Bessie's Neglect in Native Son

Richard Wright’s Native Son follows Bigger, a 20 year old black man living in poverty in Chicago. As Bigger is thrown into a flurry of new circumstances, Wright intricately depicts Bigger’s thoughts in real time, and as readers, we see the rationale behind Bigger’s decisions and personality. Though Bigger commits serious crimes, he still is a humanized, complex, and understandable character, due to the oppression and discrimination he faces. However, one character living in a very similar situation to Bigger gets significantly less focus than him from the characters in Native Son, as well as within the book itself. Bessie, Bigger’s lover, and eventually the victim of rape and murder by Bigger, plays an insignificant role in Bigger’s mind, and, therefore, is rarely focused on throughout Native Son. Whether intentionally or not, Richard Wright spent minimal time developing Bessie’s character, and in the novel, she is depicted as simply a byproduct.

Bessie lives a life akin to Bigger’s, weighed down by poverty and oppression. She spends her days working, then drinking to cope with her sadness. Though Bigger mentions Bessie a few times in Book 1, he rarely thinks of her, and only runs to her for comfort in Book 2 after his accidental murder of Mary. In the dialogue between Bessie and Bigger, Bigger’s thoughts and responses show he is uninterested in Bessie’s feelings, thoughts and questions, and only wants the comfort of her affection and body. When he reveals Mary’s death and his ransom note plan to Bessie, he is irritated by her shock and resistance, continuing to see her only as a means to an end. Eventually, Bigger makes the premeditated decision to rape and murder Bessie, as he thinks that it would be too difficult to bring her with him on the run from the police, and she would be too risky to leave behind. 

The maltreatment of Bessie’s character continues into Book 3, when the police find Bessie’s body in the shaft Bigger shoved her into. The police care very little about her, and initially only use her as a way to coerce Bigger into confessing to the alleged rape and murder of Mary. During Bigger’s court case, Bessie’s body is physically brought into the courtroom and is only used as evidence to prove Bigger’s crimes against Mary. In reality, Bigger murdered Mary accidentally in a panicked state, while Bigger’s rape and murder of Bessie was premeditated. Despite the higher level of severity in Bigger’s crimes against Bessie, she is reduced to a piece of evidence in Mary’s trial, without a single thought spared towards her own life, experiences and interactions with Bigger.   

Richard Wright’s depiction of Bessie begs the question: Was Bessie’s neglect as a character entirely intentional? On the one hand, Native Son takes place from Bigger’s point of view, so what the reader sees is what Bigger sees. With the manner in which Bigger treats and thinks about Bessie, the one dimensional nature of Bessie’s character makes sense, as it fits with Bigger’s perception of her. However, in Richard Wright’s retrospective analysis, his reasoning for the one-dimensionality of his female characters is not discussed. Of course, it is impossible to fully know and understand Wright’s thought process while creating Native Son, but it is unclear if Wright was fully cognizant of how Bessie’s character was used in the book only as a means to an end, just like in her relationship with Bigger. Though Native Son is an incredibly insightful and meaningful novel, it would be interesting to explore how the story would change if Bessie, along with the book’s other black female characters (Vera and Bigger’s mother), were well developed and complex.