Native Son Book 1, Day 3:
What is going on here?
 They were being “nice” and outgoing
o but this make Bigger feel his “black skin” more, not real, uncomfortable
 They want to be his friends, but don’t know how to act around him
o they, too, are uncomfortable,
o they see him as different and treat him as different
o they want him to like them, they like him
 He has little choice, can’t say no
o they—specifically Mary—have the power in the scene
 she is the daughter of Dalton, is rich, she’s white, is his job to take care of
 Bigger sees her as crazy, and this is confusing to him
o she doesn’t realize that she is using power over him
o this is what makes Bigger feel even more uncomfortable, is that she doesn’t realize that
this is weird for him
o let’s call this her naivety, blindness, ignorance
 Mary and Jan are trying to understand—they want to experience in order to understand
o Bigger doesn’t understand their intent to experience his life, because it is not the norm
for him
 Mary and Jan might try to be treating Bigger as an equal, but he feels like he is on display
o Bigger is feeling cold hate (p. 67 “cold, inarticulate hate)
o INTENT & IMPACT is a really big point
 Bigger has not had the experiences of given all this power to have the option of showing them
the world as he knows it—
o Mary even acknowledges her life as not being the “real” by saying that
o p. 63 the asphalt road experience, he has this moment of feeling comfortable and also
flashes of wondering if he might, in fact, have a positive experience with these people
 67 “But they made him feel his black skin …one by smiling”…”he flashed with anger…why
didn’t they leave him alone…anything could happen with people like these…he felt foolish…he
was very conscious of his black skin &..[believed that was Jan’s intent]…” keep going to the end
of the paragraph.
o they are not asking him how he would like to be treated, they are not following the
Platinum Rule (do unto others as they would like to be treated—which means you
need to ask)
 Jan on 66 is trying to sugest that Bigger could treat him as an equal, but Bigger might see this
as degrading, because he has to hear from Jan that JAN is deciding that Bigger could be equal
to him and then hear from MARY that “it’s okay” because Jan means it.
o Wright makes us feel uncomfortable “Bigger did not answer. Mary was smiling.” And
here it is with the reader sensing that the discomfort and wondering about all this!
 Mary is being flirty to Bigger. There is sexual tension. There is also power here. Mary is even
acting in ways that are suggested the te
 You are around people who are like you. Bridging the gap between rich/white and poor/black
is a great divide. People who are like you are the people you chill with and abide by. Groups
only know about other groups because of what they are told.
o Mary is rich and white, but is not exposed to the culture—even though it is right across
the street.
o SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION: Different races of humans have been kept apart from each
other (whereas different types of dogs do not avoid one another like this!). It is like a
computer chip has placed this into our brains. How have we been programmed.
o People are being kept separate & that exacerbates the problem and perpetuates it.
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o Mary doesn’t think of herself as SOCIAL
o Mary has never had to think about her position. When a fish swims in water and you ask
a fish what water is, it might respond “What do you mean?” Mary thinks of her life as
being completely normal. There is nothing beyond that she needs to aspire to.
p. 63 “I scare you” Mary says to Bigger. 68 “We seem strange to you Bigger, don’t we.”
These are moments in which Mary seems to suggest that she is paying attention to Bigger’s
feelings, but mostly there is not.
o This gives a feeling of Mary and Jan’s deliberate actions, trying to get him on their side.
Mary on 77 “What a people. They have so much emotion…” What might be the impact of
that? It is like putting focus on them, caging them.
o They are not really aware of their impact in saying these things.
o It makes it sound like Bigger is “chosen” among the “other” to be the conduit to that
group. He is acceptable, available to them.
Perhaps the way they are overcompensating (being too nice) is what is making him feel so
uncomfortable.
What Mary is struggling with is how she can prove to him how she really is nice. She might be
aware that he might have difficulty accepting that she, a white woman, could possibly think of
him as equal.
o Could all this be alleviated by Mary just naming “what’s in the room”?
 That she is white, a woman, rich, etc.
 That she would like to ask him questions in order to get to know him, really.
o Mirrors to our own lives:
 trying so hard, trying to treat people
 But Bigger is trying hard, too, overanalyzing things!
 We have not read this way before: Whites overanalysis of slaves’
behavior (in our study) has been the norm.
More Windows/Mirrors
o Dana: Making the School Chest video, felt that she was being looked at. Asked sincerely
a lot of questions, but felt ashamed that she did not now that there was so much
difference just 40 minutes away. Could not sense how to react to a comment by a young
man she met. How do we learn to communicate when people share truths about their lives
that are so different than ours? How do we get beyond that awkwardness that both sides
feel? How do people with good intentions learn to live acc to those intentions but
understand the impacts that might occur and act responsibly.
 One way is to stay in the room, to stay in a place of discomfort.
 Ask others how they feel.
o Jen shares the inability to think of how people who do not have access to wealth (or
middle class) norms.
o Liz shares the PADS experience. There is discomfort and a silence. But later there is
more comfort, and yet, still, there is so much separation of life experiences.
o We have established as a class that Bigger and Mary are making Bigger
uncomfortable, and we as a class are looking at them wondering why they are making
him so uncomfortable; but we do not understand that we are in a different time and
back then it was a new possibility of being together.