The author illustrates similarities between Bigger and rats as to symbolize Bigger’s loss of identity within society and the pressure he feels to meet the white’s expectations, which resonates within many other African Americans who feel trapped within society because of the boundaries set by white people. The novel opens with Bigger killing a giant rat inside of his apartment that he shares with the rest of his family. “[T]he rats belly pulsed with fear. Bigger advanced a step and the rat emitted a long thin song of defiance” (6). The rat feels trapped in the apartment, much like how Bigger feels trapped and controlled within society. Bigger feels caged in because of how much control white society has over his life, resorting to violence in order to break free of that control.
Lale Demiturk in Mastering the Masters Tongue: Bigger as Oppressor in Richard Wright’s “Native Son” comments that “[J]ust like the rat he is cornered in a position where he does not have any freedom to go beyond the limited scope of action. His frustration in his ‘cornered’ orbit of life prevents him from moving behind the color line”(288). Much like the rat, Bigger’s “song of defiance” was killing Mary. This was his own form of defense against the white race. This violence and defiance comes from a place of fear for both Bigger and the rat. By opening the book with Bigger killing the rat, Wright foreshadows the violence later seen in the book. Wright depicts the similarities between Bigger and the rat when “[Bigger] reeled through the streets, his bloodshot eyes looking for a place to hide. He paused at a corner and saw a big black rat leaping over the snow. It shot past him into a doorway where it slid out of sight through a hole”(249).
Wright uses the words “reeled” and “bloodshot eyes” in order to dehumanize Bigger, making it difficult for the readers to tell if it is Bigger or the rat being described at the beginning of the quote. By blurring the differences between Bigger and the rat, Wright allows the readers to subconsciously begin to view Bigger as rat-like, much like how society viewed black people as creatures that are less than human. This feeling of fear and entrapment is common within black people because of the limiting boundaries set by white society with the expectation that black people will abide by those set standards.
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By having Bigger and his gang watch the movie ‘Trader Horn’, Wright conveys how society oppressed black people by showing movies depicting black people as primitive and submissive to white people in order to make black people subconsciously enforce upon themselves the racial hierarchy as an additional way for white people to control them. Bigger and Gus go see a movie called ‘Trader Horn’, an African adventure movie depicting white people as civilized and well mannered, whereas the black people were depicted as compliant and submissive. Bigger “looked at Trader Horn unfold and saw pictures of naked black men and women whirling in wild dances and heard drums beating” (33).
The racial hierarchy in the movie brainwashes black people into to believing they should abide by that hierarchy within society. The movie dehumanizes the black figures, making them “naked” and “whirling in wild dances” in order to impose the notion that black people are uncivilized and nothing like white people. The blatant stereotypes, along with the white supremacy represented within the movie, serve as a reminder for black people of their inferiority and the racism they have to endure. Bigger internalizes the message in the movie, thinking “the African scene changed and was replaced by images in his own mind of white men and women […] laughing, talking, drinking and dancing”(33). Wright using “white men and women” allows the reader to believe that black people are excluded from experiencing the luxury life that white people experience. The movie reminds Bigger of his oppression, which then deepens his desire for that luxurious world that white people live in.
Eric Van Hoose in Native Sun: Lightness and Darkness in Native Son comments that “the pairing of darkness/lightness and blackness/whiteness is shown happening at all possible levels, from the world outside the theatre all the way into Bigger’s imagination” (48). Bigger replacing the scene with “his own mind of white men and women” represents self-denial and his rejection of his African heritage and by rejecting his racial background Bigger believes he is going against the societal expectations put upon black people by white society. Through the racism seen in the movie, along with Bigger’s reaction to it, Wright exposes how cinematic representations of black people deceive them into entering an unfair and toxic racial system
