Communism is a hard thing to understand in Native Son. Bigger's interactions with communists create some of the oddest scenes in the novel. At the hands of communist characters we get the car scene with Jan and Mary, who think they are aware of racial oppression and doing the right thing to combat it while actually making Bigger horribly uncomfortable. We also get Mr. Max, an incredibly intellectual and articulate man who has arguably the best understanding out of any character we meet of what made Bigger who he is and of the scale of institutionalized racism in America. So this makes us think: which one of them is the more realistic communist?
Well, Richard Wright modeled numerous aspects of Native Son after real-life experiences that he had. It turns out that all this contrasting behavior we see from communists also reflects his personal experiences. Wright aligned politically with the far-left his entire life, and was actually in the Communist Party for about 10 years, writing Native Son during that time. Wright met a variety of interesting and influential people during his time as a communist, the likes of which we meet in Native Son. The overall positive outlook on communism is representative of Wright's overarching relations with the Party. Influential communist friends provided Wright with places to live and opportunities, and the good light in which he sees most communists shines through. We can assume that many of these people are quite similar to Max.
However, Wright did have a rocky relationship with the Party - he was kicked out at one point, and faced racism on multiple occasions from fellow party members. At this point you might be asking, "what blatantly racist communists do we meet in Native Son? Jan and Mary aren't making Bigger uncomfortable on purpose." Well, communist party membership soared in the 1930's due to increased skepticism of capitalism stemming from the Great Depression. These swarms of new communists probably were not all well educated on what it really means to be a communist, and Wright is almost mocking them with Jan and Mary and their naivety. He is suggesting that the communists who are offensive are those who do not yet fully understand what it means to be communist. Jan and Mary, for example, make Bigger horribly uncomfortable when they first meet. Mary dies, but as time passes Jan develops into a much more socially aware character who seems to align much closer with Max than he did originally, theoretically because he now fully comprehends social inequalities and the meaning of communism.
So the short answer to my question is that both Max and the naive version of Jan are technically communists, but the communist who understands the goals of communism and is willing to make personal sacrifices to advance their cause is a more "true" communist.
Well, Richard Wright modeled numerous aspects of Native Son after real-life experiences that he had. It turns out that all this contrasting behavior we see from communists also reflects his personal experiences. Wright aligned politically with the far-left his entire life, and was actually in the Communist Party for about 10 years, writing Native Son during that time. Wright met a variety of interesting and influential people during his time as a communist, the likes of which we meet in Native Son. The overall positive outlook on communism is representative of Wright's overarching relations with the Party. Influential communist friends provided Wright with places to live and opportunities, and the good light in which he sees most communists shines through. We can assume that many of these people are quite similar to Max.
However, Wright did have a rocky relationship with the Party - he was kicked out at one point, and faced racism on multiple occasions from fellow party members. At this point you might be asking, "what blatantly racist communists do we meet in Native Son? Jan and Mary aren't making Bigger uncomfortable on purpose." Well, communist party membership soared in the 1930's due to increased skepticism of capitalism stemming from the Great Depression. These swarms of new communists probably were not all well educated on what it really means to be a communist, and Wright is almost mocking them with Jan and Mary and their naivety. He is suggesting that the communists who are offensive are those who do not yet fully understand what it means to be communist. Jan and Mary, for example, make Bigger horribly uncomfortable when they first meet. Mary dies, but as time passes Jan develops into a much more socially aware character who seems to align much closer with Max than he did originally, theoretically because he now fully comprehends social inequalities and the meaning of communism.
So the short answer to my question is that both Max and the naive version of Jan are technically communists, but the communist who understands the goals of communism and is willing to make personal sacrifices to advance their cause is a more "true" communist.
I think it's also true that Max from the start understands social inequalities better because he is a Jew. Jan has probably experienced prejudice because it seems like he's a foreigner, but throughout the trial we see Max as the target of discrimination just like Bigger. Maybe it's not to the same extent as Bigger's experience, but it's still there. Maybe this suggests that Jan rising above the societal implications of people's actions and becoming a "true" communist is a harder realization for him than it was for Max, maybe showing that it was a remarkable feat to walk in someone else's shoes at that time.
ReplyDeleteI think keeping Wright's communist background in mind while reading Native Son is really critical to understanding the role of communism within the novel. I really like how you mention his own past and history with the communist party and find it really interesting that he was personally involved. Like you mentioned, I think the outlook on communism is generally pretty positive except for instances like where Jan and Mary make Bigger extremely uncomfortable in the car. While I do see how this could be a critique of "newer" and less knowledgeable communists, I also think that Jan and Mary's characters might not necessarily be a critique of communism itself, but rather the naivety of two white and privileged youths in general. Personally, while reading that scene, I focused more on the idea of Jan and Mary as two privileged white people believing that they could make a black man growing up in a racist society feel equal, rather than as two people attempting to follow a communist outlook.
ReplyDeleteI think it's also important to note that Max's quite detailed representation of Bigger Thomas in court is not only a product of his ideology (he has an *analysis* of the conditions that produced Bigger's actions, and he's eager to share it) but also a result of the fact that he's sat down with Bigger and allowed him to speak freely about himself and his feelings--he comes to an understanding of Bigger and his world that Jan leaps over in his desire to project his own racial anxieties onto Bigger. Within the novel, Max gets his authority to "speak for" Bigger because *Bigger talks to him like he's never talked to anyone before*. There are still criticisms to be made of how Max represents Bigger, and the very dynamic of a white (Jewish) lawyer "speaking for" Wright's protagonist might be problematic for some readers--but for the most part, I'd say the depiction of Max is very positive, as his ideological concerns are grounded in a seemingly genuine desire to understand Bigger and his experience on his own terms.
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ReplyDeleteI agree that there are different depictions of Communists throughout Native Son, since I think that the racist and ignorant actions of Wright's characters are attributed to the characters themselves and not some overarching flaw in Communism itself. I think Communist ideology remains unscathed from Wright's societal criticism, but the well-meaning yet offensive remarks from so-called Communists aren't excused or glossed over.
ReplyDeleteWright is certainly critiquing the attitudes of well-meaning but uneducated young people who think they completely understand the problem of race in America (Jan and Mary), though his depiction of the party as a whole is overwhelmingly positive. Despite Jan's problematic comments to Bigger, he uses the strength of the communist party to support Bigger through his trial. However, I don't quite agree with Jan's conflation of communist members and black Americans as equally repressed by the government. Racial segregation is obviously quite different from political stigma, and I wish Jan better understood that he is still speaking from a position of power.
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