As we read Native Son, we talked a lot about how Bigger's environment and the way he was brought up shaped his actions and beliefs. He was reactive rather than proactive and as the book went on we were supposed to feel sorry for him. I felt bad for him with all the stuff with Jan and Mary, and then when he killed her, but then after that he just grew tiresome. Especially when it came to Bessie.
Throughout the book, we see all different aspects of Bigger's personality and the way he reacts in different situations, but we don't get to see that much of Bessie's. We know that she has to work long grueling hours for little pay and that to get over it, she drinks, but we don't see anything of how she got there. What happened to her family and how was she raised are good questions that would shed light on Bessie, but we never get that.
She is used as an object by multiple people when she is just used as evidence for Mary's murder and even by Bigger himself when he says, "You have to have a girl, so I had Bessie"(352). He didn't love or hate her, but just used her as an object. In order to save himself, he killed her like he was lessening a load he had to carry. He dragged Bessie into his mess because he wanted to have someone with him, but then he wanted her dead because she became a liability and made him vulnerable. Other evidence for him objectifying her is the scene after he kills Mary when he goes to her house we see the unspoken agreement that he had with Bessie where "he would give her liquor and she would give him herself"(139). When she was alive nobody really cared for her and then when she died, nobody mourned her. While in the beginning we can feel sorry for Bigger as the book goes on the person who we should feel sorry for the most is Bessie.
I completely agree with this post. I think that she is completely objectified by Bigger the entire time because she is a woman and because he hasn't really loved anyone. I also think that she is objectified by the court, this time because she is a Black woman. So maybe what I want to think about is the difference between Bigger and the court's objectifications and what that suggests. Perhaps the implication here is that even within his own marginalized place in society, Bigger still can treat other marginalized people poorly, specifically women. Maybe the implication has something to do with Bigger, as someone very unaware of himself and his environment, embracing societal prejudices towards women despite the prejudices he endures. But the court has overt prejudices towards both women and black people.
ReplyDeleteI also am wondering how much of this objectification was intentionally put there by Wright. He definitely is aware of the way Bigger treats Bessie, so I would have to go back and reread the scenes to decide what I think. But maybe, in his male gaze so focused on portraying what he saw as a racially charged society, Richard Wright neglected to think about the gendered aspect of race relations?
I think many points you make about Bessie are valid. When Bigger accidentally killed Mary, I did feel somewhat sorry for the mess Bigger had gotten into. I could see from reading Book 1 that Bigger hadn’t planned to murder anybody that night. However, as I began reading Book 2, I definitely felt less sorry for Bigger because when he understood that he murdered someone, and instead of feeling ashamed, scared, remorse, or something of that sort, he feels gleeful as he realizes all the potential ways he could exploit this accident.
ReplyDeleteOne of these ways was getting the ransom money, which he forced Bessie to become a part of once he told her of his plans. Then, when Bigger eventually killed Bessie, I didn’t feel sorry for him, I felt sorry for her. Bessie’s murder was his choice and once again, he didn’t really seem upset by killing her. It became a difference of a panicked accident and a calculated murder. He seemed reluctant to kill her, not because he cared about her, but because he didn’t want to go about the trouble of killing her when he needed to go run away. This is especially horrible considering how the Bigger’s whole reasoning of why she had to be killed was because he decided to tell her about accidentally killing Mary.
I know the novel was primarily focused on Bigger, but I do think Wright is trying to draw some attention to Bessie and how she was used, as you said, as an object by most everyone in the book. I think Bessie as a character is used to show the reader another side of Bigger (since Wright throughout the book shows that Bigger acts quite differently depending if he is with family, with the people at the poolroom, the white world, etc.) I agree with Roshan's comment that Wright might be showing us how he decides to mistreat someone of his same race awfully and how it is also amplified by Bessie being a woman (but at the same time, I agree that I not quit sure whether or not this part is as fully developed as other parts of the book). Something I do know is that I feel much more sorry for Bessie than Bigger at the end of the book. But it does leave me wondering why Wright didn't develop Bessie's character more.
Bigger also tries to use Bessie to collect the ransom money from the Daltons, yet still doesn't tell her the truth of what happened with him and Mary. It felt very wrong to me how Bigger pulled her into the mess he made, then raped and killed her because she knew too much. While people's opinions on Bigger may vary, I highly doubt that anyone felt what happened to Bessie was justified.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this - I do feel sorry for Bigger and I think Wright does a great job of stirring empathy for him, but I feel way more sorrow for Bessie. She was someone who Bigger could drop his pain onto, take from, and leave as he wanted. All she really wanted was a loving relationship but he just dragged her into everything. It really sickens me how her very intentional rape and death was also overlooked by Mary's accidental death, and no one really mourned her, as you said so well.
ReplyDeleteThese are all excellent points about Bigger's problematic treatment of Bessie, and Wright also exposes the extremely problematic ways that she is treated by the courts, who both ignore or downplay her rape and murder (for which Bigger is unambiguously guilty) and literally objectify her body by displaying it as "evidence" (ironically, evidence of Bigger's crimes against Mary).
ReplyDeleteOne lingering question is, does Wright as the author deserve criticism for *his* treatment of Bessie as a character? Do you see the *novel* as objectifying her in these ways? Or is Bigger's emotionally stunted and dysfunctional relationship with her one more measure of the ways that his social context and environment has hindered his growth as a person? He sees her as an object because (as Max later suggests) that's what he's essentially been taught to do? In this light, Wright could be seen to be as critical of Bigger's treatment of Bessie as he is of other flaws in Bigger's character--all of which the novel seems to chalk up to environmental factors, foe which he is not fully to blame.