Learn CPR, Bigger
A question haunted me
through reading Native Son: What
would have happened if Bigger gave Mary CPR as soon as he realized she wasn’t
breathing? Would she have come back to life? Or would suffocating her have done
too much irreparable damage? I like to believe that this whole situation could
have been avoided if only Bigger had received CPR training, which as you can
imagine is endlessly frustrating (obsessing over what could have been).
The question “What if”
became a trend throughout the book. Again and again I read of Bigger’s
shenanigans and felt a tugging in my chest as I considered all the ways he
could have gotten away by doing x y and z but didn’t. Why didn’t you just clean the furnace, fooool? I thought of all the
things I would do differently if put in Bigger’s place, all the mistakes I
would avoid doing and all the precautions I would take, though first of all I
would probably have to find my way out of this glass house (where are the
DOORS???)
The reality is, Bigger is
human, and lives in real time, not book time, which moves at a pace determined
by the reader. If you think about it, a reader is not human. They are un-swayed
by the emotions in the characters, the nerves, the pressure, etc. and they have
all the time in their little book world to calculate the best course of action
for a character to take. They’re like God over their little world of ink paper
(maybe that’s why we like reading so much, because it satisfies our little
complexes). If I were actually sucked into the book, into the literal shoes of
Bigger, I would do a whole lot worse than he did. He’s actually pretty smooth
and good at acting. I would probably have cracked under the pressure and turned
myself over to the police the moment they peered inquisitively into the furnace.
Of course, I wouldn’t have put Mary’s body in the furnace in the first place, because 1) I don’t
have the stomach to behead someone and 2) I don’t have the upper body strength
to carry a body down some stairs. Also, I just wouldn’t. I probably would have
shouted when I killed Mary because maybe someone could have given her CPR and
saved her. I probably wouldn’t have killed her at all, because I know that
people can’t breathe through pillows. Then again I’m a girl, so I wouldn’t have
been worried about people incriminating me for being a sexual threat to a white
girl.
Ugh I’m doing it again.
Ugh I’m doing it again.
Bigger is human.
Actually, I don’t think he is, because he’s more of a manifestation, and also I
would really like to believe that humans don’t kill with the same lack of
consideration like Bigger did (but obviously some do, I know). But that’s a
whole other blog post, I already started this one. In this blog post, Bigger is
human, and so he is carried through life on emotional waves. Is he really in
control? Is he guilty? No more guilty than the rest of us, I say. Though he kind of is, because he killed people.
Very interesting post! I can definitely relate to you in that I was shaking my head at Bigger throughout the book, wondering why he didn't do this or that. Your post reminds me that readers are in a very different position than Bigger was, and if the author were to have written the book from our perspective, it would've one, been much less interesting, and two, much less realistic. The way that Bigger deals with the situations that arise in the book are true to who he is as a character and instead of merely acting as interesting twists in the plot, they really go to emphasize Bigger's traits.
ReplyDeleteI love your post! And yeah while reading Native Son I kept thinking what the heck Bigger why did you do that? I want to believe I would have acted more rationally than Bigger, but I wouldn't have (though I can't imagine how I would have ended up in his situation). But Bigger's mistakes make him more realistic of a character because I find it very unlikely that someone in Bigger's situation would have acted rationally enough to be able to save Mary or easily get away with her murder after accidentally suffocating her. So yeah I agree that Bigger is human.
ReplyDeleteI found your post really intriguing. While Bigger often acts in ways that puzzle the reader, we never consider how different our perspectives are from his. You mention that Bigger is human, meaning that he makes mistakes but I think it's important to keep in mind the perspective where Bigger is a generalization meant to represent an African American man in a city like Chicago in the 1940s. while we can still consider Bigger's humanity this perspective forces the reader to consider if Bigger would have any opportunities to act in a different way, for example performing CPR. If Bigger really is a generalization then aren't his actions predetermined? If he acted differently and gave Mary CPR wouldn't that compromise the generalization as he would no longer represent the group he's meant to?
ReplyDeleteI was conflicted on how I viewed Bigger as I read the book. I sympathized with him, but at the same time he did some awful things. Is it fair for us as readers to judge the decisions Bigger makes when we haven't experienced the same things he has and don't have to deal with the consequences of his actions? Like we can easily say "oh I never would've beaten up my friend like he did to Gus," but we don't feel the same fear of white people that Bigger does so we can't really relate.
ReplyDeleteWow. I never really thought about reading like that. Every time I read a book and a character does something just flat-out stupid, I will always have my face in my palm. But you bring up an excellent point. We are not living the lives of the character. We are not Bigger Thomas. We can't make the decisions for him. You said that Bigger is just human and as a human we all make mistakes. We can critique others for their wrongdoings but we are not in their position. We cannot truly see what is really going on inside someones head because we all have different perspectives.
ReplyDelete