Samantha Gaylord

Professor Boots

EN 546

Literary Response

November 21, 2013

Biggers Clandestine Internal Chaos Caused by Masculine and Feminine Ideals within Native

Son

Richard Wrights epic novel, Native Son, is an emotional and hauntingly raw narrative

during the early twentieth century that showcases societys views regarding the unequal social

structure and conditions between white and black people in city of Chicago. The protagonist of

the piece, Bigger Thomas, witnesses, experiences, and actively participates in the violence that

grips this segregated and scared metropolis, and exerts an overly masculine faade and is

terrified of others seeing his fear which he directly attributes to weakness and femininity.

Although Bigger masks his fear behind phallic symbols like his gun and knife that he must have

with him at all times, Bigger still cannot control his hatred for his own race and hatred for the

whites and allows Bigger to emit feminine like qualities which he loathes. Bigger has been

emasculated by the general belief that a white woman is more powerful than he is because he is a

man, and the piece carefully hides the predominant notion of the inferiority between genders. He

is not only insubordinate to the white man, but even more damaging to Biggers ego, he is treated

as he is inferior by his mother and as well as all white women; from the very beginning of the

literature, Bigger is ordered around by his mother to shut that thing off and turn on the light,

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revealing her power over Bigger which indicates his fear of the sex and emasculation (Wright 7).

The fate of Bigger seems doomed from the start for almost everything he has is stripped away

from him including his freedom, identity, and any options for improvement have been replaced

with the fear of doubt that he will ever accomplish anything meaningful in life. Bigger knows he

has the odds stacked against him, so why should he even try, and any innocent hope he once had

has been swapped with bitterness and hatred. Bigger throughout the novels first and second

section has two common phallic symbols, a gun and a knife, that denotes masculinity, and feels

safer with a gun,

Because Bigger conceals many of his emotions and opinions, as the work progresses, the

intensity of these suppressed sentiments that were buried deep inside of him finally snaps,

leading to Bigger no longer able control his rage and becomes progressively more violent until

all his hidden hatred surfaced for all to see and open the eyes of all the deliberate neglect to see

society as it is, and not what is falsely envisioned. Bigger and his gang of petty thieves,

especially Gus, repeatedly test each others courage, and the situation that arises between Gus

and Bigger when Bigger forces Gus to lick his knife is worth analyzing. After Bigger fears that

Gus has become aware of Biggers cowardice, Bigger immediately resorts to animalistic instincts

like fighting for dominance and pride, and after Bigger overtakes Gus, he demands that Gus

lick his phallic weapon symbolizes Biggers need to feel dominant over other black men, since

he feels inferior to almost everyone else that surrounds him (41). Even though Bigger attempts to

exert his masculinity and creates an imaginary world where he and his fellow black friends

pretend they are white, Bigger is described after the altercation with Gus as becoming pregnant

with another idea, which presents Bigger as possessing an ability that only women can do, and

immediately follows with Bigger cutting a circle and threatening to cut [his] belly button

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out, which evokes images of the maternal womb where Biggers thoughts originate (41). Bigger

perceives himself as emitting feminine traits and his hatred for the gender can be distinctly

throughout the novel; when examining this incident, it appears that Bigger is illustrating his

misogynic attitude toward women by desiring to destroy this adversary with his knife, or

symbolically, Biggers masculine self. Bigger is terrified that everyone will know that he is not

as tough as he projects himself to be, and the repeated reference to his suffering from bouts of

hysterical tensity, eludes to the common psychiatric diagnosis primarily given to women and

implies Biggers oppressed feminine traits that erupt violently due to his self-hatred of

possessing characteristics of a sex he deems inferior to himself and cannot accept his true

identity.

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 Work Cited:

Wright, Richard. Native Son: The Original 1940 Text. New York: Perennial, 2003. Print.

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