Bessie Mears - Native Daughter?
(Trigger warning - mentions of rape)
In class, we talked about whether Native Son is a "protest novel" or not. Many of us came to a conclusion that it is, in the positive way (not because of the criticisms attached to that phrase). What makes it such a compelling narrative and protest to me is that our protagonist loses - he was set up to lose from the beginning - unlike many novels in which the protagonist triumphs. Wright shows us through Bigger's death exactly what he is protesting - white supremacy, poverty, institutional racism, the legal system, and more. He makes an explicit point with Bigger's fate. However, I couldn't stop myself from thinking about Bessie. Similar to Bigger, she is killed by the system, the system which created Bigger. Yet, for some reason, I feel like Wright overlooks her story as a character - she does not get the rhetorical attention that Bigger does.
Arguably, Wright makes the characters in the book pay little attention to Bessie's death precisely to prove the point that black women's lives in the 1930/40s were not perceived as being as valuable as white women's, or even black men's, lives. Wright certainly shows through a multitude of examples that the white people in the book (with the exception of Max and maybe Jan) don't care about Bigger's life - that seems to one of the points of the book. Wright is explicit in showing us how much the white people hate him, either overtly or covertly, and how that has led to his ultimate death, and many of his examples show him being overlooked, judged, and oppressed by white people. Clearly, Wright wants us to sympathize (at least to an extent) with Bigger for the way he is treated - we are supposed to understand that his being overlooked is wrong. Therefore, when Bessie is wheeled out in the courtroom, and no one bats an eye that she is dead and was raped, I am inclined to believe that Wright is showing us how badly she is overlooked not only by white people, but also by Bigger, to illustrate a problem in our society.
What bothers me is that Bessie doesn't get a conclusion, an affirmation that what happened to her was wrong. Bigger does. His death is the point of the story. For some reason, although we have plenty of evidence that Bessie was wronged by Bigger in the rhetoric of the narrative, her rhetorical death doesn't sit well with me. Her murder and rape are the only crimes which I feel were not in some way "justified" by Bigger's circumstance. Mary's death was an accident, driven by Bigger's fear of being caught in her bedroom and accused of rape, which ironically, he later is. The ransom was driven by severe poverty. Even Bessie's death I can partially understand - Bigger thought he was saving himself from getting caught. But her rape went completely "unjustified". How would you even "justify" rape? (I use the word "justify" only to mean explain - not to mean morally right.) The only explanation I can think of is that when men grow up to think that they have to display toughness in order to stay alive or keep from falling apart emotionally (Bigger fits this description), they become socialized to want to overpower something, to have control. Women often become the victims of that need. I see this explanation come into play with Gus - but I'm not sure it's as heavily implied with Bessie, if even at all. Bessie's exclusion from this explanation seems unfair to me, especially in a novel arguing for social equality.
Even if Wright's overlooking of/subtlety with Bessie's story is intentional and meant to prove a point, is it still wrong that she is overlooked as a character? Should Wright have been more explicit here and made it a point to include the specific struggles of black women in the 1930-40s?
Even if Wright's overlooking of/subtlety with Bessie's story is intentional and meant to prove a point, is it still wrong that she is overlooked as a character? Should Wright have been more explicit here and made it a point to include the specific struggles of black women in the 1930-40s?
It's hard to pinpoint if Wright overlooks Bessie on purpose, to make a point about how black women are overlooked, or if he does it just because she's not the main character, or if he just doesn't think her story is significant enough to warrant more explanation. Or if he's even overlooking her more than the other side characters at all, or being more subtle than he already is with Bigger. I just found Bessie's conclusion to be completely unsatisfying. She did not get the "airtime" or explanation she deserved. She is the only character I feel that Bigger truly wronged, with the least "justification." What do you think? Do you think Wright overlooks Bessie? Do you think it's intentional, a narrative tactic, or is it subconscious? Do you think whether he intended it or not even matters?
I agree, I think that Bessie's character is seriously overlooked. Maybe this ignorance is intentional - it just goes to show how black women are cast off by both white society and men. Maybe the point is in that she doesn't have a conclusion; she's just a symbol, someone who is thrown around, abused, exploited, et cetera. I think your title, "Native Daughter?", is completely fitting. I think that Wright tries to portray her end as a result of her social circumstances. She faces the same racism that Bigger does, but Bigger also has ways of exerting control over her. And in that way, she experiences racism both directly and through Bigger, who as a male oppresses her but also takes out his frustrations on her. Yet perhaps it's still wrong for her to be overlooked as a character, but that's something that's central to the idea of intersectional feminism; black women have been overlooked both by feminism (which was so long dominated by white women) and writers like Wright, who despite protesting racial segregation/oppression still overlooked many of the struggles of women.
ReplyDeleteEven though we've talked about this already, I feel like this could lead to a deep discussion that maybe would have been more interesting to discuss in class, given that we had the time, because I think you're questions are very important and something to think about. First, I completely agree with everything and especially the third paragraph. I think it could be implied with Bessie, the need for control, because even though we weren't told or didn't think about it at the time, Bigger's fear was also kind of controlling. He wanted someone to tell, someone to trap, and that person unfortunately ended up to be Bessie. I could go into more detail, but I might start writing an essay! :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, about Wright overlooking Bessie, it might just be that simply overlooking her is a protest. Its quick with her, we never know much about her because she's there and then she's not. I think the unsatisfaction of Bessie's story is intentional to leave the reader thinking that this is a problem and to raise all of the questions you did. Great post! (I'm totally holding out because I'm literally writing an essay lol)
Haha, thanks for your thoughts! I might make this my essay too!
DeleteI think you're absolutely right, and I too was pretty dissatisfied with Bessie's conclusion - or lack thereof. The scene in the courtroom is important, I think, but I also don't see it as enough. Wright has showed us that he knows how to make us frustrated - the entire trial does this. I believe the point of Max's monologue, besides clearly, to get Wright's point across, is to build up hope only for it to come crashing down when Bigger is executed anyway. The injustice of the whole thing is just that much more stark after pages and pages of Max explaining exactly why it is unjust. My point anyway, is that Wright is perfectly capable of setting up a context which makes injustice stick out like a sore thumb, and I just don't think he did all he could have with Bessie. Maybe if we asked him he would say the lack of resolution for Bessie was exactly his point, but honestly, I think that would be kind of a lazy answer (no disrespect to Wright though, Native Son actually rocked my world).
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