From Racial Victim To Existentialist Hero

Richard Wright was born in a poor black family in Mississippi. He was the first African American writer who won him many white readers. With the publication of his masterpiece Native Son, he received much reputation and fame and confirmed his position in the African American literature. This novel opened the history of "Protests Novels" and symbolized the maturity of African American literature. What's more, Wright made great contribution to African American literature in constructing some young writers, such as, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin and others in terms of exploring the complexity and variety of different races.His masterpiece Native Son was set in Chicago within the Great Depression period. The story tells a young black man named Bigger.Thomas accidentally killed his white employer's daughter, finally caught by the police and sent to the electricity chair. From its publication in 1940 to the present, Native Son has sparked a vigorous critical debate involving a wide variety of critics who have approached the novel from many revealing perspectives. Those reviewers who praised the book saw it as a seminal novel that promised to change the direction of American literature because it offered a new and disturbing view of the experience of blacks in America. But many reviewers were equally vigorous in their condemnation of the book. One day after its publication, Howard Mumford Jones strongly attacked Native Son on aesthetic grounds, describing its plot as melodramatic and its themes as "dull propaganda". (Boston Evening Transcript, 2 March 1940)Since the novel is set in America in the 20th century and the protagonist is a black man, the racial prejudice is an unavoidable problem to talk about. But unlike other works written by black writers, the novel presents the readers a new hero who is rebellious and has the courage to find his identity in the white-dominated society. He establishes his identity through freedom of choice. What he does is in accordance with the existentialist ideas. Besides this, the existential problem is a popular and significant topic in the academic history of the world and it has fascinated so many thinkers and critics to work on it. Therefore, the present author will focus on the image of Bigger and explores his life journey which changes from a victim of racial discrimination to an existentialist hero under the rationale of existentialism.This thesis can be divided into three parts: introduction, body, and conclusion.In introduction, Wright's life experience and his literary contribution are introduced. The significance of the study and the framework of the thesis are also introduced.There are three chapters in the body section. In Chapter Two, a universal view of existentialism is presented and in the following part, the details of Sartre's existentialist ideas of "Relationship between One and the Other" "Freedom of Choice" and Kierkegaard's existentialist thoughts of "Sickness unto Death" and "Leap of Faith" are mainly introduced to the readers. In Chapter Three, the discussion of Bigger's marginal existence in the white community is shown to the readers and the present author lists some reasons for his loss of identity and despair in terms of Segregation Policy and Jim Crow Law. Then, the essence of this despair is explained and proved. In Chapter Four, the discussion is mainly focused on Bigger's leap of faith and his freedom of choice. First, the fact that Bigger is annoyed at Christianity and the negative effect of Christianity are illustrated. Then, under the complicated situation, Bigger who determines to take actions to show his identity and existence makes a free choice, that is, he wants to rebel against the white dominated society to show his authentic existence. And through this freedom of choice, Bigger realizes his value of existence and becomes a hero of freedom though he is dead in the end.Then, in chapter five, the conclusion is reached: under the conditions of racial discrimination and the existential crisis, the protagonist Bigger chooses to exist as a true human being rather than a living-dead man. With his conscious thinking of his living conditions, he awakens himself and fights against the racial prejudices by violent behavior and vigorous actions.In the end, he changes himself from the victim of racial discrimination to the hero of existentialism.