ABSTRACT
James Baldwin argues that in Native Son “a necessary dimension has been cut away; this dimension being the relationship that Negroes bear to one another, that depth of involvement and unspoken recognition of shared experience which creates a way of life”. By the time Richard Wright published The Outsider, much had changed in his life. This chapter begins with an analysis of violence in Native Son, drawing from Fanon’s theories in order to explain the revolutionary and creative potential within Bigger Thomas’s violence, while also emphasizing that such potential should not be read as justification for or glorification of his actions. Violence has added value to Bigger’s life, but it is a value that coincides with his necessary undoing, as he is jailed and then sentenced to death for his crimes. Rather than confronting himself, as Bigger did in the aftermath of his violence, Cross tries to escape from himself, leaving a trail of victims in his wake.
