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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 6 page paper which examines two opposing critical interpretations of the protagonist Bigger Thomas in Richard Wright's novel, "Native Son," to determine whether or not Bigger is a positive or negative African-American character. Bibliography lists 6
sources.
Page Count:
6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG15_TGbigger.doc
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
message of Richard Wrights novel, Native Son. Hes a 20-year-old who only went to the eighth grade, and has to share his South Side Chicago tenement with his mother,
siblings, and whatever rodents stop by for some crumbs to eat. Bigger had to steal to put food on his familys table -- that was the reality he lived
in. He is, quite simply, a product of his impoverished environment (Rowley 215). Bigger is never comfortable with white people because they couldnt possibly understand his life experience,
and he would be forced to become something he wasnt to accommodate theirs. This sense of social alienation sets off a chain of violent events, in which Bigger murders
two women, a white woman named Mary Dalton, the daughter of his employer, whom he accidentally smothers to death; and Bessie Mears, to whom he confessed Marys murder and "had"
to die because she knew too much. Bigger never gets away with his crimes, and ultimately pays with his own life. Was his depiction a positive or negative
African-American character? Renowned author and one-time literary apprentice of Richard Wright, James Baldwin, argued that Bigger Thomas was a negative character who reinforced the white stereotypes of African-American men,
while contemporary critic Louis Tremaine disagreed, arguing that Bigger Thomas was, in the final analysis, a positive African-American character because his violence forced America to take a painful look at
the consequence of ugly bigotry, which had long threatened to fracture its society. Baldwin believed that Biggers negative stemmed from the fact that Wright portrayed him as a monster
created by "white oppression," somehow implying that he was not responsible for the rape and murders he committed (Podhoretz PG). Baldwin complained that Bigger Thomas represented little more than
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