What is Wright Telling Us Through Max?
What is Wright Telling Us Through Max?
Ian Evensen
Max is one of the more likable characters in Native Son. He sympathizes with Bigger, respects him and treats him like a person, and values his thoughts and emotions. Most importantly, Max seems to understand Bigger better than anyone else in the novel, and even articulates the message that Richard Wright is trying to deliver through Bigger’s story. However, I think Wright is also trying to convey a deeper message through Max: no matter how sympathetic a White person is, they will never be able to truly understand a black person’s experience.
To begin with, while Bigger is telling his story to Max in the jail cell, there are multiple times when he feels as though Max just can’t understand him. When Max tells Bigger that he should’ve tried to understand Mary better, Bigger “glared about the small room, searching for an answer. He knew that his actions did not seem logical and he gave up trying to explain them logically” (350). Here, Bigger feels as though it’s not even worth it to try to vocalize his feelings or experiences in a way that would make Max grasp what he meant.
Additionally, when Max states that Mary was being kind to Bigger, Bigger immediately interjects with, “Kind, hell! She wasn’t kind to me!” (350). Bigger is clearly frustrated at the assumption that Max made about Bigger’s experience, which accentuates Max’s fallibility when it comes to understanding Bigger.
I think it’s also worth noting how Bigger feels at the end of Max’s speech: Bigger “had not understood the speech, but he had felt the meaning of some of it from the tone of Max’s voice” (406). Why didn’t Bigger understand Max’s speech about him? Because Max’s interpretation probably wasn’t entirely accurate to Bigger’s real experience. Bigger’s story resulted from an infinite number of factors from every moment he’s lived through as a black man in America, and it’s impossible for Max to sympathize with Bigger enough to truly comprehend that, let alone put it into words. As a result, Bigger’s story isn’t conveyed to any of the white people in the courtroom, they’re not receptive at all, and Bigger is ultimately sentenced to death. This probably didn’t surprise Bigger, as he seemed to already know that no one would understand even before the trial: “It ain’t no use, Mr. Max.” “You can’t help me none. They got me.” (346).
I didn’t really know what to think while reading book three of Native Son. I knew it was problematic that the only way that Bigger’s story was heard was through the words of a white man who didn’t even fully understand. But on the other hand, there was no way Bigger would have been able to tell his story either, because 1: his story, having been accumulated by a lifetime of unique experiences was impossible for him to put into words, and 2: none of the white people would treat his story seriously--if they weren’t receptive when a white man told it, they definitely wouldn’t be if a black person told it. As I reflect on the book, I realize that this might have been Wright’s way of telling us that white people will never truly be able to understand what it’s like to be black in America.
Great blog post, I agree with a lot of what you said here. Richard Wright definitely seems to attempting to show the reader that no matter how much they try to understand the discrimination felt by African Americans, they will never truly get it unless they go through it themselves. This is portrayed by both the ending scene with Max and the internal breakdown that Bigger has at the end, both of which display the solemn solitude of Bigger's journey perfectly.
ReplyDeleteI think the only reason Max is seen as a good guy in the novel is because he's on Bigger's side, and since the readers are only listening to Bigger's side, we sympathize with him as well. Realistically, I think he has the same motivations as Buckley. He doesn't completely listen to Bigger and just tries to cherry pick the information he needs to drive home his point that the system is corrupt. He also has an ulterior motive of spreading the communist agenda. So, it seems like no one is really on Bigger's side here.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea you introduced that since even Max can't even truly understand Bigger's story, how would anyone else be able to if Bigger told them himself. Bigger was almost definitely going to get the death penalty no matter what, because no-one in that court had ever had experiences like Bigger's before. Max is not a "savior" to Bigger, he's just another white man who doesn't know what he's talking about.
ReplyDeleteI was definitely frustrated that Max kept framing it as a crime caused by Bigger's societal woes and the pressure put on him as a black man, because he literally killed Mary by accident; he didn't like her but he certainly had no malicious intent towards her. I appreciate him trying to put the system on trial, but at the same time he is clearly using Bigger as a tool, making him a faceless martyr instead of actually trying to save him.
ReplyDeleteYeah I agree with you and it felt like Max was almost trying to explain Bigger's story to Bigger as if he didn't have a full understanding of it. Max is kind of a white savior in my opinion because while he is trying to understand Bigger's story, he also doesn't really listen to Bigger, and also uses Bigger as an example of why communism is good, which seems wrong in a court case, since he should really only be focusing on Bigger.
ReplyDeleteI think the use of Max's character in Native Son is rather odd because he does touch on a lot of the key points of the novel in court, but not all of what he says is completely accurate representation of Bigger's experiences. And, as you say, Max is incapable of fully understanding what Bigger has gone through as a black man, so it seems especially odd that he is the one to directly address the novel's points about systemic racism. It is hard to know what to make of Max and Wright's intentions when writing him.
ReplyDeleteI think Bigger not understanding Max's speech about him is especially telling. Bigger literally had just told Max all about his life, letting him in on his story more than he ever had to anyone else, and when Max repeated that at court it was completely unrecognizable to Bigger. You'd think that he would have at least understood some part of his own story within Max's over twenty page monologue, but Max's perspective (and legal jargon) warps it so much that it is no longer actually Bigger's story.
ReplyDeleteRacism in this book obviously places a huge role. Even when people grow up and live in the same city, there are so many cultural differences (so much so that even Bigger cant understand what Max is trying to convey.) Bigger needed a white lawyer to act as a translator with the judge, but even Bigger could not convey what he meant to Max (leaving Bigger to be completely dependent on Max).
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