User:Atcovi/Native Son: How Bigger Was Born

Native Son “How Bigger was Born,” English 10A, Brown

1. “The birth of Bigger goes back to my childhood, and there was not just one Bigger, but many of them, more than I could count and more than you suspect.”  Summarize the person he calls

Bigger No. 1: An arrogant person (bully) who sought to be powerful/feel superior by means of persistently annoying and attacking others. He would take toys from people and only gave it back when they flattered him.

Bigger No. 2: About 17, this Bigger acted arrogantly and superior towards whites rather than black people like Bigger No. 1--he ended up going to prison. Refused to pay his bills; in terms of black people who refused to pay his bills: They are fools.

Bigger No. 3: A criminally-stricken African American who eventually died by a gunshot from a white cop; he would pinch workers at the movie to show that he can't get in trouble; annoyed his people.

[Bipolar] Bigger No. 4: An African American who took joy in breaking the Jim Crow laws. He ended up being admitted into a mental asylum. He could've gotten a job digging ditches (getting 50 cents a day), but refused since he thought it was like slavery.

Bigger No. 5: An African American rebel who ignored the Jim Crow laws when it came to sitting in a bus. He ended up giving the African Americans the upper hand (pride) when he refused to move out of the white section in a bus; he also would drive the Jim Crow streets without paying.

2. What was the one thing all these Bigger Thomases had in common?

All of them violated the Jim Crow laws and got away with it, even for a little amount of time.

3. In the Nature/Nurture idea of what would produce these types, which does Wright credit?

The Klu Klux Klan

4. In “Dixie” name the 4 places that are physically separated. What is the ironic comment about God?

white school, black schools, white churches, black churches, white graveyards and black graveyards, white cemeteries and black cemeteries; there seems to be a white God and a black God since even the churches were separated.

5. How was this separation accomplished after the Civil War?

KKK's terror across the country against African Americans

6. What is disenfranchisement?

The status of being deprived of rights, such as the right to vote.

Explain the other “panoply of rules, taboos, and penalties” put in place to keep the black race down. a)Limit the amount of education a black person recieved b)Keep them off the police force c)Segregate them in restaurants d)Restrict his participation in jobs e)Brainwash them to believe something will happen in order for them not to actually make the change to make something happen f)Create a racial ideology that seemed to be correct in order to justify all the wrongdoings made by the whites towards the blacks

7. (pg. 439)--This “oppression spawned” reactions that ranged from outright blind rebellion to sweet, other-worldly submissiveness. Some examples of the latter are religion, music, and alcohol. What does Wright think of the Negroes who actually managed to get an education?

They went through financial hardships from their oppressive white middle class

8. Contrarily, Bigger (now used as Wright’s term for a whole type of person) revolted. Give the 2 reasons why:

1) He distanced himself from religion (Christianity) and the general culture of the black folks. 2) He was trying to figure out the white culture that he saw on magazines and newspapers.

9. When this type was not blatant but still slightly observable, what simile does Wright use to describe it?

"But it was there, nevertheless, like an undeveloped negative"

10. Give one example of a phrase Wright would hear in an angry moment, before the person would have to go back to “the tense grind of struggling for bread.”

"I wish I didn't have to live this way. I feel like I want to burst."

11. Give an example of a man who “did things,” (a term Wright says is “charged with more meaning than the mere words imply”) that the oppressed people excused.

Hitler killing the Jews and taking over different countries in Europe

12. What 2 things about the Chicago environment made Wright think seriously for the first time of writing of Bigger Thomas?

1) Being free of the pressure of the Dixie environment 2) Labor movement

13. At that time, what discovery did Wright make? Bigger was both black and white

What simile does Wright use to explain his discovery? "It was as though I had put on a pair of spectacles whose power was that of an x-ray enabling me to see deeper into the lives of men"

14. What was “taunting” about Chicago that “made the Negro Bigger Thomases react more there than even in the South?”

The urban environment: more segregation and normal Chicago lifestyle (noisy, crowded).

15. What simile does he use to describe his writing process?

"...did so much more to dazzle the mind with a taunting sense of possible achievement that the segregation it did impose brought forth from Bigger a reaction more obstreperous that in the South."

16. In discussing a sense of exclusion, Wright discovered it “transcended national and racial boundaries.”  He would hear mutters and whispers that “will surely grow into revolt unless the conditions which produce Bigger Thomases are changed.”  Then in the early 1930’s what parallel situation arose?

Hitler and the oppression of the Jews

17. Wright says he was fascinated by “the similarity of the emotional tensions” of Bigger in what 2 places in the world?

Nazi Germany and Russia

18. Record exactly Wright’s metaphor of how men behaved like drunkards: "...taking a stiff drink of hard life to lift them up for a thrilling moment, to give them a quivering sense of wild exultation and fulfillment that soon faded and let them down."

Figuratively speaking, they were soon chronic alcoholics of violence.

19. Wright then explains how he got the title of the book who ironically carries within him the potentialities of either Communism or a Fascism because he is the product of a dislocated society.

20. For what personal reason did he write the novel?

He wanted to free himself from the sense of shame and fear [of the whites and their rule].

Turn to the introduction of your book on p.xv and read how Wright said he intended to make Native Son different from Uncle Tom’s Children. What 2 adjectives does he use to describe the book he intended to write? Hard and deep. Read on to see what constituted his plot.

Turn to page xxii and read cultural historian Irving Howe’s assessment of Native Son. For the test, think of how it has impacted you.