Questing In "Prison" For "Home": Bigger's Escape And Return In Native Son

The present study investigates the protagonist Bigger's escape from and return to "home," that is, the process of his quest for "home," in Richard Wright's masterpiece Native Son based upon Freudian psychoanalysis, especially the Freudian concept "uncanny." The investigation is carried out by a detailed analysis of Bigger's uncanny "home" or home-environment, and a "bigger" "home" of humanity or his epiphany in the prison. This investigation aims at revealing the physical and psychological predicament and tragedy of the American blacks caused by white-black binarism in American society.This thesis consists of the introduction, the body and the conclusion. In the introductory part, the focus will be on the previous studies made on Native Son, research objective, and research methods of the thesis.The body includes three chapters. Chapter 1 explores Bigger's uncanny "home," including his own home as his living environment and the Daltons' home as his working environment. These two "homes" contain respectively house, family and community. On account of the uncanniness, Bigger's two "homes" resemble greatly the prison.Chapter 2 discusses Bigger's escape through close-reading with the help of the narratological concept the "unreliable narrator." Bigger's escape refers to his unconscious escape at "home," his physical escape into the homeless condition and his psychological escape through homeless consciousness.Chapter 3 offers an analysis of Bigger's psychological return to "home" in the prison by way of close-reading and psychoanalysis on the basis of Julia Kristeva's theory of "foreignness" or "otherness" derived from the Freudian concept "uncanny." After committing physical and psychological mistakes in the process of escape, Bigger finally succeeds in the growth of consciousness and returning to a "bigger" "home" of humanity through self-reflection under the influence from others.The conclusion points out that Bigger's arduous quest for "home" in the "prison" not only shows the tragic existence of the American blacks, but deconstructs the deep-rooted American white-black binarism with his home-returning consciousness. As Bigger's new consciousness cannot be understood by either the whites or the blacks in America, its disappearance together with Bgger's death is actually an "American tragedy."...