Freedom

Something Mr. Mitchell said very often in class was a phrase Bigger used, explaining to Gus how he felt, that he was looking through a metaphorical fence all his life, being kept away from all the opportunities and resources that white people had. Physically, for much of the novel Bigger is trapped inside a cage, and before that he was trapped inside a neighborhood. It intrigued me how Wright could depict Bigger looking out and looking in at the same time, and it got me thinking about his freedom. Does Bigger ever feel free in Native Son?

I think not. Perhaps the closest he felt to being free was while he was running away from the law in Book 2. For a day, he's in full control of his destiny. But only for a fleeting moment; very quickly the lynch mob catches up with him, and until the very end of the book he is behind bars. A sense of resignation is instilled into him (other than the brief stint with the preacher where he loses even more hope afterwards). Even at the very last page, when I think the class agreed that Bigger felt most at peace with himself, Bigger is shaking the bars to his cage: a physical barrier between him and the rest of the world. Although we can see Bigger's mental development throughout the book, his physical real-life situation remains the same in all 400 pages: trapped and restricted. Perhaps this is Richard Wright's most subtle criticism of the then-present environment in America. The lack of true freedom for black people.

Comments

  1. Nina GalvezAugust 27, 2018 at 10:27 AM

    I agree with you post! In the beginning, Bigger is trapped in the Black Belt and in his own house to a certain extent. Then when he kills Mary, he describes a sense of freedom which he classifies as knowing something others don't. Then he is no longer free when running from the law and ultimately behind bars. Though it is brief, Bigger does feel a sense of freedom which we have been describing as power. Whether power and freedom are the same thing is up for debate.

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  2. Leslie AnukwuAugust 27, 2018 at 3:15 PM

    I like the analogy of the fence, it reminds me of a movie on the apartheid in South Africa I once watched. I also feel as though Bigger never truly felt free, because as he put in book 2 or 3, he was "always in a prison and this one just has bars" (or something like that). Whether or not African-Americans have freedom is something I can't say for myself, but I'm glad that there are people talking about it. Thank you for your blogpost.

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  3. EmmaAugust 28, 2018 at 7:53 AM

    I agree with you, that Bigger never experiences true freedom. Even when he gets a fleeting sense of what he describes as liberation, he's still carrying out a prophecy in a way. If he doesn't stay in his "place", then he's a brutal threat to white people and needs to be eliminated. It feels like he's in a room with walls that are slowly caving in as the book progresses. The sense of inevitability is simultaneously frustrating and scarily relevant.

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  4. Martin DSeptember 7, 2018 at 10:24 AM

    While Bigger barely ever feels any freedom I thought he had a lot of independence when he was planning out the ransom drop. There he was the one making the moves rather than reacting. Yet again he still feels a sense of dread as he knows something bad will happen to him. He's known that for almost his whole life.

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