Maggie Gaster

2/12/08
Final

Literary Analysis:
How Bigger was Blind

Power is a dangerous thing. However, wrongly believing that you have power is

far worse. In the book Native Son written by Richard Wright, the main character got a

taste of power, or thought he did, when he committed a murder. Bigger Thomas, killed

Mary Dalton, the daughter of his white employer Mr. Dalton, and covered it up so well

that he thought he couldn’t get caught. He was wrong. But he couldn’t see that, so he felt

that his bold move of killing a white girl would give him power and control over his life.

In reality it was just the opposite. Bigger thought that if he acted the way white people

thought an innocent black man should act, nobody would suspect him because they were

all blind and only he could see that. The result of his false sense of power was that he lost

sight of reality and was under the assumption that he could get away with the murder of a

white girl. However in 1930’s Chicago your race and social status determined your

innocence, not your alleged cleverness. Bigger was the blind one in the story, and by

blaming others he avoided looking at the reality of his situation.

His reason for thinking that everyone was blind was that he thought they ignored

what they did not want to see. He concluded that he could use this to his advantage by

giving off the impression that he did what they thought he would do, even when he was

actually doing what he wanted. He came to this epiphany the morning after killing Mary

Dalton, while eating breakfast with his family. “They did not want to see what others
were doing if that doing did not feed their own desires. All one had to do was be bold, do

something nobody thought of. The whole thing came to him in the form of a powerful

and simple feeling, there was in everyone a great hunger to believe that made him

blinded, and if he could see while others were blind, then he could get what he wanted

and never be caught at it” (Wright, 107). This particular feeling is what led him to his

end, because he didn’t think his situation through before thinking he could get away with

the murder of a white girl.

However, as I previously stated, Bigger was really the blind one because he

couldn’t see that as a black man living in a time in which white men controlled society,

there was no way he could avoid getting caught. Bigger simply did not possess the power

and money required to evade the penalty of his actions. The act of killing made him feel

that he had some control over his life. The reality is, a black man living in 1930’s

Chicago could not just create power or control over his life, it had to be granted to him by

the white people who control the wealth. Obviously, Bigger was the one who is blind in

this situation because he wasn’t thinking about the society he lived in or his place in it.

People with money have power and status in society, and with that power they

control most things. Bigger’s employer Mr. Dalton, was an extremely rich and powerful

member of upper class white Chicago. He was not only Bigger’s employer but was also

his landlord. Bigger was crazy to try and fool somebody who carried so much weight in

society, and so much control over him. A poor black man had no power or chance of

credibility. As far as rich white people were concerned, Bigger was the lowest of the low.

This was the first mistake Bigger made when he assumed that he couldn’t get caught for

murdering Mary Dalton. Mr. Dalton had the whole city of Chicago at his fingertips; the
police and private investigators, the court, and not to mention all the rich and powerful

people who ranked highest on the social class scale. When up against powerful people

like that, what chance did Bigger have? But obviously he couldn’t see this reality.

In the 1930’s, white people employed black people and controlled the little money

and status that they earned. Richard Wright, the author of Native Son, observed this

firsthand as a young black boy growing up in an oppressive society. Wright talks about

this in the article “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow.” He explains that getting his first job

taught him a lot about Jim Crow laws because he was being introduced into the working

world where white people had the power and black people were at their mercy. “There is

but one place where a black boy can get a job, and that’s where the houses and faces are

white, and where the trees, lawns and hedges are green” (Wright, 592). Bigger Thomas

was in the same situation, at the mercy of his white employer. It didn’t matter if he

thought he was cleverer than other people, if they suspected that he killed Mary, there

would be no way out for him because of his place in society. It’s no wonder black people

were poor and didn’t have any power or rights, as society was dominated by white people

who didn’t want to give up any of their power or control.

Bigger was so afraid and hyped up on adrenaline after murdering Mary Dalton

that he couldn’t see the reality of the society that was right in front of him. He of course

had no way to escape the law, but because he was blind, he couldn’t see that. Fear forced

Bigger to invent ideas and feelings of power to prevent him from facing reality. He had to

believe that he could circumvent the law by knowing something that they didn’t know.

He viewed the white society of Chicago as blind because he thought that they could only

see what they expected to see in regard to black people. He thought that he could avoid
being blamed for Mary’s murder if he behaved in a way the white people thought a nice,

upstanding black boy should behave. “He looked anxiously at the dim reflection of his

black face in the sweaty windowpane. Would any of the white faces all about him think

that he had killed a rich white girl? No! They might think that he would steal a dime, rape

a woman, get drunk, or cut somebody, but to kill a millionaire’s daughter and burn her

body? He smiled a little, feeling a tingling sensation enveloping all his body. He saw it all

very sharply and simply: act like other people thought you ought to act, yet do what you

wanted” (Wright, 205). This was the mentality that gave Bigger his false perception of

power. He strongly believed that everybody in the world was so blind and stupid, that

they could never expect that he would do something like kill a millionaire’s daughter.

Mary’s mother, Mrs. Dalton, Bigger’s girlfriend, Bessie, and Bigger’s mother

represent people Bigger considered to be blind. Each one of them possessed a different

quality that gave merit to his opinion. Mrs. Dalton was literally blind, but Bigger saw her

as blind in a different way as well. She was an example of the way Bigger saw all white

people. He viewed her as someone who saw only what she expected from people and as

someone who wouldn’t suspect him if he acted the way she thought a nice colored boy

should act. “Her face and hair were completely white; she seemed to him like a ghost.

The man took her arm gently and held her for a moment. Bigger saw that she was old and

her grey eyes looked stony” (Wright, 46). However, not all white people are the same,

just like black people aren’t all the same. His mentality was hypocritical because he

thought that white people considered every black boy to be the same. When he knew

perfectly well that that was untrue even though he supposedly was not “blind” like they

were. But if he knew that, how could he assume that all white people were the same? He
was judging a whole race of people by the few that he’d met, which made him just as

blind as he thought the white people were.

But people like Bessie and Bigger’s mother were blind because they worked too

hard to see the unfairness of white society, and the possibility of making life more

tolerable. Bigger’s mother looked to religion to get her through hard times and to cover

up the injustice that came along with being black and poor. Bessie used alcohol to mask

her problems. Although Bigger was just as guilty as they were of ignoring the reality of

his situation. Bigger couldn’t see the painful truth, and thought that they were weak.

While they used religion and alcohol, Bigger resorted to violence and aggression. Bessie

and his mother were getting by in the only manner that they knew how, in order to

maintain some control over their own lives. In fact, they were much smarter than he was

because they knew how to avoid getting in trouble.

It was obvious that Bigger was going to get caught from the moment he laid

hands on rich, white Mary Dalton and he should have known it. However, instead of

seeing things for what they were, he kept moving so he wouldn’t have to face his fears.

Bigger did not have power over his life, and because he was black, he would never have

power unless the white people gave it to him. Bigger acted out of fear in order to avoid

the reality of his actions. He wanted to blot out his reality just as much as Bessie and his

mother did, but he chose to do so in a destructive way. He was just as blind as others but

didn’t want to admit it.

The reality was that it was impossible to have success and happiness if you were

black and living in Chicago in the 1930’s. Naturally, the majority of black people would

want to find a way to ignore their reality. Did that make them all blind? I think that
everyone had to be a little blind to ignore the massive divide in power and class between

black people and white people. It made sense for Bigger to resent this unjust society and

to feel trapped. But thinking that he, a member of the most hated and discriminated race,

(the young black man) was not going to get caught by white authority showed that he was

incredibly blind. Was the fear and powerlessness that was caused by the power divide that

made him what he was. He had to be blind to trick himself into thinking that he could be

in command of his own life and that there was some success awaiting him in his future.
 Bibliography

1. Wright, Richard. Native Son. New York: Harper Perennial, 1940

2. Wright, Richard. “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow.” The Conscious Reader

2000: 590-600