The most clear of these situations is Buckley's use of Bigger to further demean the African American race. Buckley argues for Bigger's death sentence and in doing so, he fails to acknowledge the fact that Bigger's situation (and that of many other African Americans in similar positions) wasn't entirely his fault and rather a product of the racial environment. As a result, nothing gets done about trying to uproot the systemic injustices shaping the racial divide and the black population is further subjugated.
In contrast, Max uses Bigger to protest the underlying systemic injustices that put Bigger in the situation he's ended up in. In doing so, he also uses Bigger in an economic way to provide evidence for his preconceived framework promoting communism. When Max questions Mr. Dalton before the trial, he grills Dalton not to expose him or put him at fault, but to reveal that injustices, such as overcharging for rent, are the norm within society and have been hugely influential in shaping people like Bigger. Furthermore, he indirectly uses these arguments to promote communism—if everyone were treated the same way economically, societal problems like Bigger's would probably be much less likely to occur.
Because Bigger's circumstances are used to present such different arguments, his story becomes twisted and skewed at times to justify the strongest possible case. For instance, Buckley, after hearing only a few details of the story, fabricates the rest of his version of the story based on what he needs to present a strong argument. Nonetheless, it's interesting to see how Bigger's situation is used to promote such starkly contrasting views regarding race and economy.
This is a really well thought out post! I completely agree; Even though we as the readers are able to explicitly see the events that happen, it's like Richard Wright wants us to reflect on it through the eyes of Buckley and Max (who don't know all the details and have their own agendas to push). I do think Max and Buckley are similar in that they honestly don't listen to Bigger that much and just try to use the information that will best support their cause.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post and I think that you brought up a great point. Bigger is definitely used by others to promote there own social agendas or stereotypes about black people. I think that this is a commentary on how in the real world, a lot of social movements are attached to the backs of black people. You also brought up another point about how the environment Bigger grew up in is overlooked by Buckley which is also relevant to how a lot of black people are judged in real life. Your blog is well written and brings to light significant issues that Richard Wright portrays in the book.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that Max was using bigger to promote his political ideology just as much as Buckley was. All his arguments were less about Bigger himself and more about how society was flawed. I think it's also interesting that Max is Jan's friend, and the news and court initially thought that Bigger had a communist accomplice (likely Jan). So Max might have also taken up Bigger's case to defend his friends and prove Bigger killed Mary on his own.
ReplyDeleteYou make a really great point about both Buckley and Max using Bigger to promote their own views of the world. Specifically for Max’s case, I really like this quote, “Let us not concern ourselves with that part of Bigger Thomas’ confession that says he murdered accidentally, that he did not rape the girl. It really does not matter. What does matter is that he was guilty before he killed!” (403). Max completely just ignores things that could help Bigger’s case in order to further his own views. I think that the way that Buckley manipulates the case is slightly different than Max’s however. I think that Max certainly intended to have the case have a much broader outcome, affecting how society sees systematic racism, but I think for Buckley it was actually completely for Bigger’s personal case. Buckley was drawing from previous societal and legal ideology to criminalize Bigger without any chance for Bigger to fight back, he just wanted the case to be over as fast as possible in my mind.
ReplyDeleteHey Cadi, through this blog post, you've done a great job comparing and contrasting both Buckley and Max's reasons for exploiting Bigger. I agree with your assessment that through manipulating Bigger's situation for their own causes, Buckley and Max painted a skewed picture of the truth. Although Bigger was in fact a criminal, it was during his trial I felt the most empathy, as I believed he was not tried fairly, nor was he every truly listened to. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI think this is a really interesting post because even though Max was trying to help Bigger it was still wrong for him to use Bigger as a way to further his own personal agenda. It also shows that no matter how much a white person thinks they're helping the black community they're probably going about it in the wrong way, and actually harming individual black people.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read the book, it was easy to hate Buckley and see Max as the good guy who was trying to help Bigger. I really liked this post because it shows that Max was using Bigger just as much as Buckley was. Because Max was defending Bigger, it's easy to look past the fact that he was using Bigger as a symbol, which is a crucial detail. Max's speech didn't have the effect conveying Bigger's story and experience to the audience--it had the effect of furthering his own political agenda, and the validity and authenticity of Bigger's story was left behind.
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