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English Essay Research: Racism in Native Son by Richard Wright

Native Son is a racial oppression expose of the 1930s American society. The author,
Richard Wright, uses the experiences of the protagonist, Bigger Thomas, to provide the audience
with invaluable insight into racial segregation and the tragic ways in which African American
suffered. Throughout Native Son, wright insists on the innocence of Bigger and instead based on
the titular interpretation, he is native son, a product of racism and violence that was pervading
the social conditions in which he grew up. The Blackness of Bigger and the whiteness he
encounters are the results of the oppression of blacks by whites and is exacerbated by the
misunderstanding between the races. Native Son sets up racist constructions, depicts their
consequences and illustrates how these racial constructions are transcended, portraying a multilayered view of racism.

The character of Mr. Dalton is used in Native Son to construct the shaming nature of
white racism. Mr. Dalton’s gaze at Bigger makes the latter feel ashamed. Mr. Dalton considers
himself sympathetic to the black cause, which has a condescending tone to it. Mr. Dalton’s gaze
at Bigger was “with an amused smile that make him conscious of every square inch of skin on

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his black body” (46). The depiction of Mr. Dalton’s amusement and impliedly superior gaze is
portrayed as a form of white racism. The superior gaze racializes the black man’s physique in a
manner that makes Bigger conscious of his skin and his corporeality of his black body (5). Mr.
Dalton stares at Bigger in a manner that makes him aware of his skin color.

Wright constructs white racism with a condescen...