RICHARD WRIGHT'S "NATIVE SON": AN INTERPRETATION OF BIGGER THOMAS' DREAM
INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background
In daily life, discrimination occurs frequently, and occasionally we may discriminate against others without realizing it. Discrimination may be practiced on the basis of skin color, gender, race, or religion. Literary works typically depict discrimination in society. Numerous writers include societal inequality into their works. In addition to talking about discrimination, we're also talking about the conflict that results from its effects.
Richard Wright's novel "Native Son," which was initially published in the 1940s, is among the literary works that tackle discrimination. Richard Wright, the author, is an African-American poet and writer. The majority of his creations critique the prejudice faced by African Americans. Black people in America face discrimination and suffering due to their color; this is depicted in the novel by white people. The protagonist of "Native Son,"
Bigger Thomas, had a terrifying and restless dream that leaves him feeling as though he is being haunted. After killing his master's daughter, he has a dream.
African Americans' sense of race has been negatively impacted by the history of violence in the US. I'm talking about the many years of social exclusion and labeling as worthless outsiders who do nothing meaningful to society at large. Being alone and without a sense of belonging goes against the essence of humanity, as we are social creatures. This will significantly affect a person's emotional and mental experience. In addition to experiencing extreme oppression, African Americans had very few human rights and no access to employment or education. Usually, this led to homelessness, hunger, and poverty. For the African American community, the exact opposite would be ideal—their rights would be upheld, and they would be able to live in society without feeling excluded from it. Giving African Americans equal access to opportunities with white people would result in yet another shift in living and employment patterns. Racial tensions in the US would, in my opinion, be a very different subject even today if the race question had had a successful resolution.
Studies on the discrimination in "Native Son" have been conducted. The first analysis of prejudice in the same book comes from Albarrak (2016) and is titled "Racial Discrimination and Violence: A Psycho-Social Analysis of Richard Wright's Native Son and the Long Dream" in the International Journal of Humanities and Social Science. Albarrak
concentrates on the impact of Bigger Thomas's discrimination in the novel in this article.
According to Albarrak's study, discrimination might leave a victim with psychological illnesses and scars. Albarrak added that there are other effects of racial discrimination.
The second study is based on an article titled "Stereotyping Blacks In Richard Wright's Native Son" written by English literature instructor Inayati (2014). The stereotypes associated with Black people are discussed in this article. People frequently generalize in an attempt to simplify something. This generalization creates different groups according to their differences, and something we refer to as a stereotype then emerges from this generalization.
In society, this stereotype is frequently seen as negative and harmful. The article's author discovered that stereotypes of Black people typically involve them being illiterate, uncivilized, immoral, or even criminals.
The following research is titled "Racial Conflict between Black and White Communities in Richard Wright's Native Son" and was conducted by Khan (2013). The racial differences between Black and White individuals are discussed in this essay. Racial discrimination at that time pervaded society, particularly in America, and prevented White people from realizing true empathy, which led to some prejudice. Khan claims that Bigger Thomas was not raised as a criminal but rather as a native American raised in an environment of violence, which made him a criminal.
The discrimination in the novel "Native Son" is the same subject as the previous studies mentioned above, but the focus of those studies varies. For example, the first study focuses more on the causes of discrimination, while the second study focuses on its effects.
These studies do assist us grasp the main character's situation in the novel, but they are missing an important detail—namely, the conflict the main character faces. What kinds of challenges the main character faces without considering Bigger Thomas's dream?
1.2 Problems
This essay's goal is to investigate the Native Son's conflict in light of racial injustice and discrimination. For that reason, the struggle that Black people encountered will be the main emphasis of this study. By talking about the disagreement, we can truly understand the type of dispute brought on by prejudice that affects the victim as well as how Bigger Thomas's dream is interpreted and how it relates to his psychological condition.
METHODOLOGY
The work made use of qualitative information about psychological and intrinsic components from Richard Wright's book "Native Son." The data were collected by close reading or textual techniques combined with note-taking and observational methods. This novel was analyzed using a variety of sources, including books, papers, dissertations, journals, and online resources. The author thoroughly read the book. The author employs Sigmund Freud's psychological technique to examine and understand Bigger Thomas's dream.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION A. Conflict
It is clear that The Native Son contains racism. Black people are subjected to discrimination in society, particularly from white people, as Bigger Thomas and his family portray in the book. Bigger and his family are unable to receive almost the same opportunities as White people. They struggle to take advantage of the chances in public service, employment, education, and other areas. The conversation that breaks out between Bigger and his friend Gus when they spot a jet illustrates the abuse that African Americans receive.
“I could fly a plane if I had a chance,” Bigger said.
“If you wasn't black and if you had some money and if they'd let you go to that aviation school, you could fly a plane,” Gus said.
For a moment Bigger contemplated all the "ifs" that Gus had mentioned. Then both boys broke into hard laughter, looking at each other through squinted eyes. When their laughter subsided, Bigger said in a voice that was half question and half- statement:
“It's funny how the white folks treat us, ain't it?” (Wright, 1972:55).
As the representations of Black people, Bigger and Gus are aware of the treatment they receive. However, as evidenced by the statement "if you weren't a Black,"
what Bigger and his family go through is already seen as a set of unbreakable social norms. Black folks feel like they are constantly under oppression and dominance because of those treats.
Black people face several forms of conflict as a result of societal racism, as Bigger makes evident. The exterior conflict is the most noticeable one. The narrative features a few different kinds of external conflicts, including man versus man and man versus society. Man versus man conflict is the first external conflict I will talk about.
Man-versus-man conflict is a type of interpersonal conflict that is shown in the disagreement between Bigger Thomas and Gus. The reason for this dispute arose from
Gus's tardiness on the scheduled robbery of Blum, a white person's home. Their scheme was disrupted by Gus's tardiness. Once more bending over, he positioned the knife at Gus' throat. Wright (1972:77).
B. Bigger Thomas’ Dream and Its Interpretation
In his book from 1920, Freud included a quote from Schubert that reads, "The dream is the liberation of the spirit from the pressure of external nature, a detachment of the soul from the fetters of matter." According to Schubert, a person's dream might reveal their true feelings and experiences in life. They can't lie to themselves, even if they try to hide everything they go through till no one finds out for sure. As a result of the pressure, these emotions will manifest as dreams. This instance is also mentioned in the narrative when Bigger Thomas killed Mary Dalton, the daughter of Mr. Dalton, his owner, and had a dream about it.
…..he felt an urgent need to run and hide as though the bell were sounding a warning and he stood on a street corner in a red glare of light like that which came from the furnace…. (Wright, 1972: 204)
The passage above demonstrates that, despite not realizing his state or circumstances at the time, Bigger Thomas still feels the impulse to flee and hide in his unconscious mind. It also suggests that he is feeling bad about previous actions.
Additionally, he describes one of his actions after killing Mary Dalton as "a red glare of light like that which came from the furnace" in his master's home. Mary Dalton was burning her head in the fire.
……and he had a big package in his arms so wet and slippery and heavy that he could scarcely hold onto it and he wanted to know what was in the package…..
(Wright, 1972: 204).
In reality, the parcel represents Mary's head wrapped in newspaper. However, he saw his own horribly damaged head in his dream rather as Mary's. Why did he witness the fall of his head but not Mary's? This indicates that he acknowledged his actions once more. It's possible that he's also thinking about the fallout from his actions, which could leave his head in a similar state as Mary's.
The fact that white people go up to inquire about the head in his dream suggests that he was genuinely oppressed and under the control of white people. It is also obvious
that he will not be able to avoid punishment because his victim is one of those white folks. If his victim is a member of his own ethnic group—Black people—then this will be different. Even if he is right, he will not receive justice if he causes conflict with White people and finds it difficult to get away.
The dream suggests that Bigger Thomas was afraid of his inadvertent crime and attempted to suppress his shame and dread deep down; his crime was only a kind of reflexive self-defense. Upon realizing that he had choked Mary to death, he attempted to conceal her corpse behind a trunk. He told himself that everything would be alright and that nobody would discover what he had done. In addition, he had skillfully concealed her body and had constructed a plot to conceal his inadvertent crime, which he thought would be accepted by the public. "I'll tell 'em I left her with Jan in the car after I took the trunk down in the basement," was the plot point he created. I will carry the trunk to the station in the morning as she instructed (Wright, 1972:134).
It's true that he can virtually flawlessly disguise his anxiety from others, and no one will ever suspect him, but he can't lie to himself. The dream that Bigger Thomas had makes this evident. The dream seems to be hinting at Bigger Thomas's impending reckoning with his acts and the growing remorse he is experiencing from white people.
CONCLUSION
Bigger Thomas, the protagonist of the book Native Son, encounters numerous problems as a result of the discriminatory act. The external conflicts in the book, including those between men and society, are the most visible conflicts. Bigger Thomas's dreams were a reflection of the psychological situation he was experiencing as a result of the struggles he faced. He attempted to suppress his remorse and dread, but it unintentionally manifested as dreams.
REFERENCES
Albarrak, Hafsah Barrak. 2016. “Racial Discrimination and Violence: A Psycho-Social Analysis of Richard Wright's Native Son and the Long Dream”. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science. 6(2), 114-125.
Freud, Sigmund. 1920. Dream Psychology. New York: Feedbooks.
Inayati, R. (2014). STEREOTYPING BLACKS IN RICHARD WRIGHT’S NATIVE SON. Prosodi, 8(2).
Khan, Yameen. 2013. “Racial Conflict between Black and White Communities in Richard Wright‟s Native Son”. The Criterion An International Journal in English. 4(1)
Wright, Richard. 1972. Native Son. New York: Penguin Books
