Bigger: A Sympathetic Character

In today’s society, people live in a nation that has abolished slavery. While in Native Son, Bigger Thomas lives in a world filled with racism where he battles his fears of suppression. His fear leads him to act unjustly, and that causes controversy on whether Bigger is a sympathetic character or not. A sympathetic character is usually a protagonist seeking sympathy from the readers of the novel. Usually the character wishes for the readers to feel sympathetic for the situation they have been placed in. There is also an unsympathetic character where the character acts obnoxiously to make the readers feel unsympathetic. Throughout the novel, Bigger occasionally is a sympathetic character and an unsympathetic character. Bigger acts differently at times because he feels fear, and sometimes he feels a sense of hope because he is one of the few individuals that discovers a capacity to rebel. Throughout the

Bigger knows that he has control over his actions, but he still decides to make the most out of each situation. Bigger has recently murdered Mary Dalton, Mr. Dalton’s daughter, by suffocation of a pillow, and does not know how to handle the position he is in. So he decides to chop up her bones to place them in the furnace. Now no one will find out where Mary has gone. Bigger does not stop there, since Mary is gone, he plans to hold Mary for ransom. Before the death of Bessie, Bigger explains to her that they can “.... ask for money, sure...and get it, too. You see, we cash in, ‘cause nobody else is trying to” (Wright 144). Now Bigger is planning to obtain money from a person he had recently murdered. That makes him an unsympathetic character. This shows that he is greedy, and not afraid anymore. He has done enough from his fear, and he decides to use it to his advantage. Bigger has acted cruelly with his plan and these moments make readers feel unsympathetic for