Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary
devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Popular Culture
Throughout Native Son, Wright depicts
popular culture—as conveyed through films, magazines, and newspapers—as
a major force in American racism, constantly bombarding citizens
with images and ideas that reinforce the nation’s oppressive racial
hierarchy. In films such as the one Bigger attends in Book One,
whites are depicted as glamorous, attractive, and cultured, while
blacks are portrayed as jungle savages or servants. Wright emphasizes
that this portrayal is not unique to the film Bigger sees, but is
replicated in nearly every film and every magazine. Not surprisingly,
then, both blacks and whites see blacks are inferior brutes—a view
that has crippling effects on whites and absolutely devastating
effects for blacks. Bigger is so influenced by this media saturation
that, upon meeting the Daltons, he is completely unable to be himself.
All he can do is act out the role of the subservient black man that
he has seen in countless popular culture representations. Later,
Wright portrays the media as one of the forces that leads to Bigger’s
execution, as the sensationalist press stirs up a furor over his
case in order to sell newspapers. The attention prompts Buckley,
the State’s Attorney, to hurry Bigger’s case along and seek the
death penalty. Wright scatters images of popular culture throughout Native
Son, constantly reminding us of the extremely influential
role the media plays in hardening already destructive racial stereotypes.
Religion
Religion appears in Native Son mostly
in relation to Bigger’s mother and Reverend Hammond. Bigger’s mother
relies on her religion as a source of comfort in the face of the
crushing realities of life on the South Side. Bigger, however, compares
his mother’s religion with Bessie’s whiskey drinking—an escapist
pastime with no inherent value. At times, Bigger wishes he were
able to enjoy the comfort religion brings his mother, but he cannot
shake his longing for a life in this world. When Reverend Hammond
gives Bigger a cross to wear while he is in prison, Bigger equates
the cross with the crosses that are burned during racist rituals.
In making this comparison, Wright suggests that even the moral province
of Christianity has been corrupted by racism in America.
Communism
Wright’s portrayal of communism throughout Native
Son, especially in the figures of Jan and Max, is one of
the novel’s most controversial aspects. Wright was still a member
of the Communist Party at the time he wrote this novel, and many
critics have argued that Max’s long courtroom speech is merely an
attempt on Wright’s part to spread communist propaganda. While Wright
uses communist characters and imagery in Native Son generally
to evoke a positive, supportive tone for the movement, he does not
depict the Party and its efforts as universally benevolent. Jan,
the only character who explicitly identifies himself as a member
of the Party, is almost comically blind to Bigger’s feelings during
Book One. Likewise, Max, who represents the Party as its lawyer,
is unable to understand Bigger completely. In the end, Bigger’s
salvation comes not from the Communist Party, but from his own realization
that he must win the battle that rages within himself before he
can fight any battles in the outside world. The changes that Wright
identifies must come not from social change, but from individual
effort.
