Richard Wright’s Native Son as a Neo-Slave Narrative

“To Bigger and his kind white people were not really people; they were a sort of great natural
force, like a stormy sky looming overhead, or like a deep swirling river stretching suddenly at
one’s feet in the dark.” (Wright 25).

Introduction to the Genre

“Native Son” is a modern-day slave narrative that addresses both oppression and
enslavement in a manner that relates to 21stcentury reader’s lived experiences. Moreover, I
examine the qualities within “Native Son” that make it a part of the Neo-Slave Narrative genre
by comparing it to the famous “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.” Unlike criticism
that emphasizes Bigger’s negative character qualities, my analysis of his personality stems from
an examination of his surrounding environment, which has created the imprisoned and fearful
man we see in the novel. Bigger is trapped in a cycle of oppression that causes him to lash out in
violent and extreme ways. Although Bigger was not a slave in formal terms, he lived within a
society that restrained his every move because of the color of his skin. I seek to compare
Bigger’s experience to that of other men and women who have lived through slavery and
continue to suffer underneath its heavy hand, long after it has been legally abolished.

I propose that Native Son is a modern-day example of a slave narrative, and although
critics like David Britt in “Native Son: Watershed of Negro Protest Literature” suggests the story
falls within the genre of protest fiction, meaning, a novel displaying imagery of protesting an
inequality. “Native Son” is grounded in the Neo-Slave genre; according to Max in Native Son“If
only ten or twenty Negroes had been put into slavery, we could call it injustice, but there were
hundreds of thousands of them throughout the country. If this state of affairs had lasted for two
or three years, we could say it was unjust; but it lasted for more than two hundred years…[it] is
injustice no longer; it is an accomplished fact of life… What is happening here today is not
injustice, but oppression, an attempt to throttle or stamp out a new form of life” (Wright 391).
This passage is a comparison between enslavement in America and the oppressionthat the black
community has faced for hundreds of years. The definition of the Neo-Slave genre is a modern
novel that exhibits similar issues and form that we have seen with slave narratives in America[1].
This genre uses their voices to speak on stories of black bodies and resistance by exercising
various means and contexts. “Native Son” is rooted in the slave genre, because when comparing
the experiences of both the slave and Bigger Thomas there are few differences between the
two, which is a direct result of the lasting negative effects that slavery and colored segregation
has had on America.

Native Son is a novel written by Richard Wright that addresses many controversial topics
like racism, gender, criminalization, dehumanization and hypervisibility of black bodies in
America. The story’s protagonist, Bigger, lives entrapped within a society that limits his abilities
and separates black men and women from the white population. After pressure from his mother,
Bigger picks up a new job working for a family that was, one of the many, responsible for
keeping him within a line of segregation. Bigger becomes so entrapped by the rules that society
holds for him, that he accidentally kills Mary Dalton out of the fear that he would be killed after
being caught alone with a white woman. After her death, Bigger finally gets a small taste of what
freedom is like through being able to make his own decisions, and in anxiety of losing it all, he
kills Bessie, his girlfriend who threatened that liberty. Drunk with choice, he attempts to ransom
Mary but ultimately gets caught, and is put on death row for her killing. Critics may say that
Richard Wright paints a bad picture for black lives, labeling them as dangerous, but I argue that
he creates a very real reality of what it’s like living in terror of white America’s oppression and
segregation.

Readers can understand the harmfulness of playing Bigger as the victim of this story
because of his misogynistic tendencies, like his role in the murder and rape of women in this
story. France states that Bigger’s need for dominance is present when he taunts his friend, rapes
and murders his girlfriend, and kills and dismembers Mary (414). This presents the idea that
Bigger is a toxic character that deserves no sympathy because he is continuing the cycle of
oppression that white America has placed on them.[2]I agree that Bigger’s actions are atrocious
and should not be excused, however, there are many factors that got him to this position. Bigger
felt powerless in a world that seemed to hate him because of his color, and readers cannot help
but take his condition into account, as well as, the events that led him to the point of murder.
Bigger was just as much a victim as the women in this story, and failing to see the humanity in a
man who commits a crime because of the color of his skin, is exactly what Richard Wright
targets in his novel. Although it is important to note that crimes cannot go unpunished, racism
has put men and women like Bigger into the restraints of enslavement, and it is hard to admit that
readers wouldn’t give the same harsh criticism if Bigger were white.

Uncensored Truth of Neo-Slavery

According to Rampersad, Wright did not want to create a typical slave narrative, because
he believed that the world had enough of timid and cautionary novels trying to get on the good
side of white America and beg for equality. He had first-hand experience with the dehumanizing
effects of slavery and wanted to display exactly how that debilitating system incites violence and
fear. “Native Son was like no other book in the history of African American Literature… ‘Negro
writing in the past has been confined to humble novels, poems, and plays, prim and decorous
ambassadors who went a-begging to white America.’”[3]I have exhibited this claim within
Frederick Douglass’ Narrative, he utilizes cryptic language and hides suggestive messages within
the text hoping that the white men and women reading his story would change their stance on
this evil system. He does not outright state that the white population is horrible for owning
slaves, but he surveys his own experiences with previous slave holders to articulate that message
for him. He also employs religious perspectives to gain a sympathetic response to a white and
Christian population. Instead of simply stating that the white slaveholders were hypocritical, he
would instead, code it like so, “I do verily believe that he sometimes deceived himself into the
solemn belief that he was a sincere worshiper of the most high God; and this, too, at a time when
he may be said to have been guilty of compelling his woman slave to commit the sin of adultery
(Douglass 47).” Frederick Douglass is cryptically delivering the message that slavery is harmful
system and the people who have slaves are immoral, unjust and dangerous. Richard Wright,
growing up in an unfiltered world, refuses to utilize such techniques, because censoring the black
experience would be a disservice to his audience and his novel. This is what makes his narrative
different from traditional slave narratives, this dissimilarity is crucial with the purpose that
Wright is trying to accomplish with his audience. To shock them in a way that allows them to
fully understand the deep-rooted racism and how it controls an entire population into their own
enslavement.

Richard Wright is not shy about his message and creates a novel that jolts audiences with the
brutal events that enslavement is liable for. The slave narrative succeeded to the extent of
granting the slaves the status of free, but the aftermath of slavery was something that the slave
narrative did not prepare for. Frederick Douglass and Richard Wright grew up in two very
different time frames, but the change in time had not brought a transformation in politics.
African Americans were just as much slaves in the 1930’s as they were in the mid to late 1800s.
Although there were small strides toward the suggestion of equality, there was still heated
animosity between the two races. The 20-21stcentury did not need a traditional slave narrative,
they needed something that could be relatable, and they needed to see issues come to light. A
traditional slave narrative would not have been able to accomplish what America needed, so
Richard Wright created his own version of the genre that would be best suited to tell this story.
Both modes are geared towards a specific audience with a persuasive purpose: Frederick
Douglass wrote for a primarily white, female audience for sympathy, and on the other hand,
Richard Wright is writing to shock and purge racism in modern day America. Mutually these
men have obstacles placed within their pathway, and though they are writing within similar
genres, they must employ different strategies in order to be successful.

Richard Wright delivers his message, despite complications such as: the feedback he
would receive from the black men and women who have overcome the shadow that other Bigger
Thomas’ have cast on them, the confirmation of the racist perception from the white population,
the pushback he would receive from his peers or others. The goal of this narrative is to raise
awareness of very real issues that minorities were faced with during the 1900s, and continue to
face today. Wright does this by using Bigger’s inner monologue when he reflects on the cruel
oppressive society he is native to. Oppressions like redlining and how it affects minorities, high
cost differences for African Americans in places like housing and food, employment and
unlivable wages, and the flawed justice system and how it targets people of color. He also brings
awareness to the discriminatory acts that white men may be unaware they commit or acts that
they hide under the disguise of white benevolence. Richard Wright gives birth to the character
Bigger Thomas as a means of giving a platform to the men in his life who have died or were
persecuted because of their resistance to this damaged ideology.

“I Was Born”[4]

Along with other famous slave narrative authors, they begin their novel with the remark
“I was born,” this gives the reader the knowledge that black men and women are no different
than they are. The popular belief of that time frame was that African Americans were inhuman,
animalistic beings, which made for the justification of the enslavement of an entire group of
people. This made it necessary for the authors to include proof of their humanity within their
narratives. Richard Wright includes an entire essay at the end of “Native Son” entitled “How
Bigger was Born” as a way of providing proof of Bigger’s existence in people that Wright has
come in contact with throughout his life. Bigger is a collection of real men, thus providing
further justification of his humanity. It seems absurd that any writer should feel the need to
include this information, but the public expectations of those days required more of an
explanation from people of color. The statement “I was born” is included in countless slave
narratives, and although Richard Wright does not have that exact quotation, he does provide
countless examples of Biggers humanity within the text.

Not only does the statement I was born prove their equality, but it also comes with connotations
that they were once innocent and unknowing of the harsh and oppressive reality that they were
brought into. Frederick Douglass does not know who his father is, and makes assumptions that
his father may have been his slave-master as a result of the rape of his mother. He was conceived
out of violence against his people by a white man, and he continued to grow as a witness to that
violence. This violence granted Frederick Douglass the dualistic persona of being half black and
half white, allowing him to find appealing qualities from both races to gain sympathy for his
cause. It is assumed that Bigger’s mother and father are both black, and this parentage makes it
tougher for him to appeal to a white audience because he was completely separated from them.
Through the murder of Bigger’s father, he realized at a very young age that he was an enemy
white men’s eyes, and they will go to all violent extremes to silence him and others who stand
apart from their beliefs. Nevertheless, both Frederick Douglass and Bigger Thomas were black
and thus born into nation that challenged their existence as humans because of that fact, and they
both had to adopt ways of coping and overcoming those discriminations.

The statement I was born can also be metaphorically placed within the novel, as a means
of becoming aware of, rebirth, or an awakening. This agrees with Brits assumption in his article
“Native Son: Watershed of Negro Protest Literature” when he states, “Each of the novel’s three
sections begins with Bigger’s rousing from sleep into a horrific world.” [5]Bigger is awakened in
each section of the novel to a new version of himself along with public perceptions and
expectations. Beginning with the first section entitled “Fear”, Bigger is forced awake by a loud
alarm that startles his entire family, it was the day that he would meet the Daltons and his entire
life would change. With the following sections “Flight” and “Fate” Bigger is again awakened to
a new experience and new choices. These three awakenings signify a rebirth into a new world
that he has not seen and new growth in Bigger’s character. Just as Frederick Douglass was born
out of violence, Bigger is reborn countless times into a world that becomes more hateful and
ferocious with each awakening.

Segregation Within Native Son

Native Sonwas set in 1930’s Chicago, in the midst of the great depression and shifting housing
laws in regard to segregation of people of color. There were some attempts to revive and
stabilize the housing market while still keeping the “unfavorable” populaces separated from
white neighborhoods.[6]Richard Wright includes Bigger’s perspective on the segregation that
was rampant in Chicago during this time, even after exclusionary zoning laws were ruled
unconstitutional, homeowners still found ways to implement legalized segregation into
homeownership contracts. This perspective is an important part of getting the reader to visualize
just how real discrimination was during the mid 1900s and how that discrimination continued to
enslave an entire population. This bias within the housing market affected Bigger on many
levels, and it kept him completely conscious of his skin. “The rental agencies had told him that
there were not enough houses for Negroes to live in, that the city was condemning houses in
which Negroes lived as being too old and too dangerous for habitation…And he had heard it said
that black people, even though they could not get good jobs, paid twice as much rent as whites
for the same kind of flats (Wright 248). This quotation displays the awareness that Bigger had of
the situation that white America was responsible for. They created the contracts that kept him
and his family in poverty due to the “eight dollars a week” that a black family had to pay to keep
a roof under their heads (Wright 48). They were responsible for the countless black Americans
who were homeless and ridden with crime, yet claimed they were making strides towards an
equal America.

Richard Wright employs the use of language, tone, and metaphors to convey the weight that
slavery has placed on black Americans, and how that weight is still felt in modern day society. “I
don’t know. I just feel that way. Every time I get to thinking about me being black and they
being white, me being here and they being there, I feel like something awful is going to happen
to me… Why they make us live in one corner of the city? Why don’t they let us fly planes and
run ships…?” (Wright 20). The significance within this passage is that the effects of slavery are
still felt on a wide scale, and although they are not technically slaves, they still are chained to the
American system of oppression. This passage again, shows the fear that one might feel after
being isolated into a corner of the city with little to no resources. Wright wanted to show the
restrictions that were placed on African Americans and how they sought to enslave black
America, even during a time that slavery was considered unconstitutional.

Wright uses tone and language to create two conflicting entities, white and black. The white
entity is the more socially powerful, and America is rigged in favor of them. This power that
white has over black, makes Bigger feel hopeless because no matter what he does they can create
any clash for him, leading to his demise. Whites control blacks in America and this leads to
Bigger’s anxiety and animosity towards others in the novel. David Britt mentions in his essay
that whites “impinge constantly upon Bigger’s freedom, determining the place he can live, his
choice of women, the crimes that he dares commit”[7](2). This quote illumiates the extent to
which Bigger was trapped and enslaved in this world. Black people are confined to a specific
area, away and separated from whites, alluding to the idea of a jailed existence. This shows the
effects of slavery are still with the victims through generations. They still feel helpless and
trapped because of this lack of control. They cannot fly free or run from an institution like
slavery because it follows them. Consistent with slave narratives, black Americans were unable
to leave the place in which their master designates for them to live. Those who tried to escape
were met with severe punishment or death, it is the same situation for Bigger. Although he is
not a literal slave he is treated like one and this is just one of the restrictions placed on him.

Money

Poverty was a condition known to every black man, it was not possible for them to work,
pay the exorbitant amount of money charged in rent, and buy the overpriced leftover food items
sold within Black Belt, Chicago. This aspect within American society made it to so that any
advancement of men of color would be so unreasonable that they would blot out any dreams or
aspirations. The amount charged in rent to black people alone in 1930’s was more than a month’s
salary, keeping many families homeless and starving. Mr. Dalton and his family were not only in
charge of those rent prices, but he was also in charge of Bigger’s salary. He paid him about $25 a
month, but the amount that Bigger and his family had to pay in rent was $32 dollars a month; this
is an astronomical amount of money compared to how much whites paid for the same type of
apartments. “The Thomas Family got poor and the Dalton family got rich. And Mr. Dalton, a
decent man, tried to salve his feelings by giving money. But my friend, gold was not enough!
Corpses cannot be bribed!” (Wright 393). The Daltons knew that what they were doing to an
entire population was wrong, and they tried to solve it by donating money, or buying
unnecessary items like ping pong tables for families who were starving. “And in some of us, as
in Mr. Dalton, the feeling of guilt, stemming from our moral past, is so strong that we try to undo
this thing in a manner as naïve as dropping a penny in a blind man’s cup!” (Wright 393). The
charity that the Daltons gave to the black population did nothing but stir up existing feelings of
alienation and animosity between the two races.

Frederick Douglass had a similar experience when he was working for his freedom, his
master “was satisfied with nothing less than the last cent. He would, however, when I made him
six dollars, sometimes give me six cents, to encourage me. It had the opposite effect. I regarded
it as a sort of admission of my right to the whole” (Douglass 70). Douglass had to hand over
every penny he earned to this white man, yet he was considered a free man at the time. This is
exactly what is happening in 1930’s America. This is enslavement hidden under the guise of
working towards the American Dream, there was no reward for a black man or woman’s labor.
They worked tirelessly for the advancement of white America, often at the expense of their own
lives. Men could not even cheat their system without repercussions like being jailed or killed.
Enslavement in America was just as real and harmful as it was in the 1800’s, and the evidence
within money alone, proves that Richard Wright was working within the Neo-Slave genre.

Bigger’s Education

In most slave narratives, education is something that was withheld from these men and women
because it was considered dangerous, "'it was unlawful as well as unsafe to teach a slave to
read… Learning would spoilthe best nigger in the world. Now,' said he, 'if you teach that nigger
(speaking to myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to
be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master.'" (Douglass
31). In Frederick Douglass' Narrative he viewed education as completely necessary in order to
gain true freedom. However, Richard Wright takes a different approach, education was
segregated in the 1930s, and most black children were given the material that white men wanted
them to learn. Bigger was unable to finish his education because he had to start working, due to
the intense poverty that he and his family lived in. Mrs. Dalton believes that an education would
set black men and women up for a better life so she made her last driver attend night school so
that he could later get another job with the government (Wright 55). This was not Bigger's path,
and “he felt that Mrs. Dalton wanted him to do the things she felt that heshould have wanted to
do… [and] he did not want to go to night school” leads me to believe that he did not want to go
to school because white persons were trying to force it on him, keeping him within this cage of
enslavement while also fueling their ego (Wright 62).
Through a major part of the novel Bigger does not stress about education, and it is not until he is
about to meet his death that he is confronted with all the dreams and aspirations that white
America held back from him. He tells his lawyer Max, “I wanted to be an aviator once. But they
wouldn’t let me go to the school where I was suppose’ to learn it. They built a big school and
then drew a line around it and said that nobody would go to it but the boys who lived within the
line. They kept all the colored boys out” (Wright 353). America segregated Bigger from being
anything other than a man to serve them, and any hopes beyond that they would kill off. Bigger
had not realized just how long the list was of things he was unable to do because he was black
until Max cared enough to ask him about himself. The enslavement of black Americans reached
every avenue of life, and education is an important aspect that was limited just to keep them in
that position.

Alienation and Dehumanization

Slaveholders primary goal was to keep the black population separated so that they
could remain in control of them. The way that white men accomplished this separation is making
them fear one another by blanketing them all under the same labels. If one black man committed
a crime, they all committed that same crime, and they would all be made to suffer for that person
stepping out of line. They were all regarded as a nation of people, containing no specific identity,
yet they were made to be so divided that they would not stand against anyone attempting to
invade, even if their lives were threatened. The slaves of the 1809s were regarded in the same
way as present day oppressed black Americans, they were not viewed as an actual people, but a
collective enemy. Bigger notices the divide that white men have created within his community,
“his hope toward a vague and benevolent something that would help and lead him, and his hate
toward the whites; for he felt that they ruled him, even when they were far away and not thinking
of him, ruled him by conditioning him in his relations to his own people” (Wright 115). He
understands that if the black population banded together, they could create a wave of change
within America, but knows that they are so enslaved to whites that this would not happen, at
least not within his lifetime.

This realization happens with Frederick Douglass in his slave narrative when he is
attempting to escape, his fear for other black men was at times greater than his fear of white men
because they could betray him. During his first attempt to lead a group of people out of slavery,
they were caught because of someone who informed their white master of their plans, and it is
presumed that the informant was black. After he has actually escaped from slavery he is
alienated and afraid of every man on the street with no recognition of whether they were black or
white. The motto ringed at the back of his head “Trust no man” and it kept him safe (Douglass
73). White America was successfully able to infiltrate every avenue of the slaves being, making
it to where they were living “Right down here in my stomach…Every time I think of ‘em,
I feel ‘em…in your chest and throat, too…It’s like fire…And sometimes you can’t hardly
breathe…” (Wright 22). Giving African Americans a fear and anxiety over getting caught by
them, that they give their own people away, almost like sacrificing to appease the ever-present
white gods.

Richard Wright lays out plainly in his novel the divide in his people, and most did not have the
time or the resources to notice how far that divide was. Although slavery was not economically
sound, they found loop holes and ways that they could help the economy, while also keeping
their power over black lives. Ramsey ties in this idea nicely with her article “Blind Eyes, Blind
Quests in Richard Wright’s ‘Native Son’” when she states, “Wright committed his writing to
confronting American audiences with the truth of what it meant to be black, alienated and poor
while others happily lived out their variations of an American dream not possible for those who
by color and class were excluded from even its vague periphery.” [8]This contributes to the idea
of what Wright’s true purpose was in finding that divide between his people so that they could
rise against the hated institution of enslavement.

The character of Bigger is very different than that of a man like Frederick Douglass, but both
men are attempting to incite change within the harmful system. It is interesting to note the
differences between the two men as a reflection of the audience in which both Richard Wright
and Douglass are writing to. Frederick Douglass is writing to a conservative, mostly female
audience, and in turn his character is exhibited within the novel as godly, fair, smart, he was
noted to be a man with many great qualities. Douglass’ character is a perfect example of a man
deserving of sympathy from his white audience. On the other hand, Bigger, is an ordinary man,
he is not especially smart, witty, or kind; he is not a godly man, and in fact rejects religion.
Wright grappled with the backlash he would receive after creating a character “that is, resentful
towards whites, sullen, angry, ignorant, emotionally unstable, depressed and unaccountably
elated at times”, but does so regardless (448). The audience that Wright is targeting, is all men
alike, and he wrote “Native Son” for them to realize their error in thinking, as well as, to use it as
a method of freeing himself from the shame and fearthat accompanied the racist conditioning of
his people (448).

Escape and Conclusion

The goal of the white population was to keep these men and women in the dark in regard to:
politics, education, and the workforce, prohibiting minorities of showing any “evidence of a
restless spirit” (Douglass 13). This dehumanization of black bodies contributed to the notion that
enslavement of them, was not only fair but also necessary. The white population needed to keep
their power over black men and they did that by limiting their education, the jobs they can hold,
how much they paid for basic survival items like food and clothing, and also within the justice
system by serving the harshest punishment for any crime committed by an African American.
The enslavement of black individuals was to widespread that many white people like the
Daltons, were subconsciously committing acts that kept the black population in place. Believing
that they were only abiding my social customs of that time, and not giving mind to the enslaving
nature that their actions incite.

Richard Wright creates a defenselessness within Bigger that truly animates what it was like to be
a black man in a white world. He uses this conversation between Bigger and his friend to show
the harsh reality of what their bondage looks and feels like. While others conformed and said,
“that’s just how it is”, Bigger questioned these expectations out loud, and that is how he shows
his spark of resistance to the discrimination. Bigger did not want to fall in line like other black
men did, and he made countless violations against these social customs. All these violations were
brought up in court to prove the dangerous nature of a man who decided to make his own
choices. Richard Wright used his novel as a platform in which to discuss these oppressions,
because men like Bigger Thomas are in need of a stage in which to tell their experiences.
Enslavement manifests itself in various ways within Native Son, giving his novel the
characteristics of being a Neo-Slave Narrative. Although the novel isn’t his personal account, the
character Bigger Thomas is a collection of his experiences as well as different men that he has
met in his lifetime that stood out against white oppression and paid the price for it. Native
Son grapples with many important issues in hopes of bringing change.

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