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In his most famous novel, Native Son, Richard Wright's female characters exist not as self-sufficient, but only in relation to the male figures of authority that surround them, such as their boyfriends, husbands, sons, fathers, and Bigger Thomas, the protagonists. Wright presents the women in Native Son as meaningless without a male counterpart, in which the women can not function as an independent character on their own. Although Wright depicts clearly the oppression of Blacks, he appears unconscious of creating female characters who regardless of race, are exploited and suppressed. Their sole purpose in the novel is to further the story by putting Bigger in new and more dangerous situations by questioning or threatening his male authority. Each major woman character in the story represents through her actions and particular personality a different kind of threat to Bigger's masculine power. There is Bigger's mother Mrs. Thomas, who offers him nothing in the way of motherly support, although Bigger perceives her caring as constant insult and nagging. Along side his mother is Bigger's sister Vera who loves her brother, but has similar doubts about his motives in the family. Next we have Mary Dalton, the idealistic and headstrong young white girl whose intention is to connect with Bigger and make him feel like her equal, which eventually gets her killed. Her mother, Mrs. Dalton, is virtually her complete opposite: helpless, weak and frail. Her one influence on the storyline is her indirect responsibility for her daughter's murder. And finally there is Peggy, a patronizing Irish, and Bessie, Bigger's overworked, excitable, alcoholic girlfriend and second murder victim. In general she is not intelligent or strong enough to pose a real threat to his security, but when she questions Bigger's authority he is compelled to kill her. Each of these women is different, but in the end each plays the same part--the intimidator, the…
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Richard Wright’s novel, Native Son, is set in Chicago and revolves around the life of Bigger Thomas, who lives in the city’s impoverished black neighborhood. While attending his job as a chauffeur to the Daltons, a prominent white family, Bigger attempts to carry their intoxicated daughter Mary to her room. Mrs. Dalton suddenly enters, and Bigger, fearing that she would find him, covers Mary’s face with a pillow and suffocates her to death. Afterwards, he throws the dead Mary into the furnace and destroys every piece of evidence from that night.…
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In Native Son, Wright utilizes various forms of figurative language in order to immerse readers into the plot of the story. Through his descriptive words and the images he creates, Wright allows readers to fully experience his settings and the dramatic events through Bigger’s senses and observations. The readers are constantly pulled into the action of the plot with Wright’s imagery, and are carried along with Bigger as he prepares his next moves.…
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Confined. Bigger was confined by four white walls of oppression with no possibility of escape. Bigger, taught to fear the white man and avoid the white woman, knows nothing else. However, when confronted by his number one adversary, Mary, she treats him with kindness. Mary represents white society, the same society whose sole desire is to destroy Bigger. For the first time in his life, a white person acted as if Bigger was human, and ultimately Mary’s simple act of kindness killed her. Bigger was so unaccustomed to kindness, that he reacted like an animal. When put into a stressful situation the human body resorts to animalistic behavior and has two options: to fight the stressor, or to flee from it. But, since Bigger’s white box of oppression…
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The Marxist Criticism literary lens describes a scenario in literature where one group of people in society is more powerful than another. The wealthy community is usually in control of the lower class citizens and as a result the lower class people living under oppression. Native Son by Richard Wright is a fictional novel set in the 1930s in Chicago that depicts the harsh realities of African American due to oppression from the wealthy upper class white community. Bigger Thomas, a typical African American male, is the protagonist, yet the oppression that confronts him leads to his death by the end of the novel. Marxist Criticism conveys a warning against racial segregation in Native Son because the impoverished African American community is…
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Wright depicts the victimizing tendencies of the members of his dysfunctional family. In the beginning Wright a first notice something is wrong with his family when his father goes to work and never comes back. This instance confused Wright making him unstable and untamed without restrictions. The next time Wright sees his father is during court when his mother was asking him to pay child support. This…
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During the novel, Bigger sexually assaulted and murdered two women, Mary and Bessie, and was condemned to death. The harsh environment and influences that envelop Bigger’s life led him to commit these horrible crimes. Due to society’s influence, criminals similar to Bigger exist today. Similar to today’s society, a person’s family environment, friends, and economic status directly correlate to one’s involvement in criminal activity. Richard Wright’s development the character of Bigger Thomas proves the possible existence of Bigger in today’s…
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Not being seen is also another one of his fears throughout the duration of the novel. At many points during the novel he is called “Mike” instead of his correct name; Bryant also cites Crites’ analysis of the importance of names. Without calling Bigger by his proper name, his identity is disregarded, because his name is a reflection of himself (264-265). This is just one of the many factors that drove Bigger to turning his fear and hurt feelings into violence against everyone and what made him become a…
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1) Indian life on the Great Plains was transformed dramatically, as nearly every Native American was living on a reservation by force, as their land had been taken away from them. One of the Indian's main food supply had degenerated as well, as Buffalo Bill killed 4,300 bison to feed the Union Pacific Railroad crews and the Army killed 9 million buffalo. The Native Americans lost their homes, and their major food source, which is a dramatic change in any person or tribe's life.…
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Native Son is told almost entirely from Bigger’s point of view. This allows the reader to fully comprehend the struggles that a black man faced during this time period in a segregated America. The tone of this novel is one of sympathetic nature to Bigger’s situation. The tone assists the reader to understand that it is not Bigger’s fault that he is poor or drawn to crime. As a reader, one only wants Bigger to break from this cycle of poverty and discover strength to overcome society’s stranglehold over his life. The diction the author uses within the dialogue of the characters shows the time period that the characters are living in. During the 1930s, most African Americans did not have an adequate education. This affected their grammar. Mrs. Thomas says, “Sometimes you act the biggest fool I ever saw.” (Wright 11). Bigger constantly uses the phrases, “Yessum and Suh.” These phrases depict a time of social inequality. Wright uses metaphors to show the fear that the African Americans have because of the whites. Wright says, “It would be trespassing into territory where the full wrath of an alien white world would be turned loose upon them; In short, it would be…
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The word oppression still exists in the everyday lives of women but has changed its tyrannical implications, meaning there is no dictator to influence or force negative actions toward women gender. According to Iris Young, the author of the chapter Five Faces of Oppression, the word oppression has come to represent communities and individuals that are being discriminated by the way society is structured, rather than a single leader oppression. Most people do not think women are subjected to discrimination but it still exists, yet women individually have proven that they are able to overcome it.…
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Bigger and his mother have an unsteady relationship. With Bigger being the oldest child, he holds the most responsibility on his shoulder. His mother shows disappointment in her son everyday for not being able to provide a better life for them and instead falling to the stereotype of a black man. I think this constant push from his mother infuriates him and gives the first of many signs of why Bigger has a frantic thought process.…
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One of the major “selling points” for mistreatment and the removal of Native Americans was that they were a alien like people who were uncivilized and simple. The dislike for the Native Americans was apparent well before the Indian Removal Act, many presidents before Jackson had talked of the importance of europeanizing the Native Americans. Settlers came to know this as the “Indian Problem,” and their solution for this “problem” was to civilize the Natives by teaching them european ways including, conversion to christianity, teaching them english, western farming and western gender roles. In relation to the Indian Removal Act, the “Indian Problem” was still just merely an excuse for settlers to remove Natives from land that they wanted. Around…
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The author's intention was to focus on the conditions of Native Americans and on the racism against which they struggled. “Many whites would say that we should enjoy our rights and privileges as they do. If that were true then our tribes and property would have been protected throughout the union.” The context of this source is to show that even with the amount of land developing, not everyone was welcomed with open arms. To Native Americans their environment shaped their sense of identity, so when they were relocated they had to undergo a drastic change to survive which had great effects on the tribes’ futures. This source is unbiased, because Apess was a historian, though he depended on the research of others, his analysis strikes many readers…
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Oppression signifies an authority of a dominant group over a monitory group, disengaging the minority group from society. It involves mistreatment of a group, which is founded by individual stereotypes, systematic beliefs and attitudes, which become justification for continued mistreatment of members of these groups. This paper will review three forms of oppression and how the dominant members in society use their power and privilege to influence to continue the cycle of oppression.…
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