Native Son, Day 4&5 (pgs 97-156)

"Blackness". Blackness prevents one from freedom. Blackness forces one to submit to the white man. Blackness means one's life is meaningless and already set. Can't climb up the social latter, can't talk back to the white man, can't become whatever one wants to be. Blackness is a curse, a curse that is not removable, a curse that is obtained at birth. The only way to avoid the curse is to not be born black. But Bigger sees this "blackness" as a blessing, a blessing that opens up a road to freedom, power, and influence. Still, the power dynamics has not changed. Blacks are inferior to whites, and it is because of that that Bigger obtains the power of manipulation and "weapons that were invisible" (Wright 130).

Because of the social differences between whites and blacks, nobody would ever conceive of the idea of a black man lying to a white man, even less killing or touching a white woman. Blacks are scared of whites, so blacks will never go against whites, thus Bigger is automatically not guilty of anything done to them. Social disparity also means that white people have a good amount of pride, so they would not ask Bigger any questions that cross the social line and make whites rely on blacks. This pride glaringly shows when Mrs. and Mr. Dalton goes to Bigger's room to ask him what happened. Mrs. Dalton wants to ask more questions, but her pride prevents her. Bigger even explains, "She would be ashamed to let him think that something was so wrong in her family that she had to ask him, a black servant, about it" (Wright 128). Mrs. Dalton does not want to rely on a black man or else that would tarnish her pride as the superior rich white person and also as a hirer.

Other people are blind to the fact that a black man would attempt to rise up and hamper the social latter. White people do not expect Bigger, a black man, to have killed or done anything to Mary. Even though they are blind, Bigger used to be blind himself in Jan's perspective. When Bigger saw Buddy again, "Buddy was soft and vague; his eyes were defenseless and their glance went only to the surface of things" (Wright 108). Bigger saw his previous self in Buddy, a lonely and meaningless life. Bigger finally understood that this was how Jan viewed blacks.