Bigger Thomas: A Pawn of Fear

Native Son by Richard Wright is divided up into 3 books rather than the conventional style of shorter chapters. The first book is titled “Fear,” and when reading the novel for the first time I did not really think much of it, or really even remember what it was called. However after finishing the book it is clear how fitting of a title “Fear” is and how Bigger Thomas, the main character, is completely controlled by fear in almost every aspect of his life.

 

One of the first big instance where we can really see the impact fear has on him is near the beginning of the book when he is with his friends. Bigger talks about how he and his friends have robbed various black people, but that they had never robbed a white man before. They had talked about robbing Blum’s, a store owned by a white man, and were debating whether or not to go through with it. When they all get together and decide they might actually do it, Bigger gets scared. He was relying on his friends to say no to going through with it, so he didn’t have to be the one to say no, but that clearly didn’t happen. When Gus doesn’t show right away to rob the store, Bigger gets antsy and mentions how Gus is probably just to scared rob a white man, projecting his own fear onto him. Bigger is so scared of the consequences if someone were to find they robbed a white man and that manifests as anger and violence towards Gus.

 

The second time when I really noticed Bigger’s actions stemming from fear was possibly the biggest plot point of the novel – the murder of Mary Dalton. After a night out, Bigger brings Mary – drunk – home and takes her up to bed. He then proceeds to kiss her drunken, half-conscious, body, until he hears the door open and “He turned and a hysterical terror seized him, as though he were falling from a great height in a dream,” (Wright, 85). Mrs. Dalton had come into the room looking for Mary and Bigger is absolutely terrified of her discovering him in the room with her daughter. If she were to discover that he, a black man, were in the room with her white daughter, he believes that would be the end of him. Everyone would assume he had raped her, and things would never be the same. In reality he did actually sexually assault her, but he might not think of it that way. Driven by this fear, he presses a pillow into her face to stop her from making any noise that would alert her mother to his presence. We can see that he was so afraid of her finding him that he actually murdered Mary.

 

The last action of Bigger’s that to me is one done out of fear is his second murder of the book – that of Bessie, his girlfriend. In the aftermath of Mary’s death he had told Bessie about what happened and was using her to help him evade the Dalton’s and get money out of them. However, Bessie is clearly very uncomfortable with helping Bigger. One night in the cold, after violently raping her, he decides that he must kill her. He describes how he is afraid that if he continues to take her along, that she might snap and tell on him, and he can’t have that. Because of this fear, he murder’s her, so as to have no possibility of being ratted out.

 

It is clear to me through all of these examples that Bigger is someone who is completely controlled by fear, and if affects all aspects of his life. Without fear, his story would have been completely different.