Bigger Thomas Character Analysis in Native Son (Essay Sample)

With media being the main source of news and current information for decades, to what extent do we allow ourselves to be influenced by the media we consume on a regular basis? In the novel Native Son by Richard Wright, Bigger Thomas gets introduced as a character who is hyper aware of the way he is perceived by others; especially white people. Throughout the novel the use of media allows for readers to get insight on how black people are often demonized in the media, and the harm this does to the black community in Bigger’s perspective. The dehumanization of black people is an oppressive tactic that  Native Son media ultimately feeds into the oppressive system that allows for racial hierarchy, and influences the way black people are treated in society. 

Newspapers in the novel serve as the main media source, allowing readers to see how white people's perception of the black community is negatively influenced through the way they are represented. After Bigger ultimately kills Mary, newspapers covering the crime give details that had not yet been confirmed; and pin him as the main suspect, ”Reporters find Dalton girl’s bones in furnace. Negro cheffuer disappars…Authorities hint sex crime” (find page). Although the police hadn’t given out these details, newspapers immediately associated the crime with having to do with sexual assult after Bigger’s escape. This was a commonly used tactic to associate black men with having the ability to commit heinous, inhumane crimes. This idea that black men are ultimately dangerous not only affects white people’s perception of black people, but also black people to themselves. Bigger’s character constantly views himself from an outside standpoint, realizing that people already expect him to act a certain way and make certain decisions because he is a black man. Following Bigger’s capture, he is handed an article as he sits with the police, it reads, “Though the Negro killers body does not seem compactly built, he gives the impression of possessing abnoraml physical strength… and his skin is exceedingly black…lower jaw protrudes obnoxiously, reminding one of a jungle beast” (279).  The entire article goes in depth about Bigger’s life, stripping him of all humanity and often comparing his behavior and build to that of a wild animal. This creates the idea that Bigger was not just a man capable of committing murder, but it was in his natural instinct to be violent. The dehumanization of black men allows white people to justify their brutality towards the black community because their minds begin to separate whites and blacks to a hieratical system. 

The parallel between Bigger and the rat throughout the novel in specific parts can  reflect how Bigger’s livelihood is consumed by the way he is perceived in media. In the opening of the novel, Bigger and his family surround a rat that his mom catches sight of in their living room. After Bigger eventually kills the rat with a skillet, he is told to wrap the rat's dead body in a newspaper to discard of it, “He wrapped the rat in a newspaper and went out the door and down the stairs…” (7). The entire passage describing the rats movements and reactions is very detailed, and the scene parallels to Bigger’s capture at the end of the novel where he is surrounded by white assailants hoping to capture him, “He knew only that he was lying here with a gun in his hand, surrounded by men who wanted to kill him” (267). Similarly to the rat scene, Bigger is surrounded by people he fears, and they fear him as well. After the rat is captured it is wrapped in a newspaper, and similarly Bigger is handed a newspaper by the police that is about his capture. There is a number of things that led Bigger to murdering Mary, but particulary the fear that he would become what white people already expected of him . This mindset led him to believe that he had no chance of surviving in a society that wouldn't recognize him beyond his race. Bigger spent the entirety of his life feeling powerless, but taking the life of a wealthy white woman gave him a sense of control and stability that he hadn’t felt before. Ultimately, this decision defined his fate, and in the end he is once again powerless. 

Native Son shows the perspective of growing up as a young black man, and having your future defined within the barriers created by a racist society. Wright’s potrayal of Bigger captures readers because his actions- although disturbing- shows that Bigger became capable of murder because the dominant white culture feared that he would. The fear and anger that Bigger felt towards white people only contributed to what fueled his motive for murder. Media outlets that were heavily consumed and relied upon by the general public were not informants, but rather a tool to reinforce negative stereotypes about the black community.