1. Compare and contrast Bigger's attitude toward the world around him and Mrs. Thomas'.
2. Mr. Dalton and Jan Erlone both profess to be friendly towards African Americans, yet they are hostile to each other. Compare and contrast their attitudes towards African Americans and explain their mutual hostility?
3. How is really fear to blame for the muder of Mary (this is a comprehensive question, be thoughtful and think of all aspects of fear that lead to the murder of Mary)?
Amelia, Carter, Roy, and Lauren
ReplyDelete1) Mrs. Thomas takes what she gets, while Bigger strives for more. Bigger is resentful of the white oppression, while Mrs. Thomas just accepts it; Bigger creates his own destiny, while Thomas thinks her’s is already set. Mrs. Thomas uses religion to think of a happy afterlife, on page 10 she is even singing a hymn, while Bigger wants a happy material life. Mrs. Thomas says” If you don’t stop running with that gang or yours and do right you’ll end up where you never thought you would. You think I don’t know what you boys is doing, but I do. And the gallows is at the end of the road you traveling, boy” (Wright 9). She is trying to convince Bigger to live a quiet life so he can have a good afterlife, while Bigger just wants to cause trouble and rebel. Bigger wants to escape this life he has, he even says, “I could fly one of them things (a plane) is I had a chance” (Wright 16).
CARTER
ReplyDelete2) Mr. Dalton and Jan Erlone both claim to be African-American friendly. Mr. Dalton does this by using money to help boy's clubs and other charities, but when Mr. Max talks to Bigger about these donations, Bigger scoffs at the idea, he says that "that's where we planned most of our jobs," (Wright 355). Jan, on the other hand, takes a more proactive, radical approach to helping. He is often seen with his Communist comrades protesting and attacking the moral codes, such as when he told Bigger "I'll call you Bigger and you'll call me Jan," (Wright 66). This causes Bigger to question why, after learning his whole life to say sir and mister to white men, this strange new accompaniment wants to be referred to by his first name.
3) Fear is to blame for Mary's murder, because fear is what drives the lives of Wright's African Americans. They all have fear of white people, because they have been oppressed for generations. When Bigger was trying to put Mary to bed, he "turned and a hysterical terror seized him, as though he were falling from a great height..." (Wright 85). He fears that someone will see him with Mary, and assume rape. Later, when he hears the cops coming for him, "his muscles stiffened as though a wire strung through his body had jerked him," (Wright 257). This fear causes him to run, and get with even deeper trouble with the law.
1. Bigger and Mrs. thomas have different attitudes toward the world around them. Bigger is more afraid of it, while Mrs. Thomas just wants to get by and survive in it. Bigger hates the life he is in and when he is home: "He wished that he could rise up through the ceiling and float away for this room, forever." (102). After Bigger gets the job, Mrs. Thomas makes sure to tell him (and encourage/nag him like she always does), "You got a good job, now, you ought to work hard and keep it and try to make a man out of yourself. Some day you'll want to get married and have a home of your own. You got your chance now. You always said you never had a chance. Now, you got one." (101). Then later Bigger reflects on the life he lives compared to the wealthy life of the Daltons he now knows about: "Why did he and his folks have to live like this? What had they ever done? Perhaps they had not done anything. Maybe they had to live this way precisely because none of them in all their lives had ever done anything, right or wrong, that mattered much." (105). Bigger feels the world is plainly unfair.
ReplyDeleteLauren Steiner
ROY-
ReplyDelete2) It is a fact that both Mr. Erlone and Mr. Dalton have similar, if I am so inclined, preferences for African American people… They do not hate them, they do not see them as inferior, and they treat them with the same respect as they do with whites. One key question comes to mind when dealing with these type of people: Why do they hate each other so much and not the blacks? This is because they live in a world of equality, like we live in today, and see everyone as equal. In this, they are exactly like us, they view everyone as equal. In this, they also view people with different views than themselves as less equal, or they have a tendency to dislike them. This means that they dislike whites with dissimilar views more than black people with neutral views! They see the world as it really is.
3) Fear is deeply enthroned in the story of Native Son; it plays an endearing role throughout the plot. The fear that Bigger was afflicted with led to the killing of Mary. This is because when Mrs. Dalton entered the room, Bigger was in shock, and not knowing what to do, accidentally strangled Mary, in an effort to cover up his past mistakes that were already made. He believed that by temporarily quieting Mary, he would be able to get out of the situation without blame, but this turned out to be exactly the opposite outcome!
ROY-
ReplyDelete1)Bigger’s views on life: “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.”
2)“Yes I’ll tell you how it’s signed,’ said the old man, his hands trembling. Mrs. Dalton’s face turned slightly toward him and her fingers gripped in his coat. Bigger knew that Mrs. Dalton was asking him silently if he had not better keep the signature of the note from the papers; and he knew, too, that Mr. Dalton seemed to have reasons of his own for wanting to tell… Beneath the signature is a scrawled emblem of the Communist Party…”
3)“They found her?’ ‘Yeah. Her bones…’ ‘Bones?’ ‘Aw, Bessie. I didn’t know what to do. I put her in the furnace…”
ROY-
ReplyDelete1) I believe that Bigger seeks to create his own identity, and in turn, is own destiny. He wants to be in control of his life, and this is what drives him to do what he does. He seeks to, not per say, rebel against the whites, but rebel against the system. He wants to do what HE wants to do, and not what people TELL him to do. This is the opposite with his mother. She does whatever is told to her; she does not seek to control her life, but just to get by. She does whatever she's told, and goes along with what's given to her.
2) Both of these men live lives very similar to our modern lives. They see no difference between white and black, colored, or pure. They believe that an indifferent black man is equal to an indifferent white man. With this said, logically, a hostile white man MUST be worse than an indifferent black man, should it not?
3) Fear could also have led to the death of Mary because of the white oppression... Blacks feel that they have an advantage because they will not be suspected of killing a wealthy white woman, due to fear. They believe that they will blame people with less fear of crossing the border of taboo and insanity! They feel a certain safety within the presumtive fear that whites given them!
CARTER
ReplyDelete1) Mrs. Thomas wants a quiet life for her and her children, while Bigger wants to be something. Mrs. Thomas does this because she realizes that nothing can be done about her situation, and is accepting of it, while Bigger is resentful, and states that, "Maybe they right in not wanting us to fly...'Cause if I took a plane up I'd take a couple of bombs along and drop 'em as sure as hell," (Wright 17). Bigger wants to lash out at his oppression, and eventually gets his chance and takes it.
2) The two men are hostile over each other due to two main reasons. One, they both share a common interest in Mary. Mr. Dalton wants to protect his daughter, while Jan loves her. Also, Mr. Dalton's economic stature drives him to be an enemy of communists, as capitalism is the source of his happiness.
3) Fear also led to Mary's murder in Mary's fear that her father will learn of her dealings with Jan. She tells Bigger that, "if anyone should ask you, then I went to the University..." (Wright 64). He is also angry and afraid when Jan and Mary want to be with him, as it makes him feel "ensnared in a tangle of deep shadows, shadows as black as the night that stretched above his head.
Amelia
ReplyDelete2) I find that both Mr. Dalton and Jan subconsciously think of themselves as better than those around them. They both find that all people should be treated equally, but each thinks their way or showing it is the correct way. Mr. Dalton gives charity and tries to repay and repent for the wrongs other whites have done against the African Americans, while Jan is a “Red”, a communist, belonging to a radical party trying to make the entire country equal. Mr. Dalton thinks giving money, education and jobs to Africans will fix the problem, while Jan thinks changing how America is formed would fix it. Because of their different views, they agree on equality, but fight on how to bring it about.
3) Many aspects of fear play into Bigger’s murder of Mary. First, the obvious fear; that Mrs. Dalton will find him in Mary’s room, and Mary slobbering drunk. Second, that him being found will take the control of his life away from him. If he was caught, he would be persecuted for it. Thirdly, Bigger wants power over the white oppression. Whether he knew it or not, the fear of the white oppression was a factor when he smothered Mary instead of pulling the pillow off her face.
CARTER
ReplyDelete1) Mrs. Thomas eventually feel shame for Bigger's deeds, and has him repent, while Bigger feels that he is doing a service. He asks to himself, "Had he not taken fully upon himself the crime of being black?...Then they ought not stand here and pity him, cry over him; but look at him and go home, contented, feeling their shame was washed away," (Wright 296).
2) One main difference between the two men is their perception of the limits of what they can do. Mr. Dalton is comfortable with donations, knowing that he can't really make a large difference. Jan, on the other hand, thinks that the possibilities are limitless, not seeing that his actions may have serious consequences, like with Mary.
3) Another aspect of fear that led to Mary's murder is the fear of the white people in Wright's Chicago. Most of the white population fears the black community, having built up a wall of ideas, like the idea that all black men want to rape white women. These fears lead the white people to set up more physical and metaphysical walls to sustain and protect their own wall. (You can tell I have been listening to too much Pink Floyd)
2. Mr. Dalton is a wealthy white man who is unusually nice to African Americans. Jan Erlone is a white Communist who believes in equality, meaning equality of races, so therefore he is nice to African Americans. Jan says things like: "There'll be no white and no black; there'll be no rich and no poor." (68)., "Bigger please! Don't say sir to me...I don't like it. You're a man just like I am; I'm no better than you. Maybe other white men like it. But I don't." (70).. Mr. Dalton, on the other hand, says that he hires Bigger because hes a "supporter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People" (53). Communists do not get along with others, especially wealthy men like Mr. Dalton. Mary even calls Mr. Dalton "Mr. Capitalist".
ReplyDelete3. Fear is definitely to blame for Mary's murder in numerous ways. Mary scared Bigger even when they first met, making him hate her immediately. Bigger described her and his fear when he said, "She was an odd girl, all right. He felt something in her over and above the fear she inspired in him. She responded to him as if he were human, as if he lived in the same world as she. And he had never felt that before in a white person. But why? Was this some king of game? the guarded feeling of freedom he had while listening to her was tangled with the hard fact that she was white and rich, a part of the world of people who told him what he could and could not do." (65). She frightened him because she treated him like an equal which he was not use to and she was unpredictable. In the car, Mary and Jan made him "very conscious of his black skin" and "He felt naked, transparent; he felt that this white man, having helped to put him down, having helped to deform him, held him up now to look at him and be amused. At that moment he felt toward Mary and Jan a dumb, cold, and inarticulate hate."(67). He was frightened of being reminded how inferior he is.
Lauren Steiner
1. Bigger is scared of the world because he knows he is always going to be inferior but when he kills Mary his view changes: "His being black and at the bottom of the world was something which he could take with a new-born strength. What his knife and gun had once meant to him, his knowledge of having secretly murdered Mary now meant. No matter how they laughed at him for being black and clownlike, he could look them in the eyes and not feel angry. The feeling of being always enclosed in the stifling embrace of an invisible force had gone from him." (150). Mrs. Thomas is always pressuring Bigger on getting a job. Overall she is a very good mother and treats all of her children nicely, except shes more harsh on Bigger. Mrs Thomas just wants him to be successful and get along, she proves this when she says, "You'll regret how you living some day, if you don't stop running with that gang of yours and do right you'll end up where you never thought you would. You think I don't know what you boys is doing, but I do. And the gallows is at the end of the road you traveling, boy. Just remember that." (9).
ReplyDelete2. Bigger describes Mr. Dalton in a different way than what would be thought when he says, "Even though Mr. Dalton gave millions of dollars for Negro education, he would rent houses to Negroes only in this prescribed area, this corner of the city tumbling down from rot. In a sullen way Bigger was conscious of this." (174). While Mr.Dalton credits himself for being so Negro-friendly, Negroes, like Bigger, recognize that its not that real because at the same time he only rents out a certain, bad area to them. This shows a negative aspect of Mr. Dalton. Mr. Dalton and Jan Erlone are alike in the way that in their own heads they feel as though they are extremely friends to Negroes when at the same time they are not. Jan Erlone credits himself for equality between the different races, but at the same time he belittles Bigger in the way that he doesnt give him choices, like in the car with Mary and how he made him sit up front with them.
3. To be straightforward, Bigger mainly killed Mary at that instant because he did not want to be discovered by Mrs. Dalton and was afraid. This is an example of how he does not think things through in the best way. He could have made many other choices to avoid killing Mary and being discovered by someone. THis is kind of an example of the bigger picture of his life, where he doesnt make the best choices and think things through and resulting in the worst possible way. Because of fear, Bigger does these things. It is like his fear clogs up his mind when he is in a bad situation. Reflecting on Mary, Bigger says, "He felt that his murder of her was more than amply justified by the fear and shame she had made him feel. IT seemed that her actions had evoked fear and shame in him . He really did not know just where that fear ands hame had come from; it had just been there, that was all. Each time he had come in contact with her it had risen hot and hard. It was not Mary he was reacting to when he felt that fear and shame. Mary had served to set off his emotions, emotions conditoned by many Marys." (114).
Lauren steiner
1. Bigger realizes later in the story this, "He saw it all very sharply and simply: act like other people thought you ought to act, yet do what you wanted." (113). This realization seems to sum up the part of Book two when people were trying to find out what happened to Mary. All he did was act like an innocent black kid who they thought were dumb, and he knew this is what the people expected of him.
ReplyDelete3. Bigger is also afraid of the "white force". "As long as he and his black folks did not go beyond certain limits, there was no need to fear that white force. But whether they feared it or not, each and everyday of their lives they lived with it; even when words did sound its name, they acknowledged its reality." (114). He thinks white people are not really people, but a great natural force of some sort.
To Carter
2. i agree that a difference between them is their views of limits. I don't think Mr. Dalton really doesnt think he can make a large difference because he tries so hard by donating so much money and taking in relief kids.. etc. Jan thinks way ahead of himself because he is a new radical communist, and kind hippocratic because of how he talks about equality yet indirectly isnt fair with Bigger.
Lauren Steiner
Amelia
ReplyDelete1)Ms. Thomas says to Bigger "Sometimes you act the biggest fool I ever saw." (Wright 7) She sees him like this because Bigger doesn't fit into the culture she lives in. Religion isn't important to him, he doesn't fit in. She thinks the way to be someone in life is to get a job, to obey the oppressor. Bigger sees the way to a better life is to dream, to rebel.
2) An important point to bring up is the fact that even though they claim they are, African Americans are never equals to Mary, Jan, and Mr. Dalton. They, dare I say, preach equality, while in fact they are forcing it upon Bigger. It makes him feel out of place, angry, and hurt. Jan demanding "Bigger please! Don't say sir to me" and Mary wanting him to eat dinner with him are part of what drives Bigger's murder.
3)Fear. It's the one constant in Bigger's life, a driving force behind most his actions. His fear for needing to provide for his family made him take the job. "He hated his family because he knew they were suffering and that he was powerless to help them. " (Wright 10) His fear of the white oppression made him angry with Mary and Jan. "He had a wild impulse to turn around and walk away" (Wright 72).