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Alexander Lowe
Dr. Bruce Dick
ENG 4580-101
8/4/2016
The Summit of Fear: A Psychoanalytic Look at Bigger Thomas
As Richard Wright closes his essay titled “How “Bigger” Was Born”, he says, “And if
Poe were alive, he would not have to invent horror, horror would invent him” (462). This notion
of fear and horror is one of the key elements that shapes Bigger Thomas in Wright’s 1940 novel
Native Son. This story is an introspective look that thoroughly plumbs the depths of Bigger’s fear
and hatred toward seemingly everything. Bigger is not just a character in this book, but also
serves as a symbol for the pervading social consciousness of African Americans in the 1930s.
This singular mindset of fear, hate, and oppression shared by whites toward African Americans
at the time is responsible for the creation of Bigger. According to Wright, Bigger is not totally
responsible for the crimes he has committed because society has played a part in causing him to
commit them. Because of the scenes where Bigger experiences discomfort with Mary and Jan
during their night out on the town, where Bigger kills Bessie, where Max interviews Bigger, and
where Max appeals to the judge in the courtroom, Bigger’s psychological state is slowly shaped
into what it is at the end of the book through unconscious decisions informed by the societal
mentality.
Before ever coming to the courtroom, Bigger had long felt discomfort around white
people. Far earlier in the story, he confronts a crisis when faced with an interaction between
himself and Jan and Mary. Bigger’s discomfort with Jan and Mary in their car ride around town
foreshadows a great deal about why he will commit the impending crimes and goes to further

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characterize Bigger as a character who has a great psychological depth. To understand Bigger’s
actions and feelings of hate, it is important to point out some of the ways in which Bigger might
be alluding to the problem unconsciously. Sigmund Freud is widely considered to be the father
of psychoanalysis and credited for developing the concept of the unconscious mind. The
unconscious refers to the idea that many actions people perform are not done with conscious
intent and instead stem from a part of the brain that isn’t conscious. The unconscious can cause
people to do things they don’t understand or even know about. In his article “Freud and the
Unconscious,” Mick Power described Freud’s concept in detail: “Freud believed there is no such
things as an ‘accidental’ slip-of-the-tongue, difficulty remembering a name, or a surrealistic
dream that appears to have no meaning” (612). Power establishes that Freud formulated the idea
that every action—whether it is carried out consciously or unconsciously—has some kind of
force driving it. The role of a psychologist is to figure out why a person performs these actions.
Keeping the role of a psychologist in mind, the unconscious can show the reader a different truth
behind an author’s work by unearthing hidden aspects of their unconsciousness. By identifying
the places where Bigger exhibits some kind of psychological red flag, such as denial, repression,
and projection, the evidence of him being a product of society can become more positively
correlated.
One of these psychological red flags can be found by returning to Bigger’s experience
with Jan and Mary. Bigger exhibits telltale signs of repression. Though not explicitly stated in
this part of the book, the reasons behind Bigger’s repression become apparent later in the story.
Repression is the psychological concept that involves one selectively forgetting memories or
disguising them as something else. The Freud Dictionary of Psychoanalysis defines repression
as lying, “simply in the function of rejecting and keeping something out of consciousness”

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(Fodor, Gaynor 132). The American Psychological Association surmises that repression is often
linked with some kind of overwhelmingly negative experience that might damage one’s mind if
they were to fully experience the emotions associated with it at that time. Furthermore, when
these repressed memories trigger, feelings can be quite explosive. Bigger’s ultimate response to
these repressed feelings lead him to murder Mary and Bessie.
With repression defined, the text can be viewed through a new lens and further insight
into the psychology of Bigger can be observed. One of Bigger’s first significant reactions to
Mary and Jan occur as soon as Mary introduces Bigger to Jan. Wright writes, “Jan smiled
broadly, then extended an open palm toward him. Bigger’s entire body tightened with suspense
and dread” (66). Bigger undergoes a sweeping feeling of suspense and dread from a simple
handshake. This reaction is not a typical response and belies an undertone of some kind of
repression. Because of Bigger’s experience growing up in a society that treats African Americans
as if they were animals, he has developed a negative association with white people. These
associated negative feelings toward white people come as a conditioned response. A conditioned
response is a reaction toward a stimulus that has come to be associated with a desired or
undesired outcome. Perhaps the most well-known case of conditioned response is Pavlov’s dogs,
who came to associate the man who fed them with food. Whenever the dogs would see the man,
they would salivate, regardless if he was coming to feed them or not. Bigger, regardless of
whether the white man is nice or cruel, still has the same reaction and exhibits the conditioned
behavior.
To further cement Bigger’s repression, perhaps the next logical stop to take on the tour of
his psychology would be a little further in his engagement with Jan and Mary when they’re
traveling to Ernie’s Kitchen Shack. Bigger is squeezed in between Jan and Mary. It is between

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these two that he has a provocative thought:
His arms and legs were aching from being cramped into so small a space, but he
dared not move. He knew that they wouldn’t have cared if he had made himself
more comfortable, but his moving would have called attention to himself and his
black body. And he did not want that. These people made him feel things he did
not want to feel. If he were white, if he were like them, it would have been
different. But he was black. (Wright 68-69)
In this passage, Bigger blatantly acknowledges his own inner turmoil. Though allusions are made
to it throughout the book up to this point, these particular lines are the first place where Bigger’s
fears are fully realized. These fears—as the reader later finds out—are what serves as a catalyst
for the demise of Mary at the hands of Bigger. At the time of the murder, he doesn’t recognize
that he wants to kill her but later comes to an acceptance, symbolizing Bigger’s final transition
into dealing with his repressed feelings. The unleashing of these repressed feelings reinforces the
point that Bigger is a product of the society. Without the oppression from society, Bigger never
would have developed these feelings and the need to unleash them would have not occurred.
Society receives its first strike with the realization that they were the ones to set into motion the
events which would later take place.
These events would soon unfold as, with Mary dead and Bigger unable to recognize his
repressed feelings, a whole host of problems arose and eventually caused Bigger to flee the
police and citizen militia who were hunting for him. In his flight, Bigger takes Bessie with him
so she doesn’t rat him out to the police. Upon arriving in an abandoned building, Bigger rapes
and kills Bessie, though whether he or the cold killed her is not plainly stated. Either way, Bigger
beats Bessie’s head in with a brick. Bigger’s reaction to killing Bessie is quite shocking when

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considered in terms of his killing of Mary. Bigger exhibits traits of intellectualizing Bessie’s
murder. Steven Lynn defines intellectualization as, “Analyzing and rationalizing rather than
feeling and reacting. The topic isn’t forgotten or ignored; it’s just turned into an intellectual
issue” (202). Before Bigger kills Bessie, his thoughts go through a sequence that very much
echoes Lynn’s definition. Bigger thinks:
His breath swelled deep in his lungs and he flexed his muscles, trying to impose
his will over his body. He had to do better than this. Then, as suddenly as the
panic had come, it left. But he had to stand here until that picture came back, that
motive, that driving desire to escape the law. Yes, it must be this way. A sense of
the white blur hovering near, of Mary burning, of Britten, of the law tracking him
down, came back. (Wright 236)
Bigger attempts to rationalize the reasons for which he is killing Bessie. Instead of feeling and
reacting toward Bessie, Bigger turns his reaction into an intellectual issue by declaring that if he
doesn’t do this, the law would get him. Bigger’s repressed feelings have led him to the point
where he doesn’t even feel anything toward Bessie’s murder. One explanation for Bigger’s lack
of feelings stems from the idea that Bigger does not hate the members of his own race. He
doesn’t view his murder of Bessie as something born of hate, rather, something born of
necessity. Society causes him to murder Mary out of hate. Society causes Bigger to murder a
member of his own race because they cause him to murder a white. Bigger’s rationalizing of this
event allows him to not experience total guilt for his crimes because they weren’t entirely his
fault. Another idea is that Bigger only had feelings for the murder of Mary because he knew the
consequences for murdering a white girl, whereas he knew that no one really cared if a black girl
was murdered. After all, in book three of Native Son, Bigger does realize that no one cares about

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a black girl’s death. They are just using her as evidence to further their own agenda. This agenda
has been oppressing Bigger and seals in the second strike against society in the case that they
were partly responsible for causing Mary’s death due to their mistreatment of Bigger.
Society would soon come to hear that it was their fault but not before Max had a long
chat with Bigger, where the true intentions of Bigger are laid bare. With Mary and Bessie dead,
Bigger is finally apprehended and thrown in jail. Jan, realizing that he is naïve in his treatment of
Bigger, gets Max to defend Bigger in court. The court proceedings begin and eventually Max
interviews Bigger so that he can prepare a defense for him. While talking to Buckley, Max
foreshadows Bigger’s sentiments and what will ultimately help him deal with his repression:
The boy got the idea from the newspapers. I’m defending this boy because I’m
convinced that men like you made him what he is. His trying to blame the
Communists for his crime was a natural reaction for him. He had heard men like
you lie about the Communists so much that he believed them. If I can make the
people of this country understand why this boy acted like he did, I’ll be doing
more than defending him. (Wright 292)
These lines indicate the direction that Bigger will take when Max interviews him later. This point
is foreshadowed again when Bigger thinks, “It was not that he did not really want to tell, but the
telling of it would have involved an explanation of his entire life” (Wright 308). The reason why
Bigger killed Mary is because of his entire life. Bigger, and the African American community as
a whole, have been systematically oppressed and abused. Bigger is a symbol for many African
Americans when he thinks that telling the reason as to why he murdered Mary would require an
explanation of his entire life. Max, interestingly enough, is the only white man in the story to
really understand Bigger’s plight. When Max begins interviewing Bigger, he starts by asking a

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few generic questions which eventually spiral into the reasons that Bigger states are the motives
behind Mary’s murder. After saying that Mary made Bigger feel like a dog, Max responds by
saying that Mary was just being nice and that it was the only thing that she knew how to do.
Bigger poignantly replies by saying that he only did what came naturally for him.
What comes naturally for Bigger, in this case, is murder. This expulsion of emotion could
very well be a sign of displacement. In his book titled Text and Contexts: Writing About
Literature with Critical Theory, Steven Lynn defines displacement as, “Shifting an emotion from
its real target to another one. Usually, a threatening, powerful target is exchanged for a safer one.
‘Don’t talk to me about Claudius right now. I’m busy plotting to kill those sorry traitors
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’” (202). Using Lynn’s definition of displacement, all that needs to
be done is to filter the dialogue through this didactic lens. In his interview with Max, Bigger
seems to pour out all of his frustration on Mary. Though Mary is never mean to Bigger and never
treated him as anything less than human, Bigger has been conditioned to automatically hate and
fear white folks. Going back to the idea of conditioned responses, the oppression by whites are
what causes Bigger to unconsciously displace his feelings of hatred and fear of white people onto
Mary.
The idea that Bigger has displaced his feelings is supported by the circumstances under
which Bigger killed Mary—circumstances of hatred and fear. During his interview, Bigger
replies to one of Max’s questions by saying, “Mr. Max, so help me God, I couldn’t do nothing
when I turned around and saw that woman coming to that bed. Honest to God, I didn’t know
what I was doing…”. He continues by saying, “Naw; naw. . . . I knew what I was doing, all right.
But I couldn’t help it. That’s what I mean. It was like another man stepped inside of my skin and
started acting for me. . . .” (Wright 352). This string of dialogue shows that Bigger’s reaction

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toward Mrs. Dalton’s entrance into the room when Bigger was bringing Mary in is not a natural
reaction, rather a conditioned one. He smothered Mary when he could have just as easily, as Max
points out, said something to Mrs. Dalton and she would have probably been just fine because
Mary has been known to be mischievous in the past. Perhaps Bigger’s displaced hatred and fear
is what drives him to kill Mary. This displacement of hate and fear could not have come to be if
it weren’t for the constructs of society. As Max and Bigger later point out, black men didn’t have
a chance in society. The oppression enforced by the whites on to the blacks leaves Bigger with
the mental impetus to react in a manner that connoted his feelings of fear.
Bigger reaches the summit of his fear as the trial approaches. After Max’s interview with
Bigger, the plot quickly moves to the courtroom where Bigger is tried for his crimes. After a
litany of evidence and taunts from Buckley—the opposition to Bigger and Max—Max is allowed
to present his defense in the closing statements of the case. He makes an impassioned argument
that Bigger is a product that society has created through their oppression of his race.
Furthermore, Max argues that Bigger was always going to be condemned for his crimes, even
before he killed Mary. Voicing more depth into the nature of this dynamic, Lola Jones writes in
her book titled Native Son: Notes, “Through the pressures and complexities of living in the Black
Belt, Bigger—before he murdered a white girl—was figuratively murdered by the white man.
They denied him life, but he managed to exist. Now they are preparing to end his life absolutely”
(35). Jones’s observations are essentially the thesis to Native Son. Bigger never could have
escaped the wrath of white society because they had condemned him of murder before he even
laid eyes on Mary Dalton. Does the condemnation of Bigger before he has committed the crime
make it okay for him to commit it? Is he not just fulfilling the destiny which he was predestined
to fulfill? This line of questioning perhaps leads one to stray off the path into a debate about free

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will and determinism, but it is a question that is poignant to Bigger’s basic human rights being
violated.
Max advocates the aforementioned idea of free will and determinism, although more
intertextually than literally, to the court by attempting to convince them that what Bigger did was
simply natural from how society had taught him. Joyce Ann Joyce reinforces this idea of
Bigger’s being a product of his society in her book titled Richard Wright’s Art of Tragedy. She
writes:
The essence of Native Son is that social, economic, and political practices of
segregation foster demeaning, destructive psychological attitudes that imbue the
personalities of both Wright’s Black and white characters. Bigger’s extreme fear
and rebelliousness are rooted in his emotional reaction to whites and their
environment, and in the white characters’ superficial, programmed responses to
and stereotypical expectations of him. (30)
This idea of Bigger’s emotional reactions toward white people links back to repression. Bigger’s
only experiences with white people up to his interactions with Mr. Dalton, Mary, and Jan have
been negative experiences. Because of these negative experiences, Bigger has a negative
association with whites. Just how a man might come to associate a particular food with getting
sick if he ate it right before he contracted an illness, Bigger has learned to associate negative
feelings with white people because he has been treated unfairly, brutally, and inhumanely by
them.
Bigger’s unfair treatment is continually hammered home in Max’s speech. During the
whole courtroom scene, Wright’s voice seems to be coming through Max. This line of thought
must be approached carefully to avoid the authorial intentional fallacy that dictates that the

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author’s true meaning can never be known. Even were the author to directly state his or her
intention, it would still have to be interpreted by another human’s brain and therefore cannot be
read objectively. Even still, the voice of the author can still be heard and read subjectively. As
Claudia Tate puts it in her book Psychoanalysis and Black Novels:
Wright may have experienced the story as a kind of reality and therefore failed to
make the subtle distinctions required to transform personal fantasy into effective
communication. Again to borrow Freud’s words, Wright fails to subdue his
“egoistic day-dreams by altering and disguising them” so as to bride his readers
with a “purely formal—that is, aesthetic—yield of pleasure which he offers us in
the presentation of his phantasies” (Freud, “Creative Writers,” 152, qtd. In
Jameson, “Imaginary and Symbolic in Lacan,” 341). (90)
Tate’s quote references another one of Wright’s works called Savage Holiday. Though this isn’t
in reference to Native Son, if Wright can do this once, it is likely that he does it more than once.
The text suggests that Max’s appeal is the climax of the book due to the length of the speech, its
content, and the appeals to both emotion and logic.
Logic and emotion play a big role in Native Son. The book seems to question how a
society that claims it is logical through the focus on imperialism and science can let such
abhorrent injustices occur right under their noses. Wright plays with the ideas of emotion versus
logic with Bigger’s criticism of religion. It is plausible that many people view religion as having
deep roots within human emotions. Though it plays a big part in it, particularly praise and
worship, logic is a large portion of some religions. Outside of those with blind faith, most people
have some kind of reasoning behind believing in a god. Seeing as Wright was a member of the
Communist party at the writing and publication of Native Son, it may seem too simple to say that

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Bigger hates religion because Wright hates religion. Perhaps what Wright tries to point to with
Bigger’s distaste for religion is that—seeing as Bigger is a symbol for many African
Americans—the new generation of African Americans are going to move away from religion
because the reliance on emotion is no longer enough to get them through the oppression that they
face. Things might be better when they die, but it doesn’t help them while they’re alive. Max,
being a Communist, most likely does not prescribe to any religion because dialectic materialism
is one of the principles embraced by Communists. Max makes appeals that cater to both logic
and emotion in his speech. He urges the court to let Bigger live so that society can change. This
change can be represented by the embracing of logic above all else. Max calls the court to be the
first in making a change.
How things have indeed changed. Riots, revolutions, and movements have removed
African Americans from the eye of the hurricane of oppression. Unfortunately, the hurricane still
exists and makes its presence known eerily often. The principles that The United States were
founded upon were those of freedom of oppression. What the founding fathers seemed to not
understand is that African Americans were people too and their freedom was being shackled and
made to farm and work long hours in the scalding sun. They may have pledged their allegiance
to the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, but vast portions of the
Republic are bent under the weight of oppression, burdened down with the biting tongues of
whips and hate. Wright was able to see society for what it really was. Not all writers can say that
they experienced what their characters experienced. Wright did. The brutal lynching, beating,
oppressing, and murder of innocent African Americans has forever stained the flag so that it is
white, blue, and blood red. Wright’s call to action channels itself through the pages of Native
Son, long after his demise. The greatest writer’s voices echo in eternity, forever reminding those

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who hear it of the horrors and triumphs of the past. Wright’s agonized screams can be heard
ripping themselves from Max’s very mouth. A book like Native Son shows that monsters aren’t
just born from the dark caves and underbellies of the evil side of the world. The good side of the
world can breed monsters when they begin to stray and stretch themselves into the dark corners
of the universe. The events in Native Son are not so far removed and, arguably, are still just as
valid to this day as they were then. Society perpetuates a never-ending cycle of tyrants whose
own self-deluded personas perpetuate death and murder.
Bigger Thomas is the symbol of an oppressed society. His interactions with Mary and Jan
show just how a person’s worldview can be warped and twisted by a society so that they can’t
even recognize friend from foe anymore, like an animal whose foot is trapped in a door but bites
at the person trying to free it. Bigger’s repressed feelings from his oppression come to a head
when he kills Mary then Bessie. His intellectualization of his act show just how far society has
pushed him. As Max attempts to ask Bigger why he murdered Mary, Bigger comes to understand
that his feelings of hatred and fear that had been engendered by white folks were displaced onto
Mary and that is the reason why he murdered her. Max tries to convey the horrors of what
society has inflicted upon Bigger by informing them that they are partially responsible for
Bigger’s crimes.
Just as Bigger hears the ring of steel hitting steel as the door to the prison clangs shut, the
cries of oppression from the past can still be heard echoing through the hallways of the present.
Each person lives in their own little cell called life, waiting for their time for execution. Some
have been put there justly, for murdering for the sake of murder. Some have been put there by
mistake, convicted on evidence that is circumstantial or incorrect. Some have been convicted
because they were backed against a wall and had no other way out. Bigger comes to accept that

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he is going to die. He accepts his part of the blame for murdering, but society is ultimately what
brought him to his cell. Bigger’s life was hard and short, as are many who are given the
opportunity to experience the lifelong experience of dying. Once one ascends to the summit of
fear, there is no further summit to climb. The summit of fear is death. Bigger conquers the
summit and begins his slow descent into the Valley of Death. For Bigger, his whole life is spent
climbing summits of fear. The circumstances in this story are true for many African Americans.
Max’s wish is that they need only climb the ones the white man climbs.

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Works Cited
Fodor, Nandor and Gaynor, Frank. Freud Dictionary of Psychoanalysis. New York:
Philosophical Library, Inc. (1965): 132. Print. 23 July 2016.
Jones, Lola E. Native Son: Notes. Lincoln, Neb: Cliff’s Notes (1971). EBook Academic
Collection (EBSCOhost). 35. Web. 18 July 2016.
Joyce, Joyce Ann. Richard Wright’s Art of Tragedy. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press (1986).
EBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 19 July 2016.
Lynn, Steven. Text and Contexts: Writing About Literature with Critical Theory. Illinois:
Pearson Education, Inc. (2011): 202. Print. 19 July 2016.
Power, Mick. “Freud and the unconscious.” Psychologist 13.12 (2000): 612-614. Google
Scholar. 18 July 2016
Wright, Richard. Native Son. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc. (1998). 66, 68-69, 236,
292, 308, 352. Print.
Wright, Richard. “How Bigger Was Born.” Native Son, New York: HarperCollins Publishers
Inc. (1998). 462. Print. 13 July 2016.