Native Son

            Bigger Thomas: Human Being or Cold-blooded Killer?.
             In his novel Native Son Richard Wright uses his main character Bigger Thomas to specifically describe the human emotions of whom most white Americans of the time saw as a run of the mill black delinquent. Most people would perceive Bigger as a criminal; after all, he is a thief, a liar, and a murderer. However, Wright brings about empathy in the reader towards Bigger during his novel in a variety of ways. The most prominent examples of this are Wright writing Native Son from Bigger's point of view, showing the severe discrimination against Bigger and other African Americans in the early twentieth century, illustrating Bigger's desperation in life, and causing the reader to question the extent to which Bigger is morally responsible for Mary's death. Wright's main intent of evoking sympathy from the reader through Bigger's character is so that he or she will identify with Bigger as a human being instead of a cold-blooded killer.
             The most influential way Wright initiates compassion towards Bigger is by writing Native Son from Bigger's viewpoint. By knowing Bigger's state of mind, the reader is more readily capable of relating to him. Also, it helps to more accurately portray the African American race's urgency for equality. Many African Americans in the 1930s possessed a generalized feeling of hopelessness towards impartiality, and Bigger proves this throughout .
             Native Son. .
             In the beginning of the book Bigger's feelings of distrust towards himself in a world controlled by whites are obvious when he states "Every time I get to thinking about me being black and they being white, me being here and they being there, I feel like something awful is going to happen to me-(Wright 20). In the early twentieth century it was quite common for many African Americans to share this same outlook on life because discrimination was extremely ubiquitous at this time.