Bigger Thomas

Bigger Thomas is the central character, a young African American man grappling with the harsh realities of poverty and racial prejudice. Described as a paradox—a "bad nigger" sympathetically portrayed—Bigger is both a perpetrator and a victim of societal injustice. Raised in Chicago's segregated South Side, Bigger lives with his family, who he sees as "blind" to the dehumanizing conditions they endure. His mother, Mrs. Thomas, finds solace in religion, while his sister Vera conforms to societal expectations, and his younger brother Buddy remains fiercely loyal yet resigned to "staying in his place." Bigger's tumultuous relationship with his family and his gang of friends, G. H., Jack, and Gus, illustrates his internal struggle and external rage.

Bigger's life takes a dark turn when he accidentally smothers Mary Dalton, the daughter of his wealthy white employer, while trying to prevent her from making a noise that might alert her blind mother. This act of panic releases his bottled-up emotions, leading him to burn the body and concoct a plan for ransom. He attempts to frame Jan Erlone, Mary's sweetheart and a fellow Communist crusader, for her disappearance. As the situation spirals, Bigger confides in his mistress, Bessie Mears, whom he ultimately murders out of fear she might betray him. Captured by the police, Bigger is subjected to relentless questioning by the prosecuting attorney, Buckley, and ultimately confesses. Despite an impassioned defense by his attorney, Boris A. Max, Bigger is sentenced to die. In death row conversations with Max, Bigger gains insight into the fear-driven motives of his persecutors and the social system that shaped his fate.

Despite his heinous acts, Bigger's character is a vehicle for exploring the socio-political landscape of his time. He embodies the frustration and hopelessness of black men facing limited opportunities, articulated poignantly in his own words: “They don’t let us do nothing.” His realization of his own life and the possibility of change, even if too late, offers a glimmer of hope amidst his tragic narrative.

Mr. Dalton

Mr. Dalton is a wealthy real estate magnate who employs Bigger as a chauffeur. A complex character, he appears philanthropic, donating generously to African American education and youth programs while owning the slum tenements where black families live in squalor. This duality underscores the contradictions in his character, as he profits from the very systemic oppression he outwardly condemns. His refusal to rent outside the designated ghetto reveals his complicity in maintaining racial segregation, despite his charitable facade.

Mrs. Dalton

Mrs. Dalton, the blind wife of Mr. Dalton, embodies the novel's motif of racial blindness. Her perception of Bigger as a project rather than a person underscores her inability to grasp the complexities of his life. Though she believes in liberal ideals, her actions suggest a detachment from the harsh realities faced by African Americans. Her blindness is both literal and symbolic, reflecting the societal reluctance to confront racial issues head-on.

Mary Dalton

Mary Dalton, the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Dalton, is a young woman with far-left political leanings, actively involved with the Communist Party. Her liberal views and rebellious nature clash with her parents' traditionalism. On the night she is accidentally killed by Bigger, Mary is intoxicated, relying on him to help her to her room. Her unexpected death at Bigger's hands becomes a tragic symbol of the deep-seated fears and prejudices between races.

Jan Erlone

Jan Erlone is Mary Dalton's boyfriend and a committed Communist. He attempts to treat Bigger as an equal, an approach that initially confuses and unsettles Bigger. After Mary's death, Jan is briefly implicated by Bigger but later forgives him, striving to help Bigger by securing legal representation through Boris A. Max. Jan's character represents the idealistic hope for racial unity and change through political activism.

Boris A. Max

Boris A. Max, a Jewish lawyer from the Communist Party's legal arm, Labor Defenders, undertakes Bigger's defense. Max argues passionately that societal structures are to blame for Bigger's actions, though he ultimately fails to save him from execution. Through Max, the narrative critiques systemic racism and the broader socio-political context that entraps individuals like Bigger.

Bessie Mears

Bessie Mears is Bigger's girlfriend, a weary and disillusioned woman who succumbs to alcoholism to escape the drudgery of her life as a servant. Bigger's relationship with Bessie is transactional, characterized by shared despair rather than genuine affection. Her murder by Bigger is a brutal reflection of his desperation and the toxic environment they inhabit.

Britten

Britten is the detective employed by Mr. Dalton to investigate Mary Dalton's disappearance. His involvement highlights the racial tensions and suspicions that permeate the investigation, adding another layer of complexity to the narrative.

Buckley

Buckley, the prosecuting attorney, is a strategic and aggressive figure who utilizes racial and anti-communist sentiments to secure Bigger's conviction. His role in the trial underscores the prevailing biases of the legal system and society's eagerness to vilify Bigger.

Buddy Thomas

Buddy Thomas, Bigger's younger brother, looks up to Bigger as a role model, despite the latter's flaws. Loyal and hopeful, Buddy represents a glimmer of innocence and familial duty in Bigger's troubled world.

Mrs. Thomas

Mrs. Thomas, Bigger's mother, is a hardworking woman burdened by the challenges of raising her children alone. Her reliance on religion for solace reflects her resignation to a life of hardship, as she navigates the oppressive conditions faced by her family.

Vera Thomas

Vera Thomas, Bigger's sister, is perceived by Bigger as someone destined to repeat their mother's struggles, trapped in a cycle of poverty and despair. Her character highlights the generational impact of systemic oppression on black families.

Gus, G.H., and Jack Harding

Gus, G.H., and Jack Harding are Bigger's friends from the South Side poolroom. Their interactions with Bigger reveal the shared fear and frustration among young black men, constrained by societal limitations and their own apprehensions.

Peggy O’Flagherty

Peggy O’Flagherty is the Daltons’ Irish cook and housekeeper. Her interactions with Bigger are marked by a superficial politeness that masks underlying racial prejudices, emblematic of the complex racial dynamics within the Dalton household.

The central theme of Native Son is the central theme of much black American writing, the duality of black existence in the United States. Bigger expresses his sense of exclusion as he and his buddies stand idly on a street corner watching a plane fly overhead: "They got things and we ain't. They do things and we can't. It's just like living in jail." As in Uncle Tom's Children, the central movement of Native Son is toward the development of self-awareness. Bigger's development is warped by environmental pressures that make him feel that violence is his only way to escape the stifling limitations imposed on blacks.

Native Son is a psychological as well as a sociological novel, and the three sections of the novel—"Fear," "Flight," and "Fate"—outline Bigger's development. "Fear" documents Bigger's life of poverty and hopelessness with his mother and sister. His entire existence is based on fear, and his greatest fear is to let this fear show. "Flight" shows the expansion of Bigger's sense of self in proportion to the personal danger he faces. He enjoys the independence and power of confusing the white authorities and is exhilarated by his brutal murder of Bessie Mears because, unlike his accidental suffocation of Mary Dalton, it is a consciously willed action that earns him the freedom to "live out the consequences of his actions." In "Fate," the novel becomes more expository. In his lengthy summation, Bigger's lawyer Boris Max argues that all of society shares the guilt for Bigger's crimes, and Max's efforts awaken in Bigger a desire for human trust.

Native Son is not a simple rejection of white America, for the novel shows that behind Bigger's violence lies the hope of acceptance. The real tragedy of Native Son is that Bigger can find no way other than violence to express his potentially healthy desire "to merge himself with others and be part of this world, to lose himself so he could find himself, to be allowed a chance to live like others, even though he was black." In Bigger Thomas, Wright creates one of the most disagreeable characters in American literature, yet he manages to portray him sympathetically. Wright's task is complicated by Bigger's inarticulateness, a limitation that compels the author to communicate Digger's condition through authorial intrusions, symbolism, and an action-filled narrative.

Wright carefully shows how Bigger is shaped by the conditions of his existence. In fact, Bigger's situation is so hopeless that he must avoid recognizing it or be led by self-awareness to violent and probably self-destructive actions: "He knew that the moment he allowed what his life meant to enter fully into his consciousness, he would either kill himself or someone else." Bigger's whole existence is conditioned by fear, and Bigger hates what he fears, including, for a large part of the novel, selfknowledge. The sense of self that Bigger develops after he commits murder is, therefore, too psychologically valuable for him to accept the friendship offered by Boris Max in the final section of the novel.

Bigger, of course, is more than a sociological case study. He embodies the notion, put forth by nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, of the modern man so alienated from traditional mores that he must make his own rules of behavior. In this sense Bigger is a metaphysical revolutionary, intuitively rebelling against the very conditions of his life. He sees a world of suffering, and if he cannot make this world match his innate sense of right, he will imitate its injustice: "He attacked a shattered world in order to demand unity from it." In doing so. Bigger becomes a monster. But Bigger will embrace even this identity because he has lived too long in a world that denies him any sense of self.

Wright's efforts to portray sympathetic white characters fail. The idealistic Jan Erlone and Mary Dalton never escape the shallowness of Wright's treatment. Mr. and Mrs. Dalton exist more as symbols of misguided white liberalism than as individuals. Boris Max is so overburdened with the responsibility of functioning as Wright's spokesman that his own personality is lost.