Insensitive Setting

Insensitive Setting

A naturalistic world is one in which nature is absolutely unresponsive to events on earth and it emphasizes the role of society on the actions of a person. The universe is a closed structure where no God intervenes on Mother Nature or human affairs. This is essentially naturalism. Bigger Thomas, in Richard Wright's Native Son is part of this closed structure. His life is not predetermined, but shaped by people and places around him. Unfortunately, Bigger had the misfortune of learning from a cruel environment. Bigger's environment continually emphasizes naturalism and naturalistic symbolism by portraying his surroundings as oppressive, apathetic, and indifferent.

The setting of Native Son emphasizes naturalism by depicting Bigger's environment as harsh, and a place fueled by hate and racism. Bigger's home is a place that partly shaped him into the angry violent person he is. The opening scene of the novel describes his home to be a "tiny one-room apartment galvanized into violent action" (Wright 8). His neighborhood is made of housing such as the one he hid with Bessie in, "a tall, snow-covered building whose many windows gaped blackly, like the eye-sockets of empty skulls" (Wright 216) with a "sharp scent of rot" (Wright 217). The conditions in which the whites have put him under, having to be raised in a stark part of the city has created explosive anger inside Bigger. His conditions on the south side of Chicago were forced upon him by the whites, and so, this becomes a fitting reason for murder..."He would jar them [the whites] out of their senses" (Wright 200). Bigger's constant awareness of the ghetto around him is one direct cause for his actions.

Though this setting alone could cause vast emotional damage to a man, the people around him are another cause of Bigger's actions that suggests naturalism. The oppression of the black race in Bigger's community has made him who he is. "They rule and regulate life. -- They do that to black people more than others because they say that black people are inferior" (Wright 391). Bigger is a black man on the south side of Chicago in the 1950's, and he is treated as one. He is hated by some, treated as a "dumb Negro" by others, and discriminated against by all. Bigger is even spoken to by some like a child, "don't say sir to me. I'll call you Bigger, and you'll call me Jan. That's the way it'll be between us. How's that?" (Wright 67). In all situations Bigger finds himself, he is aware of his color, and knows fully that others see his race. Bigger feels like an outcast at all times, and knows the pain his color causes him, "He was very conscious of his black skin and there was in him a prodding conviction that Jan and men like him had