Summary
Bigger is seized with nervous energy, filled with both
hope and doubt. Max's questions have made Bigger feel that Max acknowledges
his life and feelings. Bigger wonders if people on the other side of
the “line” suffer from the same hatred and fear that have gripped him
all of his life. He realizes that individual people, just like himself and
Jan, comprise both sides of the color line. Bigger suddenly wishes
to know more about life. He wants to touch the hands of people locked
in other cells, both in prison and out in the world. He wants to
feel the pain of others who suffer like him.
However, Bigger knows that he faces the death penalty,
and therefore believes that it is too late to learn the meaning
of his existence. He wishes he could retreat back into his mental
stupor. He has a newfound feeling of hope for a new world and a
new way of viewing himself in relation to other people, but this
hope is tantalizing and torments him with uncertainty. Bigger wonders
if perhaps his blind hatred is the better option anyway, since hope
anguishes him more than it comforts him. The voice of hatred he
has read in the newspapers seems so much louder and stronger than
the voice of understanding he has heard in Max and Jan. Bigger despairs
that this hatred will endure long after he is dead.
Bigger's family, friends, and teachers are in
the courtroom for the trial. He wonders why the authorities do not
just shoot him instead of forcing him to go through this long, public
process. Max enters a guilty plea and explains that the law allows
him to enter mitigating evidence for his defendant. Buckley claims
that Max wants to plead guilty and then try to prove that Bigger
is insane, which is not allowed under the law. Max denies this claim
and says that he merely wants to demonstrate why Bigger has committed
murder. Max accuses Buckley of rushing the trial to gain political
advantage for the upcoming elections and claims that Buckley is
merely a stooge who is doing the bidding of the mob that has gathered
outside the courtroom. Max claims that Buckley wants to avoid the
matter of motive because it would mitigate Bigger's punishment.
The judge allows Max to do as he has planned, and the sentencing
hearing begins.
Buckley calls Mr. and Mrs. Dalton, Peggy, and Britten
to testify that Bigger behaved like a sane man. Next on the stand
are the reporters who discovered Mary's bones in the furnace, followed
by a parade of people who knew Bigger in the South Side. The theater manager
testifies that Bigger and other boys had masturbated in the theater.
Buckley even brings the Daltons' furnace into the courtroom. He
presents his case over the course of two days.
Analysis
Native Son is filled with dramatic action—there
are two murders, a police chase, a shoot-out, and a murder trial—yet
the most dramatic turmoil occurs inside Bigger's mind. In perhaps
the most important moment in the novel, Bigger is suddenly able
to see himself in relation to other people. Thanks to his discussion
with Max, he now feels free from the tensions of his life. He no
longer sees whites as just a “looming mountain of hate,” but rather
as individuals. Bigger has already seen Jan in this manner, but
he now reaches the important realization that even those
whites who hate him are human. In fact, if Bigger were in their
place, he realizes he would likely hate in the same way that they
do. This revelation has required Bigger to accept two important
things: not only must he realize that whites are human beings, but
he must also recognize that he himself is their equal. Previously,
Bigger has been afraid even to think of himself in these terms. Now,
however, the burdens of fear, hate, and shame have been lifted from
him, and he is able to see that the problems of his life are not
his alone. He imagines everyone—white and black, rich and poor—trapped
alone in his or her own jail cell, longing for connection.
Bigger finally begins to realize that he has been just
as blind as everyone else. Just as racist whites are blind to his
humanity, he has been blind to the fact that Jan and Mary are human
beings as well. He makes the crucial realization that the hatred
and fear that drive people on the other side of the “line” to make
a spectacle of him and wish him dead are the same kind of hatred
and fear that he has felt himself. Bigger longs to overcome his
alienation and become involved in the lives of others.
Bigger's awakening to the possibility of a connection
with others represents a new source of hope. He has left religion
behind because it only offers hope in the afterlife, but now he
has found beliefs that enable him to see hope in this world. He
imagines being able to reach out and touch the hearts of others
around him. He feels that in his recognition of others, and their
recognition of him, he can gain the identity and wholeness for which
he has longed. Earlier, Bigger thinks that he has found this identity
in his new status as a murderer, but that status leaves him tormented
by guilt. This new identity brings Bigger an image of himself standing
in a crowd of men in a blinding sun that has burned away all differences—not
only differences of race, but of class as well.
Bigger struggles with the inner conflict produced by
this new hope, and knows he must reconcile his new hope with the
certainty that he will be sentenced to death. In the face of death,
such hope is a torment. Bigger now longs for more time to examine
and understand his relation to others. His new fear is that he will
die before he has time to reach this understanding fully. He also
feels defenseless in the face of ongoing hatred, despairing that
the voices of hate will drown everything else out and continue long
after he is dead. The mobs and the newspapers continue to call Bigger
a monster, and he wonders if it is not better to hide again behind
his wall of hate. Fighting this battle within himself, he realizes
that to win the battle for his life on the outside he must first
win it on the inside. This realization represents the end of the
split consciousness from which Bigger has suffered throughout the
novel. His newfound wholeness, although something he only barely
understands, gives him the power to achieve victory in a sense,
regardless of the outcome of his trial.
