An Existentialist Interpretation Of The Death Images In Native Son

Native Son is the masterpiece of the black writer, Richard Wright. The novel is full of death and violence descriptions, which become the point of penetration of the thesis. Some existentialist theories of Jean-Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger are applied to the analysis of the death images in order to explain psychological changes of the protagonist of the novel. The objective of the thesis is to discuss the way to solve the problems of different races.Richard Wright, Native Son, Heidegger’s existentialist view of death and Sartre’s existentialist view of freedom are introduced firstly in the thesis. The following parts focus on the death images of the mouse, the white girl Mary Dalton, the black girl Bessie Mears and Bigger Thomas. By analyzing the death images, we draw a safe conclusion that Bigger’s relationships with the family members, the black, the white and the society are not harmonious. His mode of existence is changing from care, dread to death. Bigger transcends little by little during the two killings, and his spiritual changes vary from being-in-itself to being-for-itself. After a series of changes, he realizes that he should be responsible for what he did.The real cause of his tragedy is that he doesn’t realize as an existing man, when making free choices, he should take corresponding responsibilities. In our reality, there are a lot of people similar to Bigger who are in care, dread and death. How to control ourselves and make choice should be our concern.