One idea that really stuck with me
when reading Native Son, was this
idea of dehumanization. The African-Americans in this novel are treated like
animals. People from the “white world” think that they need to train or educate
these people to do as they want and have them living in housing that is smaller
and inferior to the houses owned by white people, much like how many people
treat animals. If the rich white liberals thought of the black people as
humans, they would (or at least should) be trying harder to treat them that
way. Mr. Dalton instead tries to “help” them by donating ping pong tables. I
feel like the reasoning behind donating ping pong tables is much like the
reasoning a pet owner has when giving their pet a toy. The pet has the toy to
occupy them from doing something bad like shredding the couch. Mr. Dalton
donates these ping pong table to keep the young black people (like Bigger) from
starting some sort of trouble. When he does this action, he is acting like
doing this simple solution will fix the problem at hand when the actual problem
is much more complex.
Another example of this dehumanization
is when Mary tells Bigger she wants to “see how [his] people live” (69). Mary
doesn’t want to go to Bigger’s neighborhood to get to know him or his family or
any of the other people but instead she wants to go to see how they live. It
suggests that they are some sort of creature that Mary doesn’t know much about
and she just wants to learn how that creature lives. Even when Max gave his
speech, he dehumanized Bigger by talking about Bigger as a symbol, and less
like a person. But I also must give Max some credit because I think he was the
only person in the whole book that told Bigger, “I want you to tell me all
about yourself” (345). For once Bigger was acknowledged as a person in this
novel, and so it’s no wonder that we read Bigger telling Max, “I’m glad I got to
know you before I go!” (423). Bigger got to meet someone interested in him as a
person, and I think that helped Bigger understand himself.
I think by showing how Bigger is
treated less like a fellow human and more like an animal, the reader can better
understand the frustrations Bigger has and why killing Mary might have felt
good for him. Killing Mary finally gave him a feeling of control and he could decide
what to do after that. Bigger also would finally have attention and people fearing
him. Before killing Mary, he was treated as lesser by the white people and he
struggled to have control of his life with his friends and even his family.
Bigger never had a true chance to make his own choices, and that’s what Mary’s
death gave him.
