The Women of Bigger's World

Content warning: this blog post contains discussion of sexual and domestic violence. 

In Bigger Thomas’s story, women almost surround him, be it his mother, sister, girlfriend, employer, etc.,
and they often fall into distinct roles and with that, influence his life and every decision. Bigger, who from
the get-go adheres to a rather toxic-ly masculine role, which leads to some rather upsetting instances
involving women who he interacts with. Let’s take a look at Bigger’s relationships with the women in his
life, and how sexual and gender dynamics further define his fate. 

Bigger’s family at the time of the novel consists of himself, his mother, and his two younger siblings, Vera
and Buddy. We learn that his father was killed in a race riot, and since then, Bigger has been raised to a
standard to try to be the “man of the house”. While his mother does have a naturally commanding nature,
it’s clear that she needs Bigger to step up in his role as she can’t hold the family together by herself. It’s
interesting how much pressure is put on Bigger to be a “man”, not just because he’s the oldest but also
the oldest son. If Bigger were female, or if he had an older sister, would that still be the case? Bigger
does have a younger sister, though, and her role in the book, while rather minor, is quite telling. In the
opening scene, the sight of the dead mouse in their home scares Vera enough that she faints. Later,
Vera accuses Bigger of “looking” at her, likely in a funny way, as he had just hours ago murdered Mary
and disposed of her body. It’s clear that Vera is quite sensitive, unlike her more “hardened” brothers,
something that is clearly more acceptable. 

Interestingly, we meet Mary Dalton, the woman that Bigger will end up killing by accident, on screen
before we meet her in person. While Bigger and Jack are out at the movies, a picture about Mary comes
on, showing her beauty and doting on men, which Bigger and Jack joke about arousing themselves. She
seems like the perfect maidenly enchantress - rich, young, beautiful, and knowing of her place. However,
when Bigger meets the real Mary Dalton, she’s a lot different - outspoken, unruly, skipping school to go
out drinking with her boyfriend, and uncomfortably friendly to Bigger. She is bold in her ways and radically
supports her Communist boyfriend’s ambitions - far from this submissive figure who poses for the
camera and lets the status quo lead her. 

One of the most complex and polarizing scenes to readers is the scene at the end of Book 1 where
Bigger is helping Mary to her bed, just before he accidentally kills her. Had he just been trying to help
her, we as readers would’ve evidently sympathized with him more throughout Books 2 and 3, but he
didn’t. Instead, he proceeded to kiss her and fondle her a bit. Why was that? Throughout his night with
Jan and Mary, his discomfort was extremely evident, and why wouldn’t he want to just stick her in bed and get the hell out of there? Perhaps he found himself needing to assert some sort of power over her
that he lacked? Perhaps he found this to be the only moment where he could “safely” do so? It’s
endlessly confusing and I don’t think we’ll ever quite know why Bigger does this. If he had just put her
in bed and left, there’s a chance she would have survived the night, but of course, he had no idea that
this instance would take an abrupt and dark turn - most of which is caused by that exact stigma of a
black man and a white woman coupling, especially nonconsensually. 

Something that is also extremely hard to grapple with in this reality-soaked novel is Bigger’s
relationship with his girlfriend, Bessie, and how his downward spiral affects that. At first, Bigger and
Bessie are young lovers - getting drunk together on their occasional time off from work. As more and
more emerges about Bigger’s crime, Bessie becomes more and more distraught, and their relationship struggles and reaches a breaking point when Bigger ends up raping and killing Bessie, who has been
shocked stiff from everything that has happened (and remember, all of this has happened in the span
of two days). Before Bessie’s death, however, Bessie gets angry at Bigger, claiming he never really
loved her; he only wanted to “get her drunk so he could have her”. It’s unclear if Bigger has any
genuine feelings for Bessie, but the ending of their time together is heartbreaking nonetheless. 

Gender roles were much more defined in Bigger Thomas’s era, and toxic masculinity often drove
decisions that fueled some of the most polarizing and hard-to-read instances in Native Son.
Nonetheless, it’s intriguing to take a deeper look at. It’s clear that Bigger is driven quite intensely by
toxic masculinity, and many of the decisions that further plummet him into freefall in Book Two relate
to his relationships and attitudes towards the women in his life. Something else that is curious is how
in Book Three, when Bigger was being tried, the main focus was on Mary’s death and potential rape
when there was direct evidence that Bigger did intentionally rape and kill Bessie, but her story is put
in the background to further prove the Dalton’s narrative. Gender and race often go together in this
novel as they do in real life, another proving of the realism of Native Son and protest fiction.