E-ISSN: 2395-0870
Journal for Advanced Research in HUMANITIES
A Peer Reviewed International Research Journal
A Journal of
S S Publications, Repalle-522265, Guntur (Dt), Andhra Pradesh, India
Imagery and Symbolism - A Pragmatic Approach a Study of Richard
Wright’s Native Son
Dr.G.Karthikeyani
Assistant Professor in English
Department of Humanities
Coimbatore Institute of Technology
Coimbatore.
heroic
Abstract:
Richard Nathaniel Wright, being one of
opposition
to
oppression
with
an
underlying hope for melioration.
America's greatest black writers, is also among the
Key Words: Wright – black – African American
first African American writers to achieve literary
– Native Son – South – culture – dialect – realism
fame and fortune. But his reputation has less to do
– imagery – symbolism – oppression – violence –
with the colour of his skin than with the
naturalism.
exceptional quality of his work. Wright's prose is
I.
INTRODUCTION
direct and graphic, focusing on the dark and
Richard Wright became an essential figure
violent aspects of life in the rural South during the
thirties. This paper focuses on how Wright uses
in
imagery and symbolism as effective techniques to
literature, influencing such authors as Ralph
express his protagonist, Bigger Thomas‟ inner
Ellison and James Baldwin. He has been called
turmoil in his novel Native Son. His effective use
one of the most powerful writers of the twentieth
of dialect and black folk culture strengthen the
century. The central characters in his fiction are
realism of his stories. As in much literary
usually bitter and alienated black men and his
naturalism,
seem
treatment of their experience provides a vivid
doomed by their social environment. Wright's
portrayal of both the economic and psychological
straightforward narration emphasises his message
effects of racism. Wright played an important role
and like other proletarian authors, he breaks from
in many of the important social movements of his
the pessimistic determinism of naturalism by
time. Wright converted the American Negro
idealising some characters and supporting their
impulse
his
characters
sometimes
the
development
toward
of
African
self-annihilation
American
and
going
underground into a will to confront the world, to
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evaluate his experience honestly and throw his
white society has brought upon him. He is a real
findings unashamedly into the guilty conscience
native son. In this novel, Wright uses the
of America.
combination of direct, naturalistic prose and
Native Son introduces a figure familiar to
symbolism. He carefully reconstructs the physical
the middle of the twentieth century America, the
reality of Southside Chicago, using material
lone man backed into a corner by discrimination
gathered from sociological studies as well as his
and misunderstanding. Frustrated by racism and
own experience. He then skillfully invests objects
the limited opportunities afforded to black men in
with symbolic significance, a technique that helps
society, Bigger Thomas, the protagonist, strikes
him overcome the linguistic limitations of his
out in a futile attempt to transgress the boundaries
inarticulate protagonist.
and limits of his position. Wright gets inside the
Animal symbolism in Native Son plays a
head of Bigger, revealing his feelings, thoughts
and point of view as he commits crimes and is
confronted with racism, violence and debasement.
The
novel's
treatment
of Bigger
and
his
motivations conforms to the conventions of
literary naturalism. While not apologising for
Bigger's crimes, Wright is sympathetic to the
systemic inevitability behind them. Wright‟s
usage of language in his work is a source to
convey his opinions and ideas. His works
challenge and defend the claim that language can
represent a person and become a peephole into
vital role and enriches the ideas of the reader. The
novel opens with an act of violence. The alarm
clock abruptly awakens Bigger and his family to
their miserable reality, further rat-infested, one
bedroom apartment in the urban ghetto of
Chicago. Bigger's battle with the rat reveals his
capacity for brutality. He overcomes the rat by
throwing a shoe at it and killing it. Some critics
argued that the rat is a symbol of Bigger himself
because Bigger invades civilisation like the rat
invades his family‟s home and is killed. This
scene also potentially foreshadows Bigger‟s
their life and surroundings.
Wright‟s Native Son stirred up a real
controversy by shocking the sensibilities of both
black and white America. The protagonist, Bigger
Thomas, is from the lowest ring of society and
Wright does not blend him with any of the
romantic elements common to literary heroes.
Bigger is what one expects him to be because of
the social conditions in which he lives. He is
sullen, frightened, violent, hateful and resentful.
confrontation with virulent forces of racism in
American society. Though he does not kill those
forces in American society itself, he does manage
to kill them in himself. In another perspective, the
rat is a product of his environment and is
powerless when faced with an opponent that has
more weapons at his disposal. The rat is not
inherently bad, but a rat stuck in a city has few
options. Likewise, Bigger is a product of his
He is the product of the condemnation which the
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environment and, when confronted by white
returning to haunt him. As he opens the furnace to
society, he is destroyed.
see if her body has burnt, it appears to him as if
the coals are shaped like her body. The recurring
There was just the old feeling, the feeling
that he had had all his life: he was black and had
done wrong; white men were looking at
something with which they would soon accuse
him. It was the old feeling, hard and constant
again now…. (206)
image of Mary‟s body and of her severed head
reminds him of his guilt, but they also remind him
of the fear and shame that led him to kill her
accidentally. "She was dead and he had killed her.
He was a murderer, a Negro murderer, a black
murderer. He had killed a white woman….In the
Two rats and a cat are used as symbols in
an effective way. The one found in an alley and
darkness his fear made live in him an element
which he reckoned with as „them‟" (86).
the other rat in Bigger's apartment, symbolise
Bigger. Mrs. Dalton's white cat represents white
Bigger has a dream where he is running
society, which often takes the form of a singular
away after being warned by a tolling church bell.
character. Parallels are drawn between these
He is carrying a heavy package. This whole scene
animals and the characters they represent at key
is bathed in a red glare, the glow from the
moments during the novel. These parallels help to
furnace‟s light. When he stops to open the
identify with Bigger and understand why he acts
package, he finds his own severed head inside and
the way he does. The animal imagery in this
his hair thick with blood. He starts to run to find a
novel explains some of Bigger's behaviour and
place to hide. Instead, he runs into some white
generates sympathy for Bigger and fear of whites.
people who want to ask him about the head. He is
In Book One - Fear, the pigeon flying
standing there with blood on his hands. Finally, he
away demonstrates how powerful they think
gives up. He curses them and throws the head
whites are and how trapped they feel in their own
right into their faces. Thus the dream ends. The
lives. Bigger and Gus watches a pigeon which
dream symbolises Bigger‟s guilt, as well as the
lands on the cable car tracks and struts around,
growing sense that he is going to face another
then flies away as a street car approaches. This
confrontation with white folks. Most importantly,
incident provokes Bigger to admit that he wishes
it symbolises his impending doom. It is already
to be like that pigeon, free to fly away without any
known that Bigger cannot outsmart the people
restrictions. The pigeon here represents freedom,
around him forever; the only question is when and
the ability to go where it wants and when it wants
how he will be caught. The dream foreshadows
and instead of being stuck where it is.
his demise but it also answers the question how he
After Bigger kills Mary, the image of her
will be caught: ultimately, Bigger will hand over
severed head with blood soaking her hair keeps
his own head to those seeking answers, whether
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through stupidity or through a subconscious need
4. Howe, Irving. “Black Boys and Native
Sons.” Dissent 10 (1963): 95-110. Print.
to confront his oppressor.
5. Rampersad, Arnold.
Snow starts falling after Bigger kills Mary
and burns her body in the furnace. It continues to
fall until he is captured. This could be seen as a
symbol
of
white
society
enveloping
and
overwhelming the world. Mrs. Dalton‟s literal
Richard Wright: A
Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood
Cliffs,
NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995. Print.
6. Williams, John A. The Most Native of
Sons: A Biography of Richard Wright.
New York: Doubleday, 1970. Print.
blindness serves as a metaphor for white folks‟
social and cultural blindness. Just as she could not
see that Bigger was in the room with her daughter,
or that Mary was actually dead, the white
characters in the novel are blind to the social
realities around them.
Above all, the title is a slam on
American society. Bigger Thomas, as a native son
of America who was born and raised as a black
man in the United States, is supposed to be the
product of the country. Local cultural and social
forces shaped and created him. So if he is a
monster, the title suggests, it can be blamed on
American society too. This is precisely what Max,
Bigger‟s lawyer, argues in Bigger‟s defence after
Bigger commits murder twice.
REFERENCES
1. Wright, Richard. Native Son. New York:
Harper and Row, 1940. Print.
2. Baldwin, James. Notes of a Native Son.
Boston: Beacon P, 1984. Print.
3. Gates Jr., Henry Louis. Black Literature
and Literary Theory. New York: Methuen,
1984. Print.
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