Richard Wright’s novel, Native Son asks who is to blame for immoral actions – the criminal or the society that the criminal lives in? The novel suggests that society is not only responsible for the crimes of its members, but actually creates the criminal. Boris Max, Bigger’s lawyer, implies that punishing (or giving the death sentence to) a murderer, doesn’t solve the larger, societal problem. He states that “those [penalties] don’t touch the fundamental problem involved here,” (353) and that change needs to come on a community level in order to prevent disenfranchised people like Bigger from resorting to crime. Max serves as Richard Wright’s mouthpiece, voicing the message that circumstances can lead one to a predestined doom. While it may be clear that Bigger’s circumstances and environment played a key role in his development, it remains unclear whether or not his circumstance actually justifies his crimes. Although Bigger earns sympathy due to his first person perspective, which garners understanding for his reasoning for his actions, he still remains a murderer and a rapist. The moral ambiguity prevalent in Native Son lends itself to support the fact that justice comes in many forms, and every element of an individual’s situation can not ever be fully analyzed. However, the clearly biased court comes to a quick decision on Bigger’s guilt, sentencing him to death. Whether or not he truly deserved this fate remains undecided.
Bigger Thomas views the world through a victim’s lens, causing him to be angry at everyone around him, his situation, and the world. He has a dysfunctional relationship with his family, they live in a run-down apartment, and he becomes increasingly aware of the fact that his opportunities are slim due to his skin color and lack of money. Bigger never desired to become a murderer, but, taking his situation into account, it seems inherent for him to eventually become a criminal of some sort. When he discovers a rat in his apartment in the beginning of the novel, Bigger has to find a way to trap and get rid of it himself. During this opening scene, “Bigger took a shoe and pounded the rat's head, crushing it, cursing hysterically: 'You sonofabitch!'” (17) Coincidentally, Bigger focuses a large amount of energy and anger in completely destroying this creature that ventured into the wrong world, similar to the way Bigger is later destroyed by the world of the whites whom he has lived in fear of his entire life.
By writing from Bigger’s perspective, Richard Wright makes readers sympathetic for Bigger because we see the situation from his personal lens. Bigger ultimately discovers the necessity of violence in his life – to the point where he “didn’t know [he] was really alive in this world until [he] felt things hard enough to kill for ‘em” (429). Violence serves as a positive element in Bigger’s life, an outlet for his anger, allowing him to triumph over his situation and act for himself for a change. Finally, he can explore his identity as a human being. When Max asks Bigger what he wants in life, Bigger is unsure, later realizing that he never had the luxury to consider things such as personal desires and dreams. His lack of internal understanding of himself reflects the theme that violence becomes an identity to those who are not able to find their own. Therefore, his actions seem justifiable, or at least understandable. Although there are moral issues with siding with a murderer and rapist, Wright provides enough background for readers to feel drawn to Bigger’s side. The justice system is broken, but it came to the correct decision (albeit without taking actual facts into consideration). Societal and cultural change must take place to end the violent reaction of blacks against those who repress them.
To extinguish crime in a society in which crime runs rampant, the justice system must be efficient and effective. In Native Son, a mob mentality influences the justice system, causing justice to, ironically, operate with a criminal mentality. The justice system itself is corrupt and biased against black Americans. The court focuses primarily on the murder and alleged rape of Mary Dalton, even though his violation of Bessie was much worse and completely premeditated. His murder of Mary seems like an accident and a poor chance of fate, but the racist court only cares that he murdered her and possibly raped her. Although he may not have technically raped her in the way the court accuses, he realizes that rape can take multiple forms. “They would say he had raped her… Rape was what one felt when one’s back was against a wall and one had to strike out…” (190) Bigger is a victim to constant fear, repeatedly backed into both metaphorical and literal walls by those who seek to destroy him. His feeling of powerlessness is evident in the fact that he murders Mary when her mother walks into the room, even though she is blind and would not be able to see what he was doing anyway. He kills and “rapes” Mary out of fear, and as a subconscious way of lashing out against society, but not his own personal motives.
According to Max, although Bigger is responsible for his own actions, his criminal behavior is an after-effect of the ignorance and oppression in the environment in which he was raised. Therefore, the judge should be more lenient on Bigger. On the other hand, Bigger’s premeditated crimes are more indicative of his violent personality, and serve to justify the court’s decision. Bigger acts selfishly to cover up his murders instead of facing them head on. He reacts to the system rather than being proactive to prevent himself from committing deadly acts. Bessie is also a product of oppression, but she acts in a completely different way than Bigger – becoming complacent in her situation rather than being violent and lashing out like he does. When Bigger reveals that he murdered Mary, she exclaims, “Don’t do this to me! Please! All I do is work, work like a dog! From morning till night. I ain't got no happiness,” (238) indicating her hard working, yet servile, nature. Perhaps his underlying reasoning for murdering her lies in the fact that he resents her complacency and her unwillingness to resist oppression. Bigger knows he is guilty, but feels no remorse for his actions because he focuses on how everything affects him personally; he kills Bessie to save his own skin. Even though Bigger’s crimes are understandable, they are still reprehensible and he should be punished to the full extent of the law. The judge’s decision was still the right decision to make, but it was based on false claims made by the racist mob. Bigger deserves the death penalty because of his treatment to Bessie, with the murder of Mary only serving as an additional reason for his sentence.
Through systemic racism, oppression, and ignorance to problems within the black community, the whites of Chicago created a monster – probably not the first, and definitely not the last. White society needs to destroy the monster they created in order to feel some sense of security and innocence. Richard Wright argues that mistreatment of African Americans results in a never-ending cycle which will fuel itself with continued violence until society addresses the real issue, and changes to allow the voices of all races to be heard. If society remains blind and ignorant, people like Bigger – products of violence and oppression – will be created, and the cycle of ignorance and hate will go on. Eventually, the fire of hatred will consume anybody and everybody in its path. Wright also points out that, although Bigger loses his life, Max’s statements on the nature of humans (and the influence society has on them), regardless of race, are true statements that may be applicable to other black Americans who have not fallen into their predetermined fates like Bigger has. Obviously, Bigger’s circumstance influenced his actions, but, ultimately, his crimes are his to bear.