1. At the beginning of the novel, we are introduced to the Thomas family. Describe this family and the conditions in which they live? Be descriptive and use concrete details!
2, The title of Book One is Fear, how is this title symbolic and prophetic at the same time? What was Wright's intention with this title?
3. What initial event happens in the beginning of the novel that is clearly a foreshadowing of events to come?
4. How does Bigger feel about his home and its surroundings?
5. Who are Bigger's friends and what event takes place that creates a level of aggression with these friends?
6. Who are the Dalton's, and where and how do they live?
CARTER
ReplyDelete1) The Thomas family lives in an apartment building run by the Daltons. It has "two iron beds...a gas stove" (Wright 3-4). The Thomases live in poverty. The family is made of Bigger, his younger brother Buddy, who shares the same bed, his little sister Vera, who goes to a "sewing class at the YMCA" before school. All of the children live with their mother in their small apartment.
2) The title is symbolic because Bigger is fearful throughout much of the book. It prophesizes the fear that will later *spoiler alert* cause him to murder Bessie and jump out an apartment window into a blizzard. Wright's intention with the book titles was to show the dominant feeling or action in that portion of the story i.e. in Fear, Bigger is fearful of the robbery and Mary, in Flight, he runs away from the police who are after him for her murder.
3) In the beginning a rat comes into the Thomas household and attacks Bigger. After bigger uses the rat to terrorize his sister, their mother tells him "You'll regret how you living some day...and the gallows is at the end of the road you traveling, boy," (Wright 9). This foreshadows his later run-in with the law and subsequent execution.
4) Bigger hates his surroundings and the conditions he has to live in. He feels that he is in a shell of a life he cannot escape, and that white society is holding him back. As he puts it, "They won't let us do nothing," (Wright 19).
5) Bigger's friends are named Jack, G.H, and Gus. They often get together to plan, and then carry out, robberies of black merchants. However, Bigger suggests that they rob a white merchant, which causes a lot of stress in the group. It causes Bigger to eventually rethink taking the job with the Daltons, and then lash out at Gus to try and stop the robbery form happening.
6) The Daltons are a wealthy white family in Chicago who owns the housing complex Bigger and his family live in. Mr. Dalton is the head of the household, with his wife, who is a "tall, thin, white woman...her face and hair were completely white; she seemed to him like a ghost," (Wright 46). Their daughter, Mary, is a firecracker who is also a Communist sympathizer, and tries to become friends with Bigger, and act that ends in her death.
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteCARTER
ReplyDeleteBTW those deleted comments are accidental overpostings. My bad.
1) Their apartment is small, as "to get to the dresser on the other side...with the bed on which his mother and sister slept..." (Wright 99). This causes Bigger to think that his family is always surrounding him, suffocating him.
2) The title is symbolic because of all the fear in that portion of the story. Bigger is afraid of losing his new job, Gus is afraid of being hurt by Bigger, and the Daltons are afraid of Jan and his communist ideals. It is these ideals that drive Bigger's plan for safety.
3) Mrs. Thomas's prophetic words also cause Bigger to question his plans in the movie theater. They cause him to hurt his friends and harden his shell even more.
4) Bigger desperately wants to be powerful, to have wealth and luxury. He and his friends "play 'white'" to escape their own life.
5) The plans that Bigger and his friends make forces Bigger to take a look at his life and possible future. He sees that he can either go through with the plan and probably be arrested, or somehow get out and go on to live with the Daltons.
6) Mr. and Mrs. Dalton try to overcome the fact that they overcharge for rent with "charity". Mr. Dalton claims to be a supporter of the NAACP, and Mrs. Dalton has their African American helpers go to night school to get an education, which the Daltons think that all African Americans are lacking.
1. First thing i figured out was that the family was way to crammed up together and did not get along well with Bigger. The room they were in must have been extremely small because they boys and the girls in the room had to turn around and give each other turns whenever they changed. i can tell the setting of the first scene through: ""There he is again, Bigger!' the woman screamed, and the tiny, one-room apartment galvanized into violent action. a chair toppled as the woman, half-dressed and in her stocking feet, scrambled breathlessly upon the bed."(6). The family is obviously very poor and count on Bigger more than he can handle. i know this when Bigger's mother says, "Nothing like that ever bothers you! all you care about is your own pleasure! Even when the relief offers you a job you won't take it till they threaten to cut off your food and starve you! Bigger, honest, you the most no-countest man i ever seen in all my life!...Some of these days you going to wish you had made something out of yourself, instead of just a tramp. But it'll be too late then." (9).
ReplyDelete2. this title is symbolic and prophetic at the same time because the whole first book is really about Bigger's fright. One of the biggest events of the book is when he attacks Gus, out of his own fear of having to rob Blum's. This is cleared up when he reflects: "His confused emotions had made him feel instinctively that it would be better to fight Gus and spoil the plan of the robbery than to confront a white man with a gun. But he kept his knowledge of his fear thrust firmly down in him, his courage to live depended upon how successfully his fear was hidden from his consciousness." (42). Bigger also proves himself to be afraid of white people, not just robbing one like Blum, when he goes to the Dalton's. he is always self conscious of whether they are judging him and he especially doesn't like Miss Dalton.
3. is him seeing Miss Dalton in a movie at the theater foreshadowing? i think maybe the chance of him going to the movies and seeing a girl of the name Dalton, whom he is planning on meeting some Dalton's later in the day is pretty prophetic. When Bigger finally meets her, he sees how different she really is and even comes to not like her when in the movie when he saw her he was very interested in her and even imagined marrying her.
Lauren Steiner
ROY
ReplyDelete1) The Thomas family is a somewhat ordinary, run of the mill, African-American family in the 1940’s. They are composed of four people: one mother, daughter, and two sons. They all live under one, small, roof in urban Chicago. They struggle to make ends meat. They have a small kitchen and have rats running around the house, as demonstrated in the first scene. Their living conditions are very poor, and unsatisfactory. They are all trapped in the house, with no spare room to even change in.
2) Fear is symbolic because it is a key theme throughout the story. It is the reason to why Bigger threatens Gus and almost kills him. It is the reason for him committing murder, and it is the reason to why the African-Americans at the time were being oppressed. Wright’s intention in the title was to provoke a similar understanding between himself and the reader towards the ultimate background theme of the book and ultimately the beginning of the novel.
3) The killing of the rat is a clearly symbolic gesture that foreshadows events to come. The rat, like Bigger Thomas, is trapped within the house, looking for a way out. Bigger kills the rat by first, blocking the only outlet the rat has, the hole in the wall. Bigger then kills the rat, from afar, which is ultimately foreshadowing events yet to be detailed in the story.
4) Bigger feels, as previously stated, trapped inside his house. He feels that he has nowhere to go and is constantly looking for outlets to escape from his life at home including: movies, gangs, liquor, drugs, and other bad influences. He never sees education or working a job as a way out of his depression and his way of life. He only sees negative downturns as viable outlets to make up for his aggression at home.
5) Bigger’s friends are composed for three main people, all in a collective gang: Gus, G.H., and Jack. The event that takes place that causes a level of aggression is the robbing of a white man. The gang decides to attempt a robbery of a white man, and while Bigger heads this idea, Gus initially refuses to go along with the plan. This is because there is an immense undertone of fear within their hearts as to what will happen if they are not successful. This causes aggression from Bigger on part because of his prideful ego, and in part because of his own fear.
6) The Dalton’s are a wealthy white family living in Urban Chicago. They own the housing complex that Bigger and his family lives in. Mrs. Dalton is blind, and Mary is an extremely outgoing dare devilish young woman. They live in the lap of luxury, having multiple servants attend to their every need. They have a cook, a driver, a maid, and probably even more.
ROY
ReplyDeleteTo Carter:
About question #5, I think that Bigger's cause of aggression towards Gus was not because he was actually angry as Gus's actions but due to his self denial and prideful ego. You see, Bigger himself was just as afraid as Gus, however, he refused to admit it in front of his friends. To prove to his friends that he wasn't scared, and to keep up with his ego, he had to initiate control over the situation, yet still wanting someone to pull him back. This is where Gus steps in; Gus denies Bigger's authority, just as Bigger wanted him to, but to keep up with his ego, he had to threaten Gus and therefore come out on top, or be the most powerful in the situation. In truth, Bigger was too prideful to let someone else take the credit for being the "brave" one in the group, so he himself did it.
CARTER
ReplyDelete1) The Thomases' living arrangements are not out of the ordinary though. They live in an apartment building with many of the African American families, all confined to a small area of town.
2) Fear drives the actions of much of the story. Bigger and the other African Americans are fearful of white oppression, the Daltons and other rich whites are fearful of Communists, and the rat was afraid of Bigger and Buddy.
3) During the scene with the rat, Bigger and Buddy block the rat's escape and kill it. This is symbolic of how white society has enclosed Bigger with no escape, and it coming to get him.
4) Bigger wants an escape, but he does not know how. He is being forced into a paternal role, but does not have the mental maturity to do it, which causes him anger.
5) They are afraid to do the job because they fear the consequences. By robbing a white person's store, they will bring the law down upon them. they are all afraid of that, so to preserve his outer shell of anger and emotionlessness, he lashes out to try to repress his fear.
6) The Dalton's wealth and luxury is massive compared to the source of their money. Mr. Dalton made a fortune off of oppressing African Americans by selling small homes in a small area, causing artificially inflated prices, creating a circle of money for him, and poverty for others.
CARTER
ReplyDeleteTo Roy: I see what you are saying, and I agree but I do not think it was ego. I think that he is trying to cut out the fear and lack of a father in his life by acting out. He uses Gus as an excuse for his actions.
To Lauren: on #3, I don't think that Bigger seeing Mary in the news is prophetic, but learning that she hangs out with Communists is. In this time period, Communists are nothing but trouble, and this holds true when Jan and Mary's trip for drinks ends in one of them dead and the other being framed for her death.
4. i feel like Bigger shows his feelings the most blunt and absolute way when he says, "Goddammit, look! We live here and they live there. We black and they white. They got things and we ain't. They do things and we can't. It's just like living in jail. Half the time I feel like I'm on the outside of the world peeping in through a know-whole in the fence..."(20). Bigger feels awful towards his living conditions, especially compared to the white's living conditions.
ReplyDelete5. Bigger's friends are G.H. , Jack, and Gus. They all like to gang up and rob people and do "jobs". one event that creates a lot of aggression between them, especially Bigger and Gus, is when they planned to rob Blum's. this event was exclusive because Blum is white, and it would be the first time they would rob a white man which was highly taboo. later Bigger reflects,"He was disgusted with the gang; he knew that what had happened today put an end to his being with them in any more jobs. Like a man staring regretfully but hopelessly at the stump of a cut-off arm or leg, he knew that the fear of robbing a white man had had hold of him when he started that fight with Gus; but he new it in a way that kept it from coming to his mind in the form of a hard and sharp idea." (42).
6. The Dalton's are a wealthy white family who live at 4605 Drexel Boulevard. There is Henry Dalton, the father who gives millions of dollars to charities to help the black people. Then there is Kate Dalton, Henry's wife, who is sadly blind. Then there is their daughter, Mary Dalton, who is wild and disrespectful. They live prosperously with servants and drivers, and lots of traveling.
Lauren Steiner
To Roy
ReplyDelete1. i dont think the Thomas' work with much meat, but maybe i missed something. lol
Lauren Steiner
1. the beginning of the novel contains a lot of imagery, starting with the long "Brrrrrriiiiinngggg!". There is Buddy, Vera, Bigger, and Ma. Buddy is the younger of the two sons of Ma and the older is Bigger. Then there is their sister Vera. They live in a narrow one-room apartment with rats in poverty. they have to sleep with each other in two beds. Their father is missing and it forces Bigger into the father role which he is not comfortable with and makes him agitated a lot. Ma says to Bigger, " Nothing like that ever bothers you! All you care about is your own pleasure! Even when the relief offers you a job you won't take it till they threaten to cut off your food and starve you! Bigger, honest, you the most no-countest man I ever seen in my life!..Some of these days you going to wish you had made something out of yourself, instead of just a tramp. But it'll be too late then." (9). Ma wants Bigger to get a job because he is the man of the family and needs to get them out of poverty, but at the same time theres a contradiction. sometimes she will chastise him like a child, but then she also wants him to step up as a full adult.
ReplyDelete2. throughout Book One the common theme is fear. all of his choices and actions are backed up by his fear or someone else's fear. his fear controls him and compels him to make the wrong choices. In point of fact, Bigger "passed his days trying to defeat or gratify powerful impulses in a world he feared." (42). another thing that was interesting to me was his peculiar fear of white people: "He was going among white people, so he would take his knife and his gun; it would make him feel that he was the equal of them, give him a sense of completeness." (43).
3. The initial event at the beginning of the novel is the scene with the Rat. it is very symbolic and foreshadows many things. i sort of feel like his foreshadows him killing Mary even. This idea clicked in my head when Bigger was struggling with the trunk in the middle of trying to kill the rat because Bigger also uses a trunk with Mary in the middle of trying to get rid of her.
Lauren Steiner
4. Bigger hates his life. Concerning his family, "He shut their voices out of his mind. 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 fulness 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. And toward himself he was even more exacting. He knew that the moment 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." (10).
ReplyDelete5. I think Gus is Bigger's repressed emotions personified, so Bigger wants to beat them(Gus) up. When Bigger fights Gus it is like he is fighting with himself. During the whole fight, I dont understand why the other friends, G.H. and Jack, wont step in and help. I also got the feeling that Bigger was bullying Gus and causing such a scene just to stall so they won't have to rob Blum's and he is making it look like Gus' fault. "He hoped the fight he had had with Gus covered up what he was trying to hide. At least the fight had made him feel the equal of them. And he left the equal of Doc, too; had he not slashed his table and dared him to use his gun?" (41)
6. Mr. Dalton is a supporter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Mary is a Communist, along with her boyfriend Jan, who has a girl's name. Peggy is the Dalton's latest servant and they used to have one named Green, who previously had Bigger's job. Mrs. Dalton had a lot of money before MR. Dalton and made him rich. Bigger describes the difference between his mom and Mrs. Dalton: "The difference in his feelings toward Mrs. Dalton and his mother was that he felt that his mother wanted him to do the things she wanted him to do, and he felt that Mrs. Dalton wanted him to do the thing she felt that he should have wanted to do." (61).
Lauren Steiner
6. Mary Dalton explains her intentions and how she lives when she says, " You know what i mean? Ive been to England, France and Mexico, but I don't know how people live ten blocks from me. meow. We know so little about each other. i just want to see. i want to know these people. Never in my life have i been inside a Negro home. Yet they must live like we live. Theyre human...There are twelve million of them..." (70).
ReplyDelete1. Bigger was born in Mississippi and stopped school in eight grade because they ran out of money. Mr. Thomas died when Bigger was a kid in a riot in the South.
2/3. "A noise made him whirl; two green burning pools-- pools of accusation and guilt-- stared at him from a white blur that sat perched upon the edge of the trunk. his mouth opened in a silent scream and his body became hotly paralyzed. It was the white cat and its round green eyes gazed past him at the white face hanging limply from the fiery furnace door." (91). i think this quote is symbolic for Fear and it describes what was being foreshadowed in the beginning of the novel. he freaks out seeing this cat after he kills a girl out of fear once again. seems as though all of his actions are due to fear. what is foreshadowed in the beginning is of Mary's death at the end and what Bigger does with all of that.
4. another common theme in Bigger's life other than fear seems to be desire. he desires to fly a plane, to have a white wife, to do anything a white man can do. At some points during Book One thats all he talks about and when he thinks about it it makes his stomach "burn"
Lauren Steiner
1) The Thomas family lives in poverty. Vera, Bigger, Buddy, and their mother all live in a tiny apartments, where "to get to the dresser on the other side...with the bed on which his mother and sister slept..." (Wright 99). They shared “two iron beds” (Wright 4). These insufficient living arrangements cause Bigger to feel trapped and smothered in the life he is required to live.
ReplyDelete2) Fear controls many of the actions in Native Son. There is Bigger’s fear of losing his job and being oppressed by the white Americans. At the same time, the white Americans fear the spread of communism and of the African Americans, and therefore oppress them, which in turn causes more fear for the blacks. Wright is showing that fear is a powerful emotion, and causes seemingly ordinary people and situations (for the 1940s, that is) to commit deeds and act unlike they ever would before.
3)In the beginning, with Bigger fighting the rat, they trap and kill it. This is directly symbolic of how Bigger feels trapped, on many levels. He feels trapped in his own, small home, in his community where he is oppressed on a daily basis, and in his own skin, for it is the color of his skin that condemns him to be treated like this.
4) Bigger is forced to live in situations that he despises. He wants to escape from where he is, to be rich and happy, to “play white”. He lives in a tiny apartment where many times he has to be looked at like a father figure, even though he is not capable of being one. To put it simply, he’s trapped in a live he does not want.
ReplyDelete5) His friends are Jack, G.H. & Gus. The event that causes strife is the robberies they are committing. Bigger wants to rob a white merchant, as a way to try to take back what they, as humans, deserve. If they are to be caught, the penalty would be much worse. White cops would not care about an African American store being robes, but they would if it was a white merchant.
6)They are the family that owns the tenements that Bigger and his family live in, along with many other African American families. They are very rich, especially compared to the poverty of their tenants that they are demanding money from. It is a family of three: Mr. Dalton, Mrs. Dalton, and Mary, who tries to be Bigger’s friend.
1) Like many other African Americans of this time period, they are confined to the South Side of town, in small but expensive tenements.
ReplyDelete2)Gus is also fearful of Bigger, as are many others. Bigger does not have enough value on his own life to really think through and control all of his actions.
4) His life revolves around his oppression. He ways that the white men “won't let us do nothing," (Wright 19).
ReplyDelete5) I feel that when Bigger lashes out against his friends, he brings up his outer shell even more. He always wants to be uncaring, angry, and strong against his oppressors.
6) Mrs. Dalton is described as "tall, thin, white woman...her face and hair were completely white; she seemed to him like a ghost," (Wright 46). The comment about the ghost seems like someone who is not really living or paying attention to those around them, because they don't need to. A ghost would not need to notice the poverty stricken families, and neither would Mrs. Dalton.
Shoot. The four above this one are all Amelia's.
ReplyDeleteCARTER
ReplyDeleteTo Amelia: I think that you had good answers to the questions. I like how you stated that being a "ghost", Mrs. Dalton shouldn't pay attention to her surroundings. I, on the other hand, think that by her being a ghost, she haunts Bigger, possesses him, causing him to perform actions he would not under normally.
ROY-
ReplyDeleteHere are some quotes to backup my answers:
1)“He hated his family because 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 dispair. So he held toward them an attitude of iron reserve; he lived with them, but behind a wall, a curtain.”
3)“The rat scuttled across the floor and stopped again at the box and searched quickly for the hole; then it reared once more and bared long yellow fangs, piping shrilly, belly quivering.”
4)“He hated his family because 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 dispair. So he held toward them an attitude of iron reserve; he lived with them, but behind a wall, a curtain.”
6)"There were two worn iron beds, four chairs, an old dresser, and a drop-leaf table on which they ate. This was much different from Dalton’s home. Here all slept in one room; there he would have a room for himself alone… Each person lived in one room and had a little world of his own. He hated this room and all the people in it, including himself.”