A"voiceless" Tragedy

African-American writer Richard Wright's masterpiece Native Son is a milestone in the history of American literature. Its far-reaching impact enables it not only to be a classical literary work, but also a primary research issue in cultural studies. This thesis aims at carrying a Subaltern study of Native Son by placing it into the framework of Gayatri C. Spivak's Subaltern theory.Spivak's Subaltern theory mainly focuses on the existence and diversity of the Subaltern from the postcolonial perspective. It points out that male subalterns utter no voices under the mainstream culture, while female subalterns are voiceless as well when facing the mainstream culture and the patriarchal culture. Spivak also points out that the Subaltern cannot be spoken for.Based on the Subaltern theory, this thesis analyzes the subalternity of the main characters in Native Son and finds that the hero Bigger is both a victim of his own subalternity and a rebel against the mainstream culture. He is persistent in seeking his self-independence to utter his own voices, but nobody is willing to be his listeners. Likewise, the female blacks have no opportunity to voice for their self-consciousness lost by the invasion of heterogeneous cultures. On the other hand, the intellectuals such as Jan and Max make an attempt to speak for Bigger. Nonetheless, they fail to achieve their goals due to the communication barriers mingled with their consciousness. The loss of self-consciousness and their voicelessness ultimately lead to the tragic fates of the subalterns.This interpretation of the subalternity of the main characters of Native Son indicates that the subalterns should keep their independence of self-consciousness in the face of the mainstream culture to maintain the right of uttering their voices, while the mainstream culture should give subalterns sufficient space to utter their voices rather than ignore their voices.