Bessie, Mrs. Thomas, and Vera: a sobbing montage

 I know it was mentioned many times during discussion that a major "blind spot" in Native Son was Wright's depiction of his female characters and the role they played in his novel. I completely agree that they are one-dimensional characters used as props to move the plot forward, and are treated similarly as objects by Bigger. However, I'll also acknowledge that the story was about Bigger, so while this handling of the female characters in the novel certainly does them a disservice, I think it's somewhat explainable by the fact that the only person we ever get into the head of and explore deeply is Bigger himself.

But this does not excuse the way that Wright, with all the one-dimensionalism of his female characters, gives them the exact same one-dimensional personality (and spoiler alert: it's not a flattering one). Almost every character excluding Bigger in Native Son is one-dimensional. But the men have so many different roles and surface-level personalities - you cannot say that Mr. Dalton, Max, and Buckley are the same people, with the exact same wants, values, behavior, reactions - I could go on. You can say that about the three black women portrayed in the novel - Vera, Mrs. Thomas, and Bessie - and I hesitate to use the word "women", since one of those is a child that still somehow shows many of the same characteristics.

Mrs. Thomas and Bessie are both depicted as women who are beaten down and defeated in life, and whose only goal is to just work and work and work (mainly for white people). Mrs. Thomas is constantly talking of how she just wants to "'lay down and quit'" (Wright 10), and Bessie is someone who has basically given her entire life to working for white people, to the point where the only thing she does outside of it is get drunk and have sex with Bigger (in her own words, even). Further, both women are depicted as constantly nagging (in Mrs. Thomas' case), or being petulant and clingy (in Bessie's case). Both women are also extremely prone to tears and emotional breakdowns over things that the male characters seem to be "too strong" for, and the women come across as irrationally emotional and hysterical, unable to stop crying for long enough to do something about a problem or situation. 

May I present the sobbing montage:  Mrs. Thomas' reaction to the rat in their apartment - "The woman [Mrs. Thomas] screamed and hid her face in her hands... The woman on the bed sank to her knees and buries her face in the quilts and sobbed... the woman on the bed continued to sob... 'Bigger, for God's sake!' the mother sobbed" (Wright 6-7). While Bigger is stoic and planning how to get away with his crimes, Bessie "rose, her lips still twisted with sobs... She sobbed softly as she worked, pausing now and then to wipe tears from her eyes... she was facing him, then she sank to her knees... She clenched her hands in front of her and rocked to and fro with her eyes closed upon gushing tears... Once she stopped and began to cry" (Wright 228-230). It continues on like this throughout the entire escape scene, right up until Bessie's killed. 

It seems like all Bessie and Mrs. Thomas do in the book is work, complain about working, and fall to their knees and sob. While Vera isn't quite there yet, she seems to be set on the similar track - she's focused on going to school to learn how to work, she behaves similarly to Mrs. Thomas in the rat situation and even faints, and when she goes to visit Bigger in jail, she and her mother spend the entire time sobbing and wailing while Buddy is stoic and angered for his brother (seriously, read that scene and count how many times Wright says the girls are crying and/or otherwise hysterical while the men are much more articulate and pragmatic).

Wright plays into so many negative stereotypes of women with his characterization of Mrs. Thomas, Bessie, and Vera, which is only exacerbated by the fact that they are the only black women in the entire book. He doesn't just not explore their characters and use them for the plot, he seems to actively give a negative and unfair depiction of them as people - to me, it seems like a bit more than just a blind spot.

Well, that was my rant. I saw a couple other people also wrote blogs about the gender dynamics in Native Son focused more on the role female characters and how they were used for the sake of the plot, which I also think is very revealing and interesting to analyze, so check those out too! Also, I feel the need to say I do think the book did a good job in its aim of discussing systemic racism and its effects, even if only in relation to men. 

Wright, Richard Nathaniel, Native Son, HarperCollins, 2005.