Quotes

Through Bigger Thomas’ story, Wright attempts to call his readers’ attention to the socially damaging consequences a background of slavery and the reality of systemic discrimination might have on the lives of any marginalized group of people – and in the case of ‘Native Son,’ black people. Quotes from this are touching and provocative and capture the spirit of such an era. Let’s examine some of the finest quotes from ‘Native Son’ by Richard Wright.

Richard Wright’s Quotes on Fear

In ‘Native Son,’ Richard Wright recognises the issue of fear as being one of the leading reasons why black people are wayward and suffer for a very long time. Fear is also responsible for their poor – often violent – decision-making. The quotes below from the book show how dire the situation is. 

Curbing One’s Fear Can Help One Live More Confidently

But he kept this knowledge of his fear thrust firmly down in him; his courage to live depended upon how successfully his fear was hidden from his consciousness.

Richard Wright echoes the theme of fear throughout his book ‘Native Son,’ and these talks about fear in the book always linked to black people, starting with Wright’s first character, Bigger Thomas, and then stretching out to his family and then there is the black community. 

With blacks being scapegoated every time there is a crime or situation, it’s not hard to understand why there’s so much fear in these characters’ lives – particularly with Bigger whose fears have now transformed into a passionate hatred towards the white folk. Suppressing his fear of white people proves vital in Bigger’s journey which sees him work for a wealthy white family even though his folly gets in the way to ruin him in the end. 

Hate and Fear are Close Relatives

They hate because they fear, and they fear because they feel that the deepest feelings of their lives are being assaulted and outraged. And they do not know why; they are powerless pawns in a blind play of social forces.

Richard Wright tries to convey how fear of the white people begets hate in the minds of black people of his generation. This portrayal is visibly seen and felt in ‘Native Son,’ as the blacks feel frustrated over the all-powerful whites and are sick and tired of their oppression and tyrannous treatment. 

The combination of the themes of fear and hate becomes the foundation for Bigger’s doom, however, it could have been avoidable if the young man had listened to the wisdom of his mother’s words and cued into his family’s values, but that was not to be abandoned the end is disastrous.

Quote on Racial Segregation

Clearly the most important and pushed forward agenda in ‘Native Son,’ the issue of racism is the nucleus of Richard Wright’s literary creativity, and here below are a number of quotes that uphold the author’s activation against the cause. 

Racism Breeds Social Insecurities, Eliminates Opportunities

Every time I get to thinking about me being black and they being white, me being here and they being there, I feel like something awful’s going to happen to me.

Bigger utters this quote in total frustration as he converses with Gus, and Wright paints a picture to show the massive extent of racial division of such times. One of the positives that a reader will find in ‘Native Son’s’ main character Bigger Thomas is that he is such an ambitious young man who aspires to become an aviator, but that would never materialize because opportunities for people like him have been streamlined to almost nothing – with only menial jobs like maid or labourer available for them. 

Segregation is Truly a Sad Thing

I’ve been to England, France and Mexico, but I don’t know how people live ten blocks from me. We know so little about each other.

This excerpt is culled from Mary Dalton, the daughter of Mr Dalton the white billionaire, and Bigger’s Boss. Mary is liberal and quite travelled, so she feels touched by the fact that there is such a remarkable divide between the black and white people of her close neighbourhood – although there’s nothing she can do about it. Wright utilizes characters like Mary to communicate that not all whites were as bad and oppressive to the black man, but there is however a significantly small number of them.

The Oppressor is Elevated Over the Oppressed

To Bigger and his kind, white people were not really people; they were a sort of great natural force, like a stormy sky looming overhead…

By the peak of the oppression, black people do not only fear and feel terrified whenever a white person comes into the discussion, but now also start to think of them as some sort of specially created – maybe even superhuman – beings better than them in all ramifications. At this point, there is not much the black people do for they’ve already been broken psychologically so their body just succumbs to their defeated mind. 

Quote on Murder 

Where there is fear and hate, there is violence, and where there’s violence, all kinds of crime thrive – including murder which is a consistent theme in nearly all of Richard Wright’s books. However, this subject is more palpable in ‘Native Son,’ and among an array of quotes, here is one from the book that screams ’Murder.’

The Devastating Effects of Accidental Murder

…she was dead; she was white; she was a woman; he had killed her; he was black; he might be caught; he did not want to be caught; if he were they would kill him.

The narrative paints us a crystal clear picture of what is certainly one of the high points of the book, the moment just after Bigger mistakenly suffocated his boss’s daughter Mary Dalton to death. This statement describes everything that rushes through Bigger’s mind after the act, and because he is scared of being killed, he decides to hide what he’s done, takes Mary’s body up the furnace, burns it and attempts to pin the blame on her white boyfriend Jan. 

Bigger’s first mistake that leads him to murder Mary opens up a chain of criminal madness and he ends up killing some more – his girlfriend this time, and even having carnal knowledge of her before doing so. 

Quotes on selfhood

In the story of ‘Native Son,’ Richard Wright subtly appraises the value of selfhood as one of the greatest weapons exploitable by blacks in fending off the harsh impact of racial conflicts faced by black people like Bigger Thomas. The author expresses the importance of this quality in the quotes analyzed under these subheadings. 

Self Realization is a Cure For Ignorance

Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread.

The ability to discover oneself, harness and tap into one’s own values proves to be one of the keys to defeating a lot of obstacles of life – including racial problems. This is why Wright hammers though aptly but technically heavily on the subject. This becomes the missing piece in the lives of Bigger and all the other black characters in ‘Native Son,’ and clearly another reason why our main character loses his life before it even begins.

Sometimes Realizing Oneself Might Come a Bit Too Late

I didn’t know I was really alive in this world until I felt things hard enough to kill for ’em…

Bigger utters these words in his final moments after being convicted of murder and rape – apparently having had a deep introspection and realizing the true meaning of life. There is no going back from his crimes or the death sentence decision reached by the judge. 

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