The unbearable heaviness of being: Analyzing Bigger Thomas from Richard Wright’s Native Son as a character beyond good and evil

Abstract

Published in 1940, the reputation of Native Son as one of the most significant African-American literary texts is due to its fascinating plotline that follows the story of an unusual protagonist named Bigger Thomas living in Chicago. By committing murders, Bigger revolts against white rule for causing the plight of black people due to racial discrimination. Although Richard Wright constructs Bigger as a character whose crimes are horrific in nature, he also narrates the circumstances that lead to such extreme actions. This dissertation analyses the character of Bigger Thomas, and identifies him as an ambivalent character that readers can neither accept with complete sympathy nor reject with utter aversion. Dissecting his actions as self deceptive, his crimes and aggressive nature as the locus that expresses the polarity of his character, the ambiguous assertion of his masculinity and subjectivity, and the transformation he undergoes throughout the novel, this study accentuates the dichotomy of Bigger Thomas through a close reading of the text.