Richard Wright's Native Son fulfills its classification as a 'protest novel' - although some may be critical of Bigger Thomas as a character with no conscience, it goes a long way to protest and point out many injustices of American society and the circumstances that created Bigger Thomas. One aspect of broken American society in this book that really stood out to me was how rigged and racist the justice system is. The term 'justice' means fairness or equity, but the courts and police system in Native Son seem to be everything but fair.
The most blatant example of this can be seen in Book Three of Native Son, from pgs. 317-324. In this scene, the jury is questioning Jan about his role in the death of Mary and Bigger's crime, and there is clearly no respect or humanity in the way Bigger is referred to or the the way Jan is questioned about his interactions with Bigger. They constantly refer to Bigger simply as 'that Negro' or 'the Negro' or 'that drunken Negro'. Some quotes that particularly stand out are: " 'Did you, in your agitation of that drunken Negro, tell him that it was all right for him to have sexual relations with him?' ... 'Did you shake hands with that Negro?' ... '... Tell me, did you eat with that Negro?' ... 'How many times have you eaten with Negroes before?' ... 'You like Negros?' ... 'Didn't you tell that drunken Negro to call you Jan instead of Mr. Erlone?' " From this interaction, one can see that there is absolutely no respect for Bigger as a human being - the idea of a white man and a black man doing basic things like shaking hands or getting in a car together or eating dinner together seems absolutely absurd to the coroner, who in the legal system is meant to be an official who can investigate the crime without any bias. However, that does not seem to be the case in this interaction whatsoever. He almost refers to Bigger and African Americans as animals, being shocked that one would eat with them.
Another example of this is Buckley's conversation with Bigger. We talked about this a bit in class, about how Bigger has absolutely no sort of individual identity and all the crimes committed recently by 'black Negro boys' are pinned to his back. This builds on the idea I talked about in the last paragraph, that Bigger is not referred to or talked about as an individual human being who has his own feelings and experiences, but simply as a black boy who they try to fit into the trope about African Americans. Buckley simply pins everything on Bigger, declares victory, and leaves Bigger to sob on his cell floor, with no one in the world there to understand him or understand his story.
One thing that we didn't talk about as much is the hate that the justice system has towards those who help African Americans like Bigger - in Native Son, it's mainly the Communists. Even Bigger mentions in the scene described in paragraph 2 about how the coroner seemed to be brimming with hate and prejudice for Jan, mostly because he had been nice to Bigger and seemed to be on his side. The justice system seems so stacked against Bigger that it is willing to propel hate and prejudice towards anyone who even defends Bigger or seems to side with him.
Great Job! I really like your second paragraph, you did a good job referencing specific quotes. I also liked how you explained the flaws of the coroner and how he should be questioning Jan in an unbiased way.
ReplyDeleteI'm very glad you touched on this topic in your blog post. I think the justice system is an incredibly important part of Native Son, since Bigger's awareness of its unfair bias is the root of many of his decisions throughout the book. While the depiction of the justice system in Native Son is incredibly shocking, its still accurate to the reality of the time period, and even to the reality of today.
ReplyDeleteI really like your blog post! It is pretty horrible that this book is so realistic. Lots of these events you would wish would be just fiction, but these unjust practices leave roots that can be seen in the justice system today.
ReplyDeleteYes--we can be critical of the way Max "speaks for" Bigger in court (although that is precisely the job description of a defense attorney), but the novel does make clear that he is making a real sacrifice by putting his name to Bigger's case. None of the black civil-rights leaders in Chicago want anything to do with this case, since Bigger is such an unsympathetic "cause" to take up. Max may be advancing a "communist" analysis of society and race, but those happen to be his beliefs, and his critique of the justice system is in line with its depiction throughout the novel. He is receiving anti-Semitic death threats for his willingness to align with Bigger: he may not be an entirely unproblematic ally, but Wright does essentially affirm his analysis of the system and how it works (not least by depicting the system as being entirely uninterested in engaging his structural critique).
ReplyDeleteI wholeheartedly agree with your point about the injustice of the justice system. The irony is baffling, yet so realistic. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI love your use of evidence in this post. I think you did a great job of clearly outlining the conflict within the justice system. I think you can definitely relate the themes going on specifically in book 3 with the justice system to how it has already effected him throughout his life. One could argue the inequality and thoughts that are encouraged by the justice system contributed to the actions that led Bigger Thomas to this point in his life.
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