he sees “his world” through his symbolic eyes.
Laura Tanner suggests, “Bigger’s awkward relationship to written language is expressed most
clearly in his composition of the kidnap note. . .
The sudden intrusion of the narrator’s voice that
follows may be an attempt to ‘translate’ Bigger’s
feelings into the sophisticated prose to which he
has no access” (134-35).
With Wright providing the necessary
linguistic expression of Bigger’s voice, the entirety
of Native Son is a Dostoevskian journey into the
psychological depths of a criminal mind. It is thus
a sympathetic perspective to Bigger Thomas. Of
narrating Bigger’s story, Wright articulates that,
“He (Bigger) was hovering between two worlds-between powerful America and his own stunted
place in life--and I took upon myself the task
of trying to make the reader feel this No Man’s
Land. The most that I could say of Bigger was
that he felt the need for a whole life and acted
out of that need; that was all. . . Throughout (the
text) there is but one point of view: Bigger’s. . .
I kept out of the story as much as possible, for I
wanted the reader to feel that there was nothing
between him and Bigger” (How Bigger Was Born
527, 37).
We not only see Bigger through Bigger,
but we see also Mary and Jan through Bigger.
Bigger’s hate and fear for Mary and Jan is also fear
and hatred for himself. His fear is no different
from their blindness—both are social constructs
of institutionalized slavery and racism. Unlike
Jan and Mary forcing their ways on Bigger in the
early sections of the text, we must realize that
“Being Bigger” is a gradual and shared communal
process. “Say, Jan, do you know many Negroes? I
want to meet some./ I don’t know any very well.
But you’ll meet them when you’re in the Party. . .
I got some stuff here I want Bigger to read (Communist Party pamphlets). . . I really want you
to read ‘em now. We’ll have a talk ‘bout ‘em in a
coupla days” (Native Son 88, 91). Jan forces his
ways on Bigger before trying to get to know him.
How does he know that Bigger is interested in the
pamphlets or even literate enough to read them?
“Being Bigger” is overcoming this type
of slavery and racism of invisibility and blindness—for both the viewed and the viewer in
realistic, not idealistic, ways. For both, it is raising
mutual standards and expectations. Bigger starts
this once his blindness ends and his new world-
view begins--precisely at the end of “Fear”--both
literally and figuratively--in the text chapter and
within himself. “He looked around the room,
seeing it for the first time. . . and if he could see
while others were blind, then he could get what
he wanted and never be caught at it. . .Buddy
seemed aimless, lost. . . like a chubby puppy. .
.His mother came into the room. . . and he saw
how soft and shapeless she was. Her eyes were
tired and sunken and darkly ringed from a long
lack of rest. . . (In Vera) the beginning of the same
tiredness was already there. . . It was the first time
he had ever been in their (Gus, Jack and G.H.’s)
presence without feeling fearful (NativeSon 118,
121, 122, 127). Bigger sees the world in this positively realistic view for good.
Although he uses invisibility to his advantage to stall for time while plotting his criminal
scheme, Bigger ultimately wants to be seen and
recognized for who he is—a great criminal who
can be above a common petty thief. James Miller
suggests, “Bigger will not be satisfied. . . until his
actions are recognized by the world whose attention he seeks” (504). James Baldwin argues:
Bigger feels, in relation to his family, that
perhaps they had to live as they did precisely
because none of them had ever done anything,
right or wrong, which mattered very much. . .and
he feels, when his family and his friends come to
visit him in the death cell, that they should not be
weeping or frightened, that they should be happy,
proud that he has dared, through murder and
now through his own imminent destruction, to
redeem their anger and humiliation (39).
“Being Bigger” is constantly striving to
“do something that matters” to us. Although
Bigger takes a negative means towards a positive
end--we must create the same effects that he does.
We must strive to be great and take our rightful
place in the world. “Now that the ice was broken,
could he not do other things? What was there to
stop him (Bigger)” (Native Son 120)? Once we
decide to “Be Bigger,” what is there to stop us
from doing and achieving whatever we want?
Resisting against the system is a normal
part of passionate and active living. The rebel
hero understands this and fights both for and/
or against something with all of his or her might.
“Being Bigger” is rebelling on our own terms with
which we are content to live--not those of society.
It is a practical application of the advice given by