Native Son Essay, Research Paper

The title of the novel begins to explain Bigger’s situation; he is more a child of the city itself than of human parentage. His soul is as stunted as an undernourished plant whose blooms are destroyed before they can come to fruition. When he says, upon reading the paper “No! Jan didn’t help me! He didn’t have a damned thing to do with it! I — I did it!” (p.283) he is clinging to the act of violence he performed as an affirmation of self. He is isolated by a blind society, he is loved by no one, he has never been given a chance to explore who and what he is. His attitude of “why care?” is rather to be expected, predicted, than wondered over.