Native Son really did contain a number of protests throughout the novel. In class, we talked about the emotion-fueled justice system, the society that completely stifles ambition, the white concept of "your people" referring to all blacks when they spoke to just Bigger, as well as a few more. One that we didn't really touch on very much at all though was just how ignorant some of the white people in the book who really cared (or at least wanted to care) about black culture, people etc. actually were of it.
Right away, Mr. Dalton says that he's doing his best to give to the black community by making donations through the NAACP, but it's so disconnected from black society that, when asked, Bigger doesn't even know what it is. It's later pointed out by Max that Mr. Dalton is actually charging blacks way more for housing than whites, and so his donations of relatively useless things like ping-pong tables are largely in place to make him feel less guilty. It makes it painfully obvious to the reader that Mr. Dalton really doesn't have much idea about the real issues or obstacles that constantly face African Americans.
Shortly after, when Mary and Jan first meet Bigger, they do their very best to become his best friends. Both of them are incredibly polite to him and they try their hardest to get Bigger to open up to them. Unfortunately, by the end of the night, Bigger has killed Mary and is trying to frame Jan for it. Why? What could have possibly been so bad about that evening that it drove him to murder? One of the biggest answers, of course, is that Mary and Jan didn't know a single thing about Bigger Thomas. Their desire to become his friend was purely based on the color of his skin. Naturally, Bigger is uncomfortable about the whole encounter and hates them for it because, as Max points out later, he has no template or prior knowledge about how to act around Mary and Jan because it's simply so foreign to him. Bigger's terror over this alien behavior is what justifies the murder in his mind.
Bigger's entire way of life is built around this invisible boundary between blacks and whites, and Mary and Jan are both too ignorant to realize this. Bigger isn't able to just put it all aside for them, he truly doesn't know how to. When Jan tells Bigger "I'll call you Bigger and you'll call me Jan. That's the way it'll be between us." (66) or when Mary asks Bigger to take them to "one of those places where colored people eat" (69) Bigger doesn't have a clue how to respond. How could he? He wouldn't dream of going up to any white person and asking them these questions nor vice versa, and here are Mary and Jan, treating him like he should. It's unfair toward Bigger and neither of them realize it.
The fact that the white people in the book are ignorant of what Bigger's thoughts are of the situation can also be traced to Bigger somewhat. Bigger could have told Mary and Jan that he felt uncomfortable and if they really wanted to be nice to him they would have also tried to accommodate him. The problem with this is that society conditioned Bigger to go along with what white society wants. Bigger did not want to speak up because he was scared. He was conditioned to have an aura of subservience around white people and this shows in how he acts when he is at the Dalton's for the first time, where all he can say is answer the questions with "yes" and "no".
ReplyDeleteBigger could have avoided the situation somewhat if he was able to speak up, but his conditioning to go along with what white society wanted created the situation which led to the murder of Mary.
To me the fact that the white people are ignorant on how to care is more representative of their failure to actually care rather than a failure of knowing how to care. In class we discussed how Dalton seemed to care not because he wanted to help but rather he felt guilty and needed to clear his conscience. Also it seemed that Mary wasn't particularly interested in "Black Culture", rather was just interested in breaking every taboo she possibly could. The defining fact that it was just a matter of not caring is Jan and Max. Two people who were clearly able to help, Max's legal assistance, and who cared so much that Jan was able to somehow get over the fact that Bigger murdered his girlfriend. It is this that best proves that the real problem wasn't that the white people didn't know how to help but rather didn't truly care.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Mr. Dalton is completely oblivious to the conditions black people are subjected to, as he provides these conditions to many. I think that he doesn't care. But, he still has a conscious, so as you said he donates useless items to black organizations out of guilt, not because he wants to better the black community. He just cares that there is a safe distance between their terrible living conditions and his own.
ReplyDeleteMary is the complete opposite of her father in that respect. She seems interested in the black community as if they are some kind of show for her amusement, like she is taking a stroll through the zoo. When she and Jan try to befriend Bigger, it seemed to me that she saw him as some kind of trophy friend, one she could use to anger her parents and also to make her seem to be more of a progressive person. I think that she dates Jan for the same reason, though she places more value on Jan.
Lydia's comment, that Mary seems to use both Jan and Bigger as affiliations that she knows will upset her father, is perceptive. And I'd say Jan's interest in Bigger is slightly different--as a potential political ally, or recruit to the Communist Party, but also as a gateway to the "black world" he doesn't have access to. Their friendliness is indeed "incredible" to Bigger, in that he can't quite believe it. Pranav makes an interesting point--that Bigger could have spoken up and expressed his discomfort--and maybe in an ideal scenario this would be the case. But the kind of stuff that bothers him in this scene is very hard to articulate, and he's not even sure exactly what it is that's rubbing him the wrong way. He just feels this reflexive hate and discomfort, which we can see comes from the way they objectify him, treating him like an exotic pet or a mascot.
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