Thinking about “How Bigger Was Born”
Respond to one of the following:
 What does Bigger symbolize/represent for Wright?
 What factors contribute the “Bigger Thomas conditioning” (440)? That is, according to Wright, what
shapes or creates a “Bigger Thomas”?
 How does this essay shed light on the novel? How does it help you understand Bigger or the novel as a
whole?
 Wright feels the moral of his book is the “horror of Negro life in the United States” (461). Based on this
essay, the novel as a whole, and on history, what is that horror?
Thinking about “How Bigger Was Born”
Respond to one of the following:
 What does Bigger symbolize/represent for Wright?
 What factors contribute the “Bigger Thomas conditioning” (440)? That is, according to Wright, what
shapes or creates a “Bigger Thomas”?
 How does this essay shed light on the novel? How does it help you understand Bigger or the novel as a
whole?
 Wright feels the moral of his book is the “horror of Negro life in the United States” (461). Based on this
essay, the novel as a whole, and on history, what is that horror?
Thinking about “How Bigger Was Born”
Respond to one of the following:
 What does Bigger symbolize/represent for Wright?
 What factors contribute the “Bigger Thomas conditioning” (440)? That is, according to Wright, what
shapes or creates a “Bigger Thomas”?
 How does this essay shed light on the novel? How does it help you understand Bigger or the novel as a
whole?
 Wright feels the moral of his book is the “horror of Negro life in the United States” (461). Based on this
essay, the novel as a whole, and on history, what is that horror?
Thinking about “How Bigger Was Born”
Respond to one of the following:
 What does Bigger symbolize/represent for Wright?
 What factors contribute the “Bigger Thomas conditioning” (440)? That is, according to Wright, what
shapes or creates a “Bigger Thomas”?
 How does this essay shed light on the novel? How does it help you understand Bigger or the novel as a
whole?
 Wright feels the moral of his book is the “horror of Negro life in the United States” (461). Based on this
essay, the novel as a whole, and on history, what is that horror?
Thinking about “How Bigger Was Born”
Respond to one of the following:
 What does Bigger symbolize/represent for Wright?
 What factors contribute the “Bigger Thomas conditioning” (440)? That is, according to Wright, what
shapes or creates a “Bigger Thomas”?
 How does this essay shed light on the novel? How does it help you understand Bigger or the novel as a
whole?
 Wright feels the moral of his book is the “horror of Negro life in the United States” (461). Based on this
essay, the novel as a whole, and on history, what is that horror?