless we flattered him
and made him feel that he was superior to us.1

1
Richard Wright, Native Son, Harper& Row Publishers, New York, 1966, pp. VIII-IX.
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This was Bigger no. 1, whose life was to others a continuous challenge. He was the one that
took his way all the times, right or wrong, and those who dared to contradict him had to fight
with him. Bigger no. 2 was about seventeen years old and tougher than the first one.
The hardness of this Bigger No. 2 was not directed toward me or the other Negroes,
but toward the whites who ruled the South. He bought clothes and food on credit and
would not pay for them. He lived in the dingy shacks of the white landlords and
refused to pay rent. (…) When we asked him why he acted as he did, he would tell us
(as though we were little children in a kindergarten) that the white folks had
everything and he had nothing. Further, he would tell us that we were fools not to get
what we wanted while we were alive in this world.2
Divided into three books, “Fear”, “Flight” and “Fate”, Native Son tells the story of a poor,
uneducated, twenty-year-old black man living in Chicago, in 1930s, who kills his white
landlord’s daughter, Mary Dalton and his girlfriend. In fact, the essence of the book does not
lie in the actual committing of the murders but in what has led Bigger toward this behavior
and his thoughts and emotions during and after the crimes.
In this widely acclaimed naturalistic work, Wright focuses on the South Side slums of
Chicago during the Great Depression, analyzes the character of Bigger Thomas, and
projects him as a representative product of the insidious values of American society.
In the course of the novel, Bigger is controlled by social and psychological forces that
drive him to self-hatred, a rejection of his family and race (…).3
With Bigger, Wright resurrects the white American myth of the depraved, emancipated black
Southerner and “revitalizes this white myth of black character, which subconsciously
influences the behavior of many whites, and attempts to elevate it to the level of the
archetype of the rebel in an irrational, exploitative society”4.
Each of the three books reveals a different image of Bigger and a different stage of his
“evolution”. If the first book introduces us into his world, dominated by fear and presents us
his relationship with the society, the second book is concerned with themes such as freedom
and rebirth. The moment in which he kills Mary Dalton ends, temporarily, his sense of shame
and fear and, “paradoxically, the act of murder becomes an act of creation” 5. It was the first
time in his life that he had done something others could not take from him.

2
Ibidem, p. IX.

3
Bernard Bell, The Afro-American Novel and Its Tradition, University of Massachusetts Press, Amerhest, 1987,
p. 156.

4
Ibidem, p. 159.

5
Ibidem, p. 160.
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 Wright’s portrayal of Bigger thus seeks to move beyond a reincarnation of the white
myth of the Bad Nigger. After killing Mary, Bigger convinces himself that the
circumstances of his fear and hatred militated against accommodation to social
conventions and structures if he is to achieve a meaningful sense of self. By willfully
confronting and accepting the hidden meaning of his life of anxiety and violence, his
repressed fear and hatred of whites for controlling his life, Bigger is reborn6.
As the second book unfolds, Richard Wright presents us a different image of the Negro, not
that one that we have got used to seeing in the movies or in other writings – the stupid,
humble black servant – but an image of a pretty smart character, who only pretends to be
dumb, in order to get away with his plan. Rejecting everything – culture, tradition and values
– Bigger chooses an extreme social behavior.
The last book, the third one, “Fate” is largely psychological and it gets us acquainted with
Bigger’s thoughts – presented as indirect interior monologues – and feelings. In this phase of
his life, only Jan, the Communist, which he tried to blame for Mary’s murder and Max, the
lawyer, are next to him, defending and trying to encourage him. It does not come as a surprise
for us that it is Communists who try to help Bigger, because it is already know the fact that
the Communist Party fought against racism and pleaded for the blacks’ rights.
Bigger is a “native son”, a “product of American culture and the violence and racism that
underlines it”7. He is “a symbol of America’s failure to provide the freedom and security
necessary for all individuals, regardless of race, creed or sex, to fulfill their basic
psychological needs, their potential for growth, while in pursuit of the promise of a better and
fuller life”8.

6
Ibidem

7
www.sparknotes.com

8
Bernard Bell, op. cit., p. 166.
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If Native Son may be regarded as the novel picturing the life of the Bad Nigger living in the
ghetto – with all the risks and rules imposed by the whites – let us now see what Black Boy
has to offer and which kind of Negro it portrays.
Written in 1945, Black Boy “is an autobiographical work in which Wright adapted formative
episodes from his own life into a "coming of age" plot. In the novel, Richard is a boy in the
Jim Crow American South. This was a system of racial segregation practiced in some states
of the U.S., which treated blacks as second-class citizens” 9. In the book, Wright emphasizes
two environmental forces of this system: hunger and language.
Wright paints himself in several different shades throughout the course of Black Boy.
As a young boy, Richard is simply unable to believe the publicly accepted notions that
his blackness, lack of religion, and intellectual curiosity make him inherently flawed.
Rather, we find in Richard a character determined to live according to his own
9
www.enotes.com
4
 principles and willing to live with the consequences. This strong-willed nature,
however, contrasts with Richard’s powerless position in society—the low social status
that comes with being black and poor. Starting off removed from society and his
family, Richard must learn to educate himself. Much of this education stems from his
experiences—in the homes of sharecroppers, as a black in the Jim Crow South, as a
resident of the cramped apartments of Depression-era Chicago. There are clearly
negative aspects to the character Richard develops, as we see him lie, steal, and turn
violent numerous times in the book. In a sense, he is a victim of his poor upbringing
—in both the black and white communities in the South; as a victim, he becomes
contaminated by the oppressive forces working against him. Despite his flaws,
Richard remains intensely concerned with humanity, both in a universal sense and in
the context of his concern for the individual people he meets on his journey.10
If Native Son presents Bigger as a young man, who has already learnt something about the
relationships between whites and blacks and about the rules of the society of those times,
Richard begins his “exploring journey” at a very early age. Both Bigger and Richard are
driven by violence and commit bad things. In the case of Thomas, fear is the one who
“shapes” his destiny but when it comes to Richard, it is hunger which “rules” him: hunger for
food, for knowledge, for everything. Hunger stands by him in almost every important
moment of his life and, it does not come as a surprise that it is it that makes him realize,
maybe for the first time, the differences between “them” and “the others”: “Watching the
white people eat would make my empty stomach churn and I would grow vaguely angry.
Why could I not eat when I was hungry? Why did I always have to wait until others were
through? I could not understand why some people had enough food and others did not” 11.
Although a “negative” sensation, hunger “leads” Richard on his “salvation path”, towards
writing. This does not happen in Bigger’s case, where fear makes him commit murder, even
though he perceives it as his own creation, a creation which will finally condemn him to the
electric chair. As for Richard, writing as a liberating process helps him with his
“metamorphosis”, because he, as opposed to Bigger, is a round character, one that evolutes
throughout his journey.
In my opinion, Richard and Bigger Thomas are two complementary perspectives (positive
and negative) which form a unitary image of the Negro, as seen by Wright.

10
www.sparknotes.com

11
Richard Wright, Black Boy, Harper& Brothers Publishers, New York and London, 1945, p. 17
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Bibliography:

1. Bell, Bernard, The Afro-American Novel and Its Tradition, University of

Massachusetts Press, Amerhest, 1987.
2. Wright, Richard, Black Boy, Harper& Brothers Publishers, New York and London,
1945.
3. Wright, Richard, Native Son, Harper& Row Publishers, New York, 1966.

Electronic Sources:

1. "Black Boy: Introduction." Nonfiction Classics for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski.
Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1998. eNotes.com 9 June 2011. <http://www.enotes.com/black-boy-
wright/introduction>.
2. SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Black Boy.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2003.
Web. 2 Jun. 2011.