Flashcards for Native Son

Bessie Mears

Bessie Mears is Bigger Thomas's girlfriend in Richard Wright's Native Son, a Black domestic worker whose life is marked by exhaustion, alcohol, and the harsh poverty of 1930s Chicago's South Side.

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Bigger Thomas

Bigger Thomas is a twenty-year-old Black man and the main character of Richard Wright's Native Son.

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Boris Max

Boris Max is a Jewish communist lawyer with the Labor Defenders who takes on Bigger Thomas's case in Book Three ("Fate") of Richard Wright's Native Son.

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Britten

Britten is Mr. Dalton's private investigator in Richard Wright's Native Son, primarily making his mark in Book Two ("Flight") during the fraught investigation into Mary Dalton's disappearance.

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Buckley (State's Attorney)

Buckley is the Cook County State's Attorney in Richard Wright's Native Son, acting as the main antagonist in Book Three ("Fate") and representing the white legal and political system that condemns Bigger Thomas.

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Gus

Gus is a minor yet symbolically significant character in Richard Wright's Native Son, acting as one of Bigger Thomas's closest friends and a member of his South Side Chicago gang.

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Jan Erlone

Jan Erlone is Mary Dalton's Communist boyfriend in Richard Wright's Native Son.

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Mary Dalton

Mary Dalton is the twenty-three-year-old daughter of Henry Dalton, a wealthy real-estate magnate in Chicago.

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Mr. Dalton

Mr. Dalton is a wealthy white real-estate magnate and philanthropist from Chicago whose character in Native Son illustrates Richard Wright's critique of liberal racism.

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Mrs. Dalton

Mrs. Dalton is a wealthy, blind white philanthropist in Richard Wright's Native Son, and her physical blindness serves as a powerful metaphor for the deliberate moral and racial blindness of liberal white America.

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“What I killed for, I am!”

This powerful statement comes from Bigger Thomas, the main character in Richard Wright's Native Son (1940), as he talks with his lawyer Boris Max while waiting for his execution on death row.

Bigger Thomas · Book Three: Fate

“He had murdered and created a new life for himself.”

This line appears in Richard Wright's Native Son (1940) and shows how Bigger Thomas psychologically changes after accidentally killing Mary Dalton.

Narrator (Bigger Thomas, free indirect discourse) · Book Two: Flight

“Mr. Max, tell … tell Mister … tell Jan hello.”

These lines are part of Bigger Thomas's last words in Richard Wright's Native Son (1940), shared with his lawyer Boris Max just before his execution.

Bigger Thomas · Book Three: Fate

“I didn't want to kill! … But what I killed for, I am. It must've been pretty deep in me to make me kill!”

This intense confession comes from Bigger Thomas, the main character in Richard Wright's Native Son (1940), during a pivotal conversation with his lawyer Boris Max in Cook County Jail as Bigger faces execution.

Bigger Thomas · Book Three: Fate

“He was black and he had been alone in a room where a white girl had been killed; therefore he had killed her.”

This line appears in Richard Wright's Native Son (1940), told through a close third-person perspective that reflects the thoughts of the protagonist, Bigger Thomas, after the accidental death of Mary Dalton.

Narrator (Bigger Thomas's perspective) · Book One: Fear

“All my life I've had to look into the whites of their eyes and see them not see me.”

This powerful line comes from Bigger Thomas, the main character in Richard Wright's Native Son (1940).

Bigger Thomas

“The moment a black man feels that he is a man, he is in danger.”

This chilling declaration comes from Richard Wright's Native Son (1940), spoken by Boris Max, the communist lawyer defending Bigger Thomas.

Boris Max · Book Three: Fate

“Bigger Thomas was not alone in his feelings of fear and shame; millions of others felt the same way.”

This observation appears in Richard Wright's Native Son (1940), closely tied to the authorial voice that runs through the novel's narrative framework — especially highlighted in Wright's own essay "How Bigger Was Born," which acts as a preface to later editions.

Narrative/Authorial Voice (Richard Wright) · Preface / How Bigger Was Born

“This man's crime is not his alone, but ours.”

This line is delivered by Boris Max, the defense attorney for Bigger Thomas, during his heartfelt closing argument in Book Three ("Fate") of Richard Wright's Native Son (1940).

Boris Max · Book Three: Fate

“We black and they white. They got things and we ain't. They do things and we can't.”

This line is delivered by Bigger Thomas, the main character of the novel, in a chat with his friend Gus early on in Book One ("Fear").

Bigger Thomas · Book One: Fear

“He was tired of living this way, always feeling afraid, always feeling that he had to do what other people wanted him to do.”

This line captures the deep inner struggle of Bigger Thomas, the Black protagonist in the novel set in 1930s Chicago.

Bigger Thomas (narrative voice / free indirect discourse) · Book One: Fear

“They hate Black folks more than they hate Reds.”

This line is spoken by Bigger Thomas in Richard Wright's Native Son (1940) during a conversation where he must confront the escalating threat of his legal troubles against the backdrop of 1930s America’s racial and political climate.

Bigger Thomas · Book Three: Fate

Blindness

In Richard Wright's Native Son, blindness serves as a complex symbol for the deliberate ignorance of white society regarding Black humanity, as well as Bigger Thomas's own lack of self-awareness.

Snow and Cold

In Richard Wright's Native Son, snow and cold symbolize racial hostility, entrapment, and the indifference of white society toward Black life.

The Cross

In Richard Wright's Native Son, the cross symbolizes the oppressive and hypocritical nature of the white Christian society that has shaped and trapped Bigger Thomas's life.

The Newspaper

In Richard Wright's Native Son, the white-owned newspaper symbolizes systemic racism and the power of white society to define and dehumanize Black individuals while serving as a tool for social control.

The Rat

In Richard Wright's Native Son, the rat at the beginning of the novel symbolizes Bigger Thomas himself — a being trapped, cornered, and driven to violence by the stifling circumstances of his surroundings.

The White Blur / Whiteness

In Richard Wright's Native Son, the color white and the repeated image of a blinding white blur symbolize the overwhelming and suffocating nature of racial oppression.

Extended Metaphor

Wright keeps the metaphor of Bigger Thomas as a trapped animal running throughout the entire novel.

Symbolism

Wright imbues the novel's physical setting with deep symbolism.

Motif

Fear is a central theme that recurs throughout the novel, explicitly named and obsessively revisited.

Irony

Irony fills the scenes at the Dalton household.

Imagery

Wright's imagery hits hard and feels intentionally unsettling.

Dramatic Monologue

Book Three, 'Fate,' shifts focus to Boris Max's courtroom speech, which stands out as a powerful dramatic monologue within the novel's prose.

Allegory

Native Son serves as a social allegory where Bigger Thomas's personal experiences reflect the broader systemic issues faced by Black Americans under Jim Crow and Northern urban racism.

Parataxis

Wright strings together simple, direct sentences in Bigger's point-of-view sections, creating a rhythm that reflects his constricted thinking.

Pathetic Fallacy

Chicago's winter weather isn't just a backdrop in Native Son; it plays an active role in Bigger's fate.

Juxtaposition

Wright builds the novel by constantly contrasting wealth with poverty and freedom with confinement.

Narrative Poem

Wright structures Native Son as a tightly woven third-person limited narrative, keeping the reader almost exclusively in Bigger's mind—a bold choice for 1940.