A Bildungsroman of Marginalization

Richard Wright’s Native Son presents itself as a Bildungsroman of marginalization. Bigger has been forced to grow up- his father died, he’s impoverished, the oldest, a middle school dropout, and a young adolescent African American- he didn’t have an opportunity for a “childhood”- much like he didn’t and doesn’t have the opportunity for many other things. He does not have the privilege of being white and he doesn’t have the privilege of being upper class. Thus, these terms don’t apply in the same sense as they would in the “white world” or the “rich world”. Bigger’s childhood was likely characterized by the unjust murder of his father, subsequently having to forced to become the man of the house as the oldest, dropping out of middle school and jumping into a life in which he had to think for himself. 

These are not simply just hurdles, they are weights, long term adjustments which require incredible strength to endure. The trauma associated with many of these intense changes ingrained a strong fear in Bigger’s mind. He is fearful because he is overly cautious, pain is not the only thing he’s known but it has left such deep marks that it is what he remembers. This is not to say that marginalized people cannot rise above their circumstances, for human nature is not entirely informed by environment. However, The Blank Slate holds true to the effect that such extremism may oppress certain characteristics otherwise developed. For Bigger, his coming of age is the culmination of his fear. 

Coming of age is associated with full development of the self. One must choose between which “roles” to fulfill. For Bigger, his own struggle has stagnated due to the prematurity of its beginning while also forcing him to skip many other important stages of development. The roles presented to him by a society of white supremacy are the negative stereotypes of African American people. His question “Who am I?” is unanswerable due to limitations set upon him. Society tells him the impossibilities, not the possibilities. The dream of flying an airplane may very well represent his desire to break free from the fear and uncertainty. Not only that, but it’s his aspiration which he wishes to accomplish to further define his sense of self, but he believes that he can never achieve that wish. 

This fear in embedded deep in his double consciousness and forces him to take separate roles in both the “black world” and the “white world.” In the black world he is clearly ashamed of feeling the way he does, going so far as to hold his friend at knife point and slice up the pool table felt at the South Side Boy’s Club. Once in the white world he must immediately divert these feelings of anger and frustration due to his fear and hold them back to present himself as another stereotype, the polite, almost submissive, black man.

Accidentally killing Mary is the climax of that fear and the turning point in Bigger’s story. From there on, the falling action is Bigger’s Flight. Just as he reacted detrimentally to his own case the night of Mary’s death, he continues to build up these wrongdoings until his fall, literally from the window and in metaphor. In a strange, twisted way, this leap is his attempt at flight, to escape his predicament and his problems and thus his fear. The same fear which once drove Bigger to act transforms into one which almost incapacitates him, all fear wants him to do is run. Once he’s killed Mary, he feels as if he must accept himself, as if what he did really represents him rather than just being a mistake that causes him internalize a terrible racial and class stereotype of the poor, black criminal. 

His Flight stands for his moral development, however devoid of morals. Fear forces him to further develop his tactics of aversion to avoid surrepticity, to save himself from guilt. At the same time, it drives him murder Bessie and truly become the murder and rapist he already knew he was because society told him so. It is a two-sided coin which somehow shows both its head and its tail. 

There is a definite resolution, for Bigger is subject to Fate. Strangely enough, the prison seems to detract more from his fear. He is afraid of possibly being sentenced to death, but he also knows it will happen and it does. Supplementing his fear is the crime of being black. He knows how his story will end, giving him an almost stable power. Though just simply knowing will not solve his situation, it seems a comfort to him, it allows him room to breathe, to finally reflect. It is in the face of death that Bigger recognizes and confronts his fear.