Bigger Thomas's Descent Into Crime in Native Son

Introduction: Poverty, Discrimination, and the Making of a Criminal

In the novel Native Son, Richard Wright (1966) presents readers with the life of Bigger Thomas, a Black American whose existence under poverty and racial discrimination ultimately drives him to commit murder and adopt a violent posture toward everyone around him. The novel offers a compelling illustration of how Bigger's character develops until he fully assumes the stereotypical personality that white American society projects onto Black people: violent and criminal.

Wright's organization of the novel is aptly divided into three sections—"Fear," "Flight," and "Fate"—each providing a clear account of the events shaping Bigger's life. Together, these sections depict his life as a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy: because white society declares that Black Americans are violent criminals, its prejudiced treatment of them becomes, in its own logic, justified. The novel exposes the circular cruelty of this reasoning and traces how it destroys Bigger.

The Novel's Three-Part Structure: Fear, Flight, and Fate

In "Fear," the opening section, Bigger is introduced living the typical life of a poor Black American. He has a struggling family, a tense relationship with his mother born of shared poverty, and a place in a gang that earns money through robbery. He is, in short, an individual living the constrained life of a poor Black man—someone who, despite his fear of further discrimination and of being absorbed into white American society, retaliates against his oppression through petty crime.

In "Flight," Wright turns to the pivotal event that ultimately determines Bigger's fate. In this section, Bigger attempts to integrate himself into both Black and white society by taking a legitimate job with Henry Dalton and distancing himself from his gang's illegal activities. Yet at precisely the moment when he appears to be turning his life around, an unfortunate incident forces him into drastic action. The accidental death of Dalton's daughter, Mary—and Bigger's subsequent decision to burn her body and disguise her death as a kidnapping—transforms him from a petty offender into a fugitive branded a murderer and rapist. He then compounds his situation by raping and attempting to kill his girlfriend, Bessie, when his plan to evade the authorities begins to unravel.

In "Fate," Wright brings Bigger's story to its inevitable close. Bigger's identity as a member of an oppressed group, combined with white society's vigilant pursuit of him for his crimes, reinforces the very notion that Black Americans are inherently criminal. The novel comes full circle: Bigger ends up exactly where society always expected him to end up—in prison, awaiting execution as a convicted murderer and rapist.

Bigger's Psychology and His Relationship with Family

As a person shaped by discrimination, Bigger has learned not to expect much from his community or society. He limits his ambitions to earning just enough money to feed himself and his family day to day and to meet their most basic needs. Wright offers a revealing glimpse into Bigger's psychology that explains why his attitude toward life is saturated with bitterness and self-imposed limitation (13):

"He hated his family because he knew that they were suffering and that he was powerless to help them. He knew that the moment he allowed himself to feel to its fullness how they lived, the shame and misery of their lives, he would be swept out of himself with fear and despair. So he held toward them an attitude of iron reserve; he lived with them, but behind a wall, a curtain… He knew that the moment he allowed what his life meant to enter fully into his consciousness, he would either kill himself or someone else. So he denied himself and acted tough."

Bigger's character is thus depicted in an almost relentlessly negative light—not because he is inherently evil, but because his tough exterior is precisely what his society expects of a poor Black man. The harsh realities faced by Black Americans in a hostile white society show how, in effect, the marginalized can be driven to participate in their own marginalization. By joining gangs and engaging in petty theft and robbery, Bigger acts for both practical and philosophical reasons: robbery is the most immediate means of obtaining money for himself and his family, while it simultaneously functions as protest—a way of acting out against the oppression and disadvantage he experiences compared to white Americans.

The strained emotional distance Bigger maintains from his family is, paradoxically, his way of loving them. By shielding them from his anger and frustration, he redirects those feelings outward—into criminal activity and emotional withdrawal. It is a distorted form of protection, but a form of protection nonetheless.

Conclusion: The Product of a Blinded Society

At this point, Bigger had finally allowed himself to be affected by his reality, but nevertheless sought to escape it through death. Towards the end of the novel, he knew that being convicted was his fate, and that death was the only salvation he could have in order to escape the harsh and oftentimes unfair realities of his life as a Black American. As his lawyer, Max, argues during the trial, Bigger was the product of a society blinded to the realities experienced by marginalized peoples like Black Americans every day: "…in our blindness we have so contrived and ordered the lives of men that the moths in their hearts flutter toward ghoulish and incomprehensible flames!" (367).

Max's words crystallize the novel's central argument: Bigger Thomas is not simply a criminal but a symbol of what systemic racial oppression produces when it is left unexamined and unchallenged. Wright does not excuse Bigger's violence, but he insists that readers understand its origins—in poverty, exclusion, fear, and the relentless weight of a society that had already decided who Bigger was before he ever acted.

Works Cited

Wright, R. (1966). Native Son. NY: Harper & Row.