Understanding Richard Wright's state of mind and motivations when writing Native Son is important to understanding the novel's effect on society. "Wright... was caught in a hideous present moment, the years of the Great Depression and the black ghetto of Chicago, where survival was an achievement and the Communist Party seemed to offer him an unexpected freedom, an unqualified social acceptance. “(McCarthy 100). This knowledge could clarify many aspects of this novel, including the condition of the main character, Bigger Thomas. “Wright's burning sense of the degraded image of the Negro in American life impelled him in each book to reproduce an image of the Negro in his most brutalized state” (McCarthy 101). This was the case for Bigger. Forced to share a small one-room apartment in the "Black Belt" with his mother, brother and sister, Bigger felt trapped most of his life, knowing that "they keep us locked up here like wild animals” (Wright 249). The conditions Wright endured led him to write the story of Bigger Thomas, while similar conditions Bigger endured led him to murder. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayBigger is “thrown by accidental murder into a position where he had sensed possible order and meaning in his relationships with people who surrounded him; having accepted the moral guilt and responsibility for this murder because it allowed him to feel free for the first time in his life” (Wright 274). Murder, to Bigger, was what literature was to Wright. Harold T. McCarthy explains that literature was "instrumental in allowing [Wright] to become a totally different person from the predicted being in his environment" (99). Wright was looking for an outlet from the suffering imposed on him by society. He created that same need in Bigger, and the end result was murder. Through Bigger's feelings of freedom, Wright was also able to feel free from the burdens of his environment. The root of this freedom felt by Bigger, and in turn by Wright, came from the desire to rise above the harsh conditions imposed on him. Robert Butler references the text "How 'Bigger' Came to Be" when he describes: "Bigger was modeled in some ways on five black men from [Wright's] childhood and adolescence in Mississippi who were rebellious lawbreakers he both admired and feared. was the product of an unjust social system, and Wright envied their ability to lash out at a segregated world that frustrated many of their most human impulses” (555). Not a fan of violence himself, Wright turned to literature to protest his world. It wasn't enough to create a fictional story about a black man finding freedom in an unjust world. According to Robert Butler, Wright "weighted Native Son in historically verifiable 'public' events that gave the novel an authority and resonance it would not otherwise have possessed" (563). Wright alludes to such “historically verifiable events” in the dialogue between Bessie and Bigger: “You remember hearing people talk about Loeb and Leopold. " "Oh!" “Those who killed the boy and then tried to get money from the boy's family... (Wright 136) Robert Butler explains the importance of these boys, clarifying Wright's allusion to them in Bigger's Story "Yet Loeb and Leopold had committed what most people at the time considered a horrible new crime that reflected the lawlessness and amorality of modern life. Bigger ispresented by Wright as a new type of literary character whose story boldly and lucidly illustrates the central theme. problems of American history and modern culture” (Butler 559). Butler discusses the importance of comparisons between the events taking place in Native Son with the Loeb and Leopold case, particularly the legal strategies used by Darrow, Loeb and Leopold's lawyer, with Bigger's lawyer. communist defense, Max. Examining Butler.comparison helps illuminate Native Son's true impact on society. Butler highlights how “Max and Darrow base their legal strategies on strongly deterministic foundations, arguing that the crimes committed were produced by unhealthy social environments that emotionally distorted their clients and stunted their human development” (557). As part of Bigger's defense, Max explains to the judge: But for him, it wasn't murder. If it was murder, what was the motive...there was no motive as you and I understand motives under our current laws. The truth is, this boy didn't kill... what Bigger Thomas did... was just a small part of what he had been doing his whole life! He lived as he knew how and as we forced him to live. (Wright 400) Similarly, according to Butler, Darrow claimed that "his clients acted like mentally ill young men, mechanically driven by distorted social impulses" (558). It is no coincidence that Wright was inspired by the Loeb and Leopold affair. Knowing that Bigger's legal defense is based on real events creates greater impact; delve deeper into issues than a fictional case alone could. Although Bigger's story seems to focus solely on the condition of the oppressed black man, comparing his situation to that of Loeb and Leopold has an even greater impact. It is important to note that Loeb and Leopold came from very different backgrounds than Wright or Bigger. In a sense, Loeb and Leopold, rich white boys, had more in common with Mary Dalton than with Bigger Tomas. Even with this knowledge, Wright's use of these boys as a source still gives dramatic impact to his story. Butler explains: By thus linking Bigger to two other men from very different social and economic circumstances, Wright makes an important point about capitalism in America, namely that it has corrupted and alienated all levels of society, without distinction of race and class. As a Marxist and communist, Wright argued that materialism and selfishness had infected modern society from top to bottom, producing a profound alienation and moral void that threatened modern civilization with anarchy and violence. Just as Mary Dalton and Bigger Thomas are ultimately presented as two "crazy" young people who cannot identify with the empty world they have inherited and who try to find meaning in their rebellious acts aimed at breaking taboos of all kinds , the same goes for Loeb, Leopold and Bigger are tragically alike as victims of equally dehumanizing environments. (Butler 561) It may seem at first glance that Wright had decided to speak out against racism in America. But as Butler points out, “for Wright, terrifying violence and anarchy knew no racial or national boundaries but infected society at every level” (562). Max addresses this question in a final conversation with Bigger after his death sentence. :Biggest, the people who hate you feel the same way you do, except they're on the other side of the fence. You're black, but that's only part of it. You are black... that allows them to "., 2005.