While I was reading through the essential questions, I kept asking myself what essential question would allow for the best, quality blog post. Honestly, I wish I had more questions to choose from but question number 3 was my favorite.

HOW DOES YOUR CULTURE HELP OR HINDER THE CREATION OF ONE’S IDENTITY?

We all know that culture can either help or hinder you identity creation but, why does it have to be either/or? Can it be both?

In my opinion, Bigger Thomas is the perfect example of how someone’s culture can help the creation of their identity but hinder the creation at the same time. As I read Native Son by Richard Wright, it seemed to me that Bigger had already made an identity for himself. Then I realized. Bigger had been living with an identity he did not create for himself, but an identity that the society around him had created FOR him. He was perceived a just this 20 year old, poor black man, that could barely afford his rent and a delinquent that goes around robbing stores with his friends. He was not perceived as a regular human being. He was perceived as an animal or a thing, even.

Native Son explored the effects of discrimination and racism on a black man within the society and you could tell that because of this, Bigger was trying to break free of the stereotypes. He was always longing for more. He was struggling to find his true identity because his culture/society had basically done everything they could to keep him from finding who he truly was. His society murdered the identity he could have developed. If someone called you an ape everyday because you were black or they thought you were uneducated because you were black, wouldn’t you grow up believing it because that is what you were so used to hearing your society say about you? Bigger grew up with preconceived notions about who he was supposed to be which hindered the creation of his own identity.

In most novels I have read, the protagonist finds their identity and it usually helps their life in a positive way. Bigger Thomas, however, took me by surprise because the person he turned into was completely unexpected. Now, don’t get me wrong, but in a way, the fact that Bigger murdered two people really helped him figure out the type of person he was and it ultimately helped him find his true identity. We can blame his culture and society for turning him into a homicidal murder machine, but we can give his society some credit too.

After murdering Mary and Bessie, he finally realized that he is a black man that is capable of doing anything. Even though he got caught in the end, he was able to hide the murders long enough without people even suspecting that he could have killed the two women. Bigger saw that he was smarter than his society perceived him to be and that he was capable of doing things just like white people could. Maybe murdering people is not the best example to use to describe how someone’s culture could help them find their identity but you get the gist.

Side note: I just want to say I really enjoyed this book. I honestly thought at the beginning that I was going to hate this book one, because it looked really long, and two, because it didn’t even look interesting. Apparently, I was wrong and I think I am going to add this to my list of favorite books! I really hope we can read more books like this!