Native Son & Character Development
The level that Richard Wright describes and forms his characters is, in my opinion, a big indicator of the purpose of his book. Native Son is a protest novel with specific goals which relate to what it is protesting. Wright wanted to show the flaws of the American System and how it affected black people. He wanted to reach lots of people and share his message, his goal was neither artistry nor character depth. Bigger’s purpose in Native Son was to serve as a reflection of his environment, not to be a full character or person. He shows enough of Bigger so that we can understand him but Bigger never really grows and changes as a character. Wright wants to show what happens to a person if they’re put under such harsh conditions. Bigger changes as the system affects him more since he acts as a mirror.
While Richard Wright’s characters are simplistic reflections of their environments, I wouldn’t necessarily call that a bad thing. His goal was to prove a point and make a statement. His characters as a whole do have shortcomings, though, particularly the depictions of black women, which are one-sided and one dimensional in a different way than Bigger’s. Bigger is flat as a character, defined only by how he interacts with the world. In a way, he is defined by his oppression. Bessie and the other female characters are as well, but they’re given even less space than Bigger in terms of character development.
While I think that Bigger is mostly a reflection of his environment and his purpose is to prove a point about where he is from and our system, I think Bessie is Richard Wright’s unsuccessful attempt at showing the black female experience. In a way, I think that the black women's portrayal in Native Son is more of a negative reflection of Wright than it is of the system. The white women, including Mary, serve the purpose of showing a specific type of individual. Wright doesn’t show how the system can fail a black woman in the same way he shows how the system can fail a black man. He does show how Bessie is used as a prop and treated poorly, however, Bigger got more than just how oppressed he was and Bessie deserved that too.
Great post! It's interesting that pretty much all of the characters in this novel are stereotypes and it is so blatant to figure out what their purpose in the novel is. Even the main character, Bigger, doesn't have the chance to flesh out the motivation behind his actions or his thoughts as he performs them. It seems like Wright is trying to represent that as he makes all the decisions.
ReplyDeleteThe differences you point out between characters like Bigger and Mary vs Bessie. Every character in Native son served a purpose of representing a group of people. Bigger represented oppressed black men, Mary the ignorant white liberal Communist. But Bessie was given no character development other than being a black women. She was given no identity before she was murdered.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with your point in saying "Richard Wright’s characters are simplistic reflections of their environments, I wouldn’t necessarily call that a bad thing". Though I understand that Richard Wright's main goal was to prove a point, I think that it's still important to analyze this book the same way we would any other. The way he writes his female characters in particular shouldn't be ignored. In order to fully analyze a book it's important to come to terms with both the accomplishments and failures of the novel. To ignore Richard Wright's depiction of black women I think it irresponsible. I don’t see this as a topic of debate, but as a very clear and undeniable shortcoming in the book.
ReplyDeleteTo be clear, Madeleine did point out the shortcomings of Wright's depiction of women which I am agreeing with for the majority of my comment.
DeleteI think you've missed the point of my post - am merely saying that while I acknowledge that Wright's characters are one sided and not very significant artistically or in terms of their literature, I don't think is necessarily a problem. In the second and third paragraphs, I go on to talk about how it is harmful and a shortcoming of the book for Wright to depict Black women like he does and how it reflects negatively on him as an individual.
DeleteAs I said, I agree with you :). However, I do think that all his characters should be more developed. I think it can be harmful when black characters are depicted almost less than human as Bigger is. I thought your thoughts on women were insightful.
DeleteI think it's interesting the way that you compare Bigger's characterization with Bessie's. I feel like we talked a lot in class about the way that Bessie was represented as kind of flat, but not the ways that Bigger had a similar (if much less extreme) treatment at times.
ReplyDeleteI agree. While I think Bessie's flatness is 1,000 more harmful than Bigger's and reflects poorly on Wright, however, I think it is interesting to think about the harm / help that Bigger's flatness gives the book.
DeleteWow, you've done an amazing job conveying your analysis on Bigger's character development, or lack thereof, throughout Native Son. I especially like your interpretation of Bigger's actions as that of a mirror to the oppressive system he's been placed in. I would also agree with you on the topic of Bessie. I think that if Wright had attempted to highlight Bessie's experiences as a Black woman, the novel would have proven even more worthwhile. Great job!
ReplyDeleteThe goal might not have been artistry regarding character depth and development, but there sure is a lot of flowy and detailed prose composing Bigger's thoughts. We see a very fleshed-out barrier between what Bigger sees, experiences, and thinks, and what other people think of him and what he is able to articulate to others. In that sense we have two contrasting portraits of Bigger, one from the outside and one from the inside. Bigger somehow doesn't have that many unique and defining characteristics despite all of this, though, and his family members and Bessie DEFINITELY got the short end of the character development stick.
ReplyDeleteGreat point! Wright seems to have a purpose for each character in his book and a stereotype that he is trying to fill with them, but with Bessie, that doesn't seem to be the case. Just as Bessie is used as a prop in the courtroom, she is also used as a prop in Native Son. She isn't given any identity and doesn't serve any purpose other than to enhance Bigger's story. This is definitely a shortcoming on Wright's part, and you did a nice job showing why it matters.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you're saying, and I don't think that the characters being simplistic is necessarily bad, but since the black women in this book are pretty much just one dimensional stepping stones to push Bigger's already simple development, Wright sort of crosses the line between understandably simplistic and damagingly so. Granted, Bigger is the main character, not Bessie, so it is to be expected to an extent that she would get less room for development than him. I do think Wright exceeds that extent though.
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