Native Son Chapters

Chapter 1 - pages 3-12
"Good Morning"

This is the first chapter in Richard Wright's story Native Son. In the beginning of this chapter Bigger and is family are awaken by the sound of the alarm clock. As they are getting ready to start their day they are interrupted by a rat that has been harassing them for a while. A big fuss is made and eventually Bigger kills the rat. However instead of being praised for saving his mom a sister from this rat, he is yelled at for tormenting his sister. All of which resulted in his mother telling him "Bigger sometimes I don't even know why I birthed you!" which pushed him over the edge and he had to get away, so the chapter ends with him slamming the door on his family.

Interpretation
I think that Richard Wright started his book this way to show right from the get-go what Bigger's life is like. By giving details of the apartment and showing that character of his mother, Wright gives us the picture of what it is like to live in a poor, single parent family in 1930s Chicago. Also this very first chapter illustrates conflict with man v man, man v. society, and man v. himself.

“Chapters” of Book 1: Fear of Native Son
Pages 13- 28 Title: Top Gun?

At the start of this chapter, Bigger is walking down the street she two white men putting up a campaign poster for a white man running for State Attorney again. As Bigger walks past he sees tall red letters: YOU CAN’T WIN! Bigger is on his way to the poolroom with a lit cigarette in his mouth. He meets up with his friend Gus at the pool hall. In this chapter they are holding up the wall smoking and dreaming about what they want to do in life. Gus and Bigger walk in the poolroom to play pool and Bigger brings up the topic of robbing a white man’s store named Blum. Jack and G.H. come in the pool hall to see Gus and Bigger, Bigger in fear of robbing a white man. Gus is also scared of robbing a white man but Bigger threatens Gus and calls him a punk or sissy. Bigger gets into an argument with Gus because both are scared of robbing Blum’s. Bigger is trying to be the big man but is just ask frighten as a little boy.

Richard Wright’s wanted to show that Bigger Thomas wasn’t as big & tough as his outer appearance shown but everything on the outside isn’t what is on the inside. Mr. Wright’s shows how the little man wants to act like the bigger man but will always be small.


Chapter 4 pgs. 36-41
Title: I Dare You!

In this chapter, Bigger and all the rest of his gang are waiting for Gus to get back at the pool hall, so that they can go rob the store. Bigger does not want to go and rob the store, because a white man owns it. So without letting his friends know that he is scared to go, he tortures Gus, once Gus arrives at the pool hall. Bigger realizes that Gus was made it back in time enough for them to rob the store, so he makes it seem like Gus was late, by putting a knife down his shirt and making him lick it as well as many other horrible and degrading things. Once Bigger is done torturing Gus, Gus throws a pool ball and hits Bigger in his head. Bigger then tries to hit Gus back but everyone holds him back to stop him from killing Gus. Doc, the pool hall owner starts to laugh at Bigger, which makes Bigger really mad. Bigger then takes his rage out on the pool table by cutting it up with his knife. Doc then pulled out his gun and told Bigger that if he did not get out, he would shoot him. Bigger told Doc “I Dare You!”


Chapter 6 Title: Accidental Purpose
Pages 80- 92

This chapter starts off with Bigger dropping Jan off. Jan takes out some pamphlets relating to Communism and hands it over to Bigger so he can read them. Bigger then drives Mary to her house. Throughout the ride Mary was really drunk and blurted out random comments. Bigger felt really unomfortable, because he felt as though she was looking inside of him. He hated her for that. When they got to her house she couldn't get out the car, because she was so drunk. Bigger her helped her out and then let her loose. She was stumbling all over the place so he decided to help her up to her room. As he got Mary to her room he laid her down on her bed and felt the urge to kiss her so he did. While he was doing this Mary's mother walked in the room. Luckily, she was blind and didn't catch him. Bigger didn't know what to do, he wanted to leave the room but he was scared Mrs. Dalton would hear him. Mary started fumbling around so he placed his hand over Mary's mouth so she wouldn't make any noise. Mrs. Dalton knew that Mary was drunk , because she smelt whisky on her. Mrs. Dalton kneeled on the the side of Mary's bed and prayed for he. Mrs. Dalton then left the room with the impression that Mary was sleeping. Bigger removed his hand from Mary's mouth and found that he killed her. Bigger felt the whole room sink on him and saw the reality, he killed her. Bigger's first move was to get rid of her so he stuffed her in a trunk. After he stuffed her in the trunk, he came up with an idea which was to burn Mary's body in the furnace. He took the trunk to the basement where the furnace was and took her body out. He then saw that her whole body could not fit into the furnace so he had no other choice, but to cut her head off. In this When Bigger first lays Mary down on her bed he felt excited. He didn't kiss Mary, because of her beauty, which has always been there, but for the fact that she can never be his. Her being white and him being black separates them from one another. The arrival of Mrs.
Dalton in Mary's room frightened Bigger, because of his skin color. Him being black traps him in a bad situation. After he discovers that he killed Mary the situation escalates. Once again his color traps him in a bad situation, but this time in a murder. Bigger killing Mary probably opened up a side of him that he knew was there, but would never actually come out.