Native Son essays

Native Son essays During the 1930s few Americans (whites in particular) were unaware of the side effects of racism on the black population in America. The constant barrage of racist propaganda and racial oppression that blacks like Bigger Thomas faced while growing up inexorably damaged them psychologically. In Biggers case, he saw whites as wealthy and sophisticated beings while he and his poverty stricken family lived in a small, cramped apartment, with little possibility for education. Movies he saw rendered whites as civilized and prosperous people while blacks were depicted as jungle savages. This same wave of racism was not only detrimental to blacks, but whites as well in that it prevented them from realizing the inherent element of humanity within those groups that they oppressed. Most whites fell to racism and the sense of superiority that misled them to seeing blacks as sublevel humans. Throughout Native Son, Richard Wright presents to the reader not only the social but also the psycho logical effects of racism on both the oppressed and the oppressor. The blacks basic thoughts, at this point, were substantially flawed and damaged. Persistent pressure from the oppressors racism forced blacks into a pressured and dangerous state of mind. Blacks were plagued with the hardship of economic oppression and forced to act obsequiously towards their white oppressors. As a result of their living conditions, Biggers attitude toward whites becomes a combination of both anger and fear. Instead of seeing whites as people, Bigger conceives them as an overpowering and antagonistic force that he must push against in fear of his life. Accordingly, Bigger does not distinguish between individual whites; to him they are all the same, frightening and conniving. This fear, anger, and perception of the white population cause Bigger to feel absolutely no guilt after the accidental killing of Mary Dalton. In fact, Bigger ...