Native Sons

"Native Son," a book written by Richard Wright is a story about a boy named Bigger Thomas who is shrouded with fear, shame, and anger. He faces many serious conflicts involving racism and social status. Bigger is African American living in the 1930's who begins working for the Dalton's, rich white family. His first day on the job he kills their daughter Mary and burns her remains. He acts as though nothing had happened and hints that Jan, Mary's Communist boyfriend, had killed her. He tells his girlfriend Bessie all about it and ends up raping her and kills her to keep her from telling the authorities about his plans and whereabouts. Bigger then gets caught and is sentenced to death. 

There were certain points in the book where I sympathize Bigger for his brave recovery. Bigger wasn't always able to contain himself around whites and always bad-mouthed them. I give him credit for respecting the fact that he's done wrong. He doesn't realize that his uncalled violent and childish acts affected others at the beginning of the book and at the end he sees how it impacts those closest to him and around him. I respect him for that. However, I still think he should be sentenced to death because he could've just told the truth to the Dalton's. Since it was an accident, Bigger's chances at being sentenced to death wouldn't have been so high. There would've been evidence to support his claim of smothering Mary, not raping her. I don't think the jury would've understood his motives behind killing her because Ms. Dalton walked into the room. The fact that he cut her head off and burned her remains made the situation worse. 

Bigger should've been the bigger person and told the truth from the start. He should've never involved Bessie because that only added to his troubles. Bigger got what he deserved and if a white person were to do this, they would've received the same punishment. I do feel like the jury made their decision based upon the racist stereotypes and labels that whites put on blacks at the time but they did make the right decision by sentencing him to death.