Native Son — Plot
The story opens at the Thomas’ home. There lives Mrs. Thomas and her three children, Bigger, Vera and Buddy Thomas. Bigger who is the protagonist of the story is to attend a job interview in the evening by 5:30. The family’s government relief will be cut off if Thomas did not get a job, and Mrs. Thomas worries that Bigger might refuse to attend the interview. An argument ensues that morning after which Bigger left to meet and hang out with his friends around the drug store and the pool parlour. He has a plan to rob the delicatessen of a white man and he and his friends are to meet later in the afternoon at the back of the pool hall to plan for the robbery.
He and one of his friends visit the double-feature movie, after which they left to 
meet with others at the back of the pool hall. Though, the movie he saw has made him to dread going for the robbery, he is also afraid of robbing a white. When one of the members of the gang did not arrive the venue on time, he beats and humiliates him, using the opportunity to exhaust time so that the robbery will be forfeited.
Native Son By Richard Wright
He gets the job after attending the interview as a chauffeur for a wealthy white family. That same evening he arrived at the Daltons’, he was scheduled to drive Mary Dalton, the only daughter of Mr. And Mrs. Dalton to a college lecture.
Native Son By Richard Wright
On there way to the lecture, Mary tells Bigger to pick her boyfriend, Jan Erlone. Jan is a communist who believes in the social equality of all races. They both treat Bigger as if he is socially equal to them. This makes bigger uncomfortable since he has been thought all his life to maintain a bigger distance from the white folk, especially white women.
As Jan drives the car, he insists that Bigger sits at the front with them. They visit a diner at the African American part of the town where they also insist that Bigger joins them for the dinner. There they also meet Bessie mears, Bigger’s girlfriend. After the dinner, having taken much alcohol, Mary and Jan were fondling each other at the back of the car. Bigger drives them to where Jan’s car is. Before leaving, Jan gives Bigger some communist pamphlets on white and black relationship. While driving home, Mary seats at the front of the car with Bigger. Being drunk, Mary lays her head on Bigger’s shoulder.
Native Son By Richard Wright
Arriving at the Dalton’s house, Mary is unable to help herself up to her room and Bigger finds himself in a situation that goes contrary to the strict and harsh social rules of white and black relationship. So he carries her up to the room. Having left herself loose as a result of intoxication, Bigger gets aroused, sexually kisses her and fondles her breast. About leaving the room, Mrs. Dalton comes inside the room immediately to check on her daughter. Bigger becomes startled and afraid that Mary might let the mother know that he is in the room or probably let out that he kissed her since she is drunk. To stop any of these from happening he uses pillow to cover her face. But the blind Mrs. Dalton is more concerned with the smell of alcohol that she is perceiving in the room, and quarries her daughter on that, after which she leaves the room. When she was gone, Bigger releases the pillow to free Mary, but unfortunately, she has been suffocated to death. Confusion sets in and the only means that he could think of was to push her body into the burning furnace in the basement of the house. Mary’s whole body could not enter the furnace, he cuts off her head for easy passage. Then, he returns home and sleeps.
In the next morning he had breakfast with his family. His younger brother sees the bunch of money he has on himself, holds on to tell no one of it. Bigger got the money from Mary. Bigger goes back to work at Dalton’s family and uses the opportunity to clean up all evidence of the night before. He lies to Peggy that Mary told him to leave the car and carry her trunk downstairs. She informs him of his next duty to take Mary to the train station by at 8:30am. Bigger takes the message as if Mary will come out to go to the train station. When the time came and Mary did not come down, Bigger informs Peggy who went up to Mary’s room only to find out that she did not sleep in her room yesterday night. Bigger is asked to take the trunk to the train station and send it to Detroit, Mary’s destination. When he returns, Mrs. Dalton questions him about Mary’s way about in the night before. Mrs. Dalton also finds out that Mary did not complete the packing of her trunk and questions why she would ask Bigger to carry it downstairs. Bigger affirms that it was Jan who asked him to leave the car outside and carry Mary’s trunk downstairs. They dismissed Bigger for the day.
Native Son By Richard Wright
Bigger goes to visit her girlfriend Bessie mears who tells a story of a kidnapping case of loeb and Leopold who sent a ransom note to the parents of the boy in their custody. Bigger gets this idea. He plans to write a ransom note to the Daltons so that he can get some money, travel to Harlem and live comfortably. So, he tells Bessie that Mary is missing and that he wants to send a ransom note to her family. Bessie resents the idea and refuses to join in the plan. They made love to each other and Bigger leaves for the Dalton’s house. The next day Bigger finds out that Mr. Dalton has hired the service of a private investigator on Mary’s case. The investigator finds the communist pamphlets on Bigger’s room and suspects that he is working together with Jan. Jan later reports to the Daltons house to confront Bigger to tell the truth. But, Bigger refuses to change the line of his story. On his way home, Bigger is confronted again by Jan telling him to stop lying and lay out the truth. Jan runs away as bigger pulled a gun on him.
Returning to Bessie’s house, Bigger writes a ransom note and persuades Bessie to watch out for the vehicle that will drop the money. On returning to the Daltons’ house he finds reporters everywhere. The reporter are all at the basement. The furnace is clogged with excessive ashes and smoke soon filled everywhere. When Bigger couldn’t handle it, one of the reporters took the shovel and clears the ashes. As the smoke clears off, pieces of bones and an earing belonging to Mary Dalton are found in the ashes. Bigger escapes and runs to Bessie’s apartment. Bessie refuses to run away with him, but Bigger is able to convince her by telling her that she is already implicated in the crime. She gathers few of her things and they both flee to an abandoned building. In the building he rapes her, bashes a brick on her head and throws her body down. The next morning he starts hiding from one building to another and later that night the police arrested him.
In the next three days, he wakes up to find himself badly beaten. Jan brings a communist lawyer, Mr. Boris Max, to defend him in the court. David Buckley, the state’s defender, is the prosecutor. He claims that Bigger is a cruel rapist. Bigger’s lawyer, Mr. Max, goes on to affirm that Bigger is not bad in himself neither is he a lover of fire, rather his actions were as a result of the social forces that were working against him. The society robbed him of his humane mind and he is left with no option but to survive in crime. He was traumatized.
Native Son By Richard Wright
Nevertheless, Bigger was convicted and sentenced to death. On the day he is to be killed, Max visits him one last time trying to make him realize the motivations behind his actions. But Bigger could not see reasons with Max.
The video below shows the Movie based on Richard Wright’s Native Son. It was made in 1986
Litionary 