In our class
discussion on Native Son it came up a lot that Bigger was a
product of his environment. As we discussed I began to think about exactly
which parts of Bigger's environment were causing him to turn out the way he
became, because his environment wasn't all bad. He had the influences of his
mother whose good intentions landed him a job and tried to keep him out of trouble. I
think the part of his environment that influenced him the most to do what he
did both when he killed Mary and in his subsequent actions was fear.
In particular one scene
that really exemplified all the fear in his environment was his confrontation
with Gus in the pool hall. That scene was a crazy convoluted mess of fear. He
had planned to rob Blum's store with his gang, but he was afraid of robbing a
white man. But he also knew that he couldn't show his fear to his friends, so
he had to find another way to stop the robbery from happening without making it
seem like he didn't want to rob Blum's. So he confronted Gus claiming that Gus
was afraid and intimidating Gus. In reality Gus was more afraid of Bigger than
of robbing Blum's and he leaves because of this fear. This gives Bigger the
result he wanted without him losing any face among his gang.
This fear in his environment
molds him to think irrationally when he is in situations where he becomes
afraid. An example of this is after he kills Mary accidently he immediately is
afraid of repercussions, but instead of telling someone that it was an accident
he decides that it would be best to burn her body and blame it on Jan. Another
example is when he decides to write a kidnap note that blames the Communists.
This isn't a rational decision but he is so afraid of what will happen that the
fear forces him to make these kinds of decisions.
In the end he is caught
and faces a much worse fate than what he might have encountered if he had told
the truth from the beginning. Bigger is a product of his environment, but more importantly
he is a product of the fear in his environment and I think that is what causes
him to act in the ways that he does.
I agree that Bigger's fear shapes him and causes him to make irrational decisions. At the times when he makes his decisions, they make sense to him. Wright provides us with Bigger's thought process, and it all seems logical to a certain degree, some more so than others (for example the pool hall scene in comparison with the kidnap note).
ReplyDeleteIt's really interesting that you bring up the whole "Bigger telling the truth from the beginning" thing, because I also have thought a lot about this. I don't think it's exactly fair to say Bigger could have even told the truth -- it wasn't even in his mental sphere I think. I agree with you that he might be in a better place, but maybe that's just because if I accidentally suffocated and killed a girl, it would be much easier for me to come clean than someone like Bigger. Good points though, I would like to talk to you sometime about what "truth" looks like for him.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it's not at all fair to relate all of Bigger's actions to his environment. Although he lives impoverished, it is in no way a place of absolute despair and desperation. However, the environment does create his fear and hatred of white people as he and the other South Side African-Americans live in segregation from the whites.But again the question arises,"if it's the environment's fault, why haven't others acted like him?" This is a completely fair point to counter the popular excuse for Bigger's actions. It also directly leads to the fact that there are blacks living in even worse conditions than Bigger. The narrator helps us understand Bigger's thought process so that we may be sympathetic but the court doesn't have the same seat as us, so to speak.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that Bigger is a product of his environment, but even beyond that, Bigger is an essential part of his environment. He is the outlet for the people of Chicago to back up their racist ideas, the reason the mob forms. Bigger's fears lead to his actions, and his actions lead to this impact on his environment, which in turn create more reasons for bigger to be afraid. It's a vicious and endless cycle that was an essential pillar of pre-civil rights america.
ReplyDeleteCarmen makes a good point. In some ways, it's easy to sit in our armchairs and say that coming clean would have been the best policy in Bigger's case. I make this argument to my kids all the time--trying to conceal some wrongdoing only makes it worse in the end. And this seems true, all things being equal. But all things are not equal in this novel--far from it--and it's like Bigger can't even imagine how he'd begin to explain what happened in that room. He barely can wrap his own head around it--it all took place in a blur of terror and panic.
ReplyDelete