A. Richard Wright has been criticized for his narrow and even disrespectful portrayals of women characters in Native Son. Comment.

In Native Son Richard Wright only created one character who had any depth, his protagonist Bigger Thomas. There are only four adult women in the novel and Bigger’s sister Vera is the fifth female character with any role in the book at all. Mrs. Dalton, Mary Dalton, Bessie Mears, and Bigger’s mother round out the cast of females and each of these women is different in her own way. The novel follows Bigger and his issues. Other than Bigger, each character is a stock character with no depth. They only exist to help round him out. It would be possible to say that men are narrowly and disrespectfully portrayed as well but there are so many more men than women. Bigger’s mother is not even given a name, that could be disrespectful but the important thing about her is that she gave birth to Bigger, raised him, and held certain expectations of him and that lead to forming who he is. Bessie Mears was Bigger’s girlfriend until he killed her and she was poorly developed as well. She was a black woman with a need. She worked hard everyday for her white employers and she sought some escape. She used alcohol to get away and relied upon Bigger to get it for her. She helped him rob houses, had sex with him, and got drunk when he bought her booze. Peggy, the irish house-keeper of the Dalton’s was just a house-keeper. There was very little depth to her but she served the Dalton’s and was nice. She did not need to be much developed but there is no disrespect in having a stock character in this role at all. Mary Dalton was very representational to Bigger. He saw her when he went to a movie in the afternoon and then when he went to work at the Dalton house he met her in person. How amazing is that? She saw the world the way she saw it and was very naive. There was nothing wrong with her character but because of the pressures and prevailing attitude her presence and her attempt to “get to know” Bigger really upset him. She did get too drunk and need help from Bigger but that is not an uncommon thing for people to do. She was somewhat rebellious against her upbringing and the society she lived in but she served a purpose. Mrs. Dalton, the blind old lady had some eccentricities and was not completely developed but she was a good woman who loved her daughter and wanted a better life for Bigger. The female characters in Native Son were not very deeply developed but it is not their story. Wright’s book was already a very long story and that was with making use of stock characters to perform various functions in Bigger’s life. If Wright were to develop many dynamic male and female characters he could still be writing. The roles of all the characters in his book fit what he was trying to do. They set up the world as Bigger saw and felt it and helped to drive the action forward. The women in this novel were written as Wright needed them to be and he did not disparage womankind with any of them.

B. Explain how Mrs. Compson fails all four of her children.

Caroline Compson should be considered in the running for worst mother of the year when we look at all of the books we read this semester. Chief among a mother’s “duties” in the raising of children is to put your children above yourself and see that they have every opportunity to succeed. I say duty because Caroline herself uses that term when she talks about loving Benjamin. Caroline uses the word “love” to refer to her feelings of respect instead of affection. At no point in the novel does she exhibit any affection for her husband, her children, or anything. Her sense of family is an attitude of propriety, reputation, and respectability. She is not a church-goer but she holds on to the belief in the importance of the Church because that is a Southern custom. She is set on continuing the paradigm that had been in existence in the South for as long as there had been an America, even though those old values had become outdated. Caroline has a strong sense of morality and that has been instilled, in varying ways, into each of her children. Caroline generally failed all of her children by being inattentive to them as individuals and never even getting to know them. She failed each of them specifically on different levels.
Quentin Compson was the oldest child born to Caroline and Jason Compson. Quentin was intelligent and his parents hoped that he could really make something of himself and restore the family by going off to Harvard. Quentin internalized the morality that his mother felt and took it upon himself to save all women. This was an immense amount of pressure. Also, Caroline lived in the past by trying to hold on to the out-dated Southern values and Quentin adopted the attitude that he could create a fantasy land as well. His was different from his mother’s but without ever having a realistic relationship with his mother, he was able to continue to have his romanticized and idealized view of women.
Jason Compson is the second-born son of the Compson family and he most reminds his mother of her family. Caroline idolizes Jason, she gives him free-run of the household and is an enabler for his evil. Jason manages to keep his job in town because Caroline is an old friend of Jason’s boss but she never really understands how bad a worker Jason is. Jason has been stealing the money that Caddy has been sending but she has no way of knowing this because she has been “burning the money,” really forged checks that Jason gives her. Caroline only ever sees Jason on the surface, he reminds her of the family she came from instead of the upper class she married into, and this allows her to overlook all of Jason’s problems.
Benjamin is the youngest of the Compson children. He was born Maury, after Caroline’s brother, but they renamed him Benjamin because he was born retarded and the family decided to change his name as some sort of Biblical homage. Since Benjy is incapable of taking care of himself and needs constant attention, you would think that his mother, of all people, would give of herself to take care of him. But, as Caroline is in the running for “worst mother ever,” we know that that is not true. Caroline has the black servants, Jason, Quentin (when he is alive), or Caddy (until Caroline banishes her from the house) “mind” Benjy. Caddy actually exhibited motherly love for Benjy and he loved her like nobody else. But because of her distorted sense of what is right, Caroline banished Caddy from the house. This left Benjy with nobody who actually loved him. At one point Caroline considered Benjamin her punishment from God for any sins she may have committed. She wronged Benjy at first by thinking of him as a punishment instead of as a person to be loved.
Candace Compson, “Caddy” is the second born child and the only daughter of Caroline and Jason. It is unlikely that Caroline ever sat down with Caddy and gave her the “birds and bees” speech. Caddy felt trapped in her house and she was forced into the role of mother to her brother Benjy, and she had the same feelings that everyone has. She explored her sexuality and wound up getting pregnant. Caroline did not help her deal with this trouble but instead forced her to marry the first person who would say yes. This man cast her out of his house when her daughter was born and Caroline refused to allow Caddy to return to the household. She did however adopt her daughter, Quentin, and forbid Caddy to see her, have any part in her life, or even for her name to be spoken near Quentin. Caroline forced Caddy to act as a mother to Benjy and then denied her the chance to act as mother to her own daughter. Ugh! What a mother.