Aftermaths Of Fear, Racial Discrimination, Hate

Title: Native Son
Author: Richard Wright
Publisher: Harper & Brothers Publications, U.S.A
Pages: 460
Reviewer: Adjekpagbon Blessed Mudiaga

Native Son, by Richard Wright, tells the story of endless crimes some racially blind white folks in the western world have been committing for over two and half centuries to the present day against black people, and the consequences.

The setting of the novel is South Side, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America, saturated by racial prejudice of the 1930s. Bigger Thomas, a twenty-year-old black lad is the protagonist, who sees white people as generally overwhelming with force over the black people of America. Through his experiences from childhood to adulthood, negative images of how majority white people exploit and dictate how black people should live in wretched environment, what to do and how to work embeds his mind.

He dislikes the discriminatory, oppressive and hypocritical tendencies of many white folks. This boils down to the volcanic fear and hate he has been nurturing on the whites, and culminates in his murder of a twenty-three-year old white heiress, Mary Dalton, the only child of a multimillionaire estate business magnate, Mr. Henry Dalton and his blind wife, Mrs. Dalton. The author portray Mr/Mrs Dalton as hypocrites who over-exploit black people and give them irrelevant aid in order to be seen as well meaning philanthropists- a common practice by the western world against African countries from time immemorial.

Bigger also kills his own girlfriend, a black lady known as Bessie Mears, as he is afraid that she might reveal his crime against the Daltons, after forcing her to write a kidnap note with intent to collect 10,000 USD from them by creating an impression that their daughter is still alive, before curious journalists discover Mary’s bones in her parents’ house furnace.

The role media play in society comes to the fore as newspapers report Mary’s death. How some media houses create hatred and prejudicial propaganda in some societies are also the hallmarks of the novel. Instead of using the media to encourage love, friendship, interracial unity, and condemn injustice, some practitioners use it to fan embers of hatred and warfare. This is a sharp contrast to one of the ethics of journalism that calls for balance and fairness in reporting. For instance, in Faceless by Amma Darko, the media is projected as playing traditional surveillance and investigative roles for social peace, while Native Son showcases the unethical character of some journalists causing chaos and hatred among races and ethnic groups worldwide.

One commendable lesson among several other ones in the plot is ‘Individual Differences Theory’ that the author highlights despite the seeming general oppressive nature of white people against black folks. The equal right philosophies of some white characters such as Jan Erlone, a member of the Communist Party (Red), who is also Mary’s boyfriend; and Boris Max, a Jewish lawyer, working with the Labor Defenders in alliance with Communist Party, are pointers to the fact that- not all white people are racists. Mary’s inclination to know how black people live also portrays her willingness to associate with black people before her unfortunate death.

Incontrovertibly, Mr. Buckley, the incumbent attorney cum politician of Illinois State and some white mob can be described as the major antagonists in the story line, whose acidic hatred for black people leads to the final sentence a white judge pass on Bigger.

The challenges of raising stubborn male children by a single-mother and over-patronizing religious beliefs are other focal points in the novel, as Bigger refuse to be obedient in view of his mother’s extraordinary believe in western religion of the cross and Reverend Hammond prayer.

Nonetheless, inspite of the glaring discrimination and oppression of blacks by some racially mad white folks in the western world, it is not advisable to use murder to settle scores like Bigger, as he ends up with indictment for murder under case number 666-983 at a Court, which according to Illinois state laws sentence him to die through electrocution on chair, on or before midnight of Friday, March of the unstated particular year he commits the crime. Racial discrimination, fear and hate are therefore the keynotes of the story line.

In peroration, the portrayal of legal fires between the State Attorney and Max during Bigger’s trial is highly insightful and commendable, but the author’s excessive reliance on palilogy throughout the plot and subplots could discourage an impatient reader from digesting the nitty-gritty of the entire novel. Yet, it is a great work of art that vividly tells the story of the persistent racial crises still bedeviling many blacks in America.