This study will analyze Richard Wright's Native Son for the thematic relationship it has to the role of fate in the evolution of the protagonist Bigger Thomas. The theme of the book is a complex one. In general, however, it is a book built on the passion of protest and action (however destructive or anti-social or even accidental that action may appear)---action which is meant to express the power of the individual in a society antagonistic to that individual.
Wright is not merely a black man writing about a black man living and suffering in a racist society. The author is also a man more than sympathetic to the Marxist perspective, so that his argument against racism is also an argument against the socioeconomic and political structures which promote racism. This is quite a mountain of evils to pit against one man, as Wright has done with Bigger Thomas in America, and it is therefore no surprise for the reader to discover that the specific, physical fate which Bigger experiences is death, specifically execution for murder.
However, the death of Bigger is not the fate upon which Wright means the reader to linger. The fate of Bigger is one of dignity and courage and defiance, not surrender no matter what the odds against him. His fate is to take action against the enemy of capitalistic, white, racist society, no matter what the consequences.
For a strong black man in such a society, Wright suggests, perhaps murdering a white person or two---even accidentally---is all that he can do to make a statement which will be heard, however misunderstood that statement might be, and which will satisfy the yearning inside that man for justice, however distorted that justice might be.
The experience of Bigger Thomas, however, does not stop with protest, or rage, or murder. His fate is that of self-knowledge, of enlightenment, of a spiritual awakening which transcends the understanding of anyone who has not experienced the same raci...