I don't know whether I should like Bigger Thomas or hate him. In certain points in "Native Son", I wanted to sympathize with Bigger but there were other times that I wanted to rip his face off.
Let me explain.
Bigger Thomas is unlike the "traditional" main character of a book. A traditional character would oftentimes go through a tragedy, make mistakes here and there, but ultimately, they would transform into the best version of themselves. With Bigger, however, is a different story. He experiences his tragedy constantly throughout the story without much character development. He would also make mistakes after mistakes without ever having a self-reflection or admitting that he was wrong, whereas a traditional character learns from their mistakes. Personally, I think Bigger becomes slightly crazy after he murders Mary.
One of Bigger's greatest hits is the murder of Mary Dalton. Regardless of Mary's intentions, she and her boyfriend were very friendly to Bigger the whole night. In spite of this, Bigger murders Mary the second he got into trouble. You would think Bigger feels some remorse or at least try to redeem himself after the incident, but no. Bigger burns Mary's corpse, uses her as leverage for ransom money, tries to frame Mary's boyfriend, and continues murdering other people.
However, there are times where Bigger looks helpless and readers can sympathize with him. A good example is his moment of self-reflection to reason why he can't open his feelings to his family. You can get an impression of how helpless he is to improve his family's situation. In another instance, you can feel how uncomfortable he is when he hangs out with Mary and her boyfriend. These instances allow the reader to see his vulnerability and connect with Bigger, in the hope of seeing him break out of them.
My perception of Bigger Thomas is still very much conflicted to this point. If he had gotten away with the murders and the money, would Bigger change to be a better person?
I felt very conflicted about Bigger as well when I was reading the book. I actually was somewhat sympathetic to Bigger after what happened with Mary, but then after he raped and killed his girlfriend that sympathy was gone. While Mary and Jan were friendly to Bigger and treated him like a "normal person," he'd never been treated that way in his life and it makes sense that it would leave him confused and scared.
ReplyDeleteI, too, felt a lot of conflict with Bigger's narrative - I felt bad for him as he was stammering and struggling in getting the job from the Daltons, and I could understand where he was coming from in his dislike for Mary and Jan, as they did make him quite uncomfortable. I could even relate to him in some instances in feeling anxiety from being "the other". It did, however, cross a line when he took advantage of Mary right before her death, and even more so when he stole, lied, and ended up raping and killing Bessie. I feel like it was Wright's intention was to create a character who we can't specifically say "yes" or "no" to the question of his innocence, and I think he did it quite well.
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