Native Son Thesis

Native son Paper: Topic Four In the novel Native Son, author Richard Wright fills the story with complex characters that are employed to depict different aspects of society. The novel takes place in 1930’s chicago, where it follows the life of Bigger Thomas, a twenty year old African American struggling to navigate the racial prejudices and poverty of the time. Throughout the story Bigger encounters characters that look to make him suffer, look to help him, and those who do some of both. This allows Wright to feature a vast array of views people had on racial equality during this period in American history.

As seen in the beginning of the novel, Bigger represents the poverty stricken African American population struggling to survive in a

This character is Mr. Dalton, as seen through his shifting relationship with Bigger throughout the novel. Mr. Dalton begins by offering Bigger a job and then continues to claim how he, “sent a dozen ping-pong tables to the South Side Boys’ Club” (294). At this point Mr. Dalton seems to contrast other characters such as Britten who have no respect or heart for the African American community. However, equal treatment is not the true focus of Mr. Dalton as he is actually the owner housing complex in which Bigger’s family struggles to pay rent for terrible living conditions. Here Mr. Dalton only sees that he can benefit the African American community by giving away his money rather than acknowledging the fact that the source of his own income has harmed the lives of far more people than he could ever help. The purpose of Mr. Daltons condescending character is to show the audience that it is not the materialism that will lead to a more peaceful society, but rather the mentality that all humans have come from a common ancestor despite the color of one’s skin. This mentality will help to break down stereotypes that shape young men, like Bigger, into the excessively violet members of the African American

Britten, Buckley, Max, and Mr. Dalton, he was able to convey the many different views on racial prejudice at the time. Each character depicted traits that can still be seen in American culture today, as racial equality has still a controversial topic eighty years later. Racially motivated mistreatment such as that of Philando Castile in 2016 still plague the United States. The social awareness of Wright opened the eyes of the public to the harshness of discrimination at the time and people today can still learn about the toll racism plays on one's mind and