Richard Wright's Native Son Written Term Paper

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Wright therefore suggests that race and social class are intimately related.

In Part One of the novel, Bigger expresses his primitive understanding of class struggle when he states, "Sure, it was all a game and white people knew how to play it," (37). People with economic and political power are the main obstacles to racial equality; characters like Buckley also show how class conflict is even more important than race. Native Son is also a Marxist novel because Bigger demonstrates that class conflict is a deep problem in society. Poverty makes Bigger feel anxious, afraid, mistrustful, and powerless. The only reason why he accepts the chauffeur job is because he is poor. Bigger's unfortunate string of murders occurred as a result of Bigger's sense of powerlessness. The only characters who speak to Bigger as if he were an equal happen to all be communists: Mary, Jan, and Boris Max. Bigger is shocked to find white people speaking to him as a human being: "She responded to him as if he were human, as if he lived in the same world as he," (p. 74). The communists' motivation for treating Bigger kindly is their notion of social equality, which was in turn rooted in Marxism.

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Bigger himself is not a communist nor a Marxist. In fact, he seems resolved to accepting the social stratification that has haunted him throughout his entire life. It is Jan and Max who turn Bigger's crimes into proofs of America's ills. Jan and Max essentially want to show the world the "bigger picture" regarding racism and social injustice. Bigger becomes the poster boy for the promotion of communist ideals, even if those ideals fail to succeed in the end.

Ultimately, Marxism fails to make a difference. Bigger is still condemned to death and no one truly learns anything from Bigger's unfortunate life circumstances. However, Native Son remains a powerful example of how race and class are intertwined in American society, and how many of the problems faced by Americans may be related to class conflicts.

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