Naturalism in Native Son

As I scanned the internet after finishing Native Son, I stumbled upon some kind of article mentioning naturalism and its role in the novel. I panicked and quickly closed the tab, not wanting to spoil anything for myself. I was inspired by this article and by our extensive study of naturalism in American Literature to write my blog about naturalism and its place in Native Son. Naturalism is best known for its existentialism and general belief of the innate immorality of human kind. This philosophy hides beneath a majority of themes within Native Son. For example, one of the major dilemmas that Bigger struggles with is his inevitable conformity to the system. Bigger denies his fate, but eventually accepts the finality of his sentence saying, “I’m going to die… but I’m all right” (Wright 429). There is a certain level of acceptance that Bigger carries with him throughout the entire novel, knowing that he has almost no chance of overcoming his circumstances. As it pertains to naturalism, this inescapable destiny is evidence of an extremely unconcerned universe. This impending doom is also evidence of humans as victims to their environments. Naturalists subscribe to the belief that humans are products of the events taking place around them, like Bigger’s battle with racism. Another apparent aspect of naturalism exists in Bigger’s self conscious. On multiple occasions, Bigger abandons all of his self control and forethought for his in-the-moment impulses. Max calls Bigger’s crimes “instinctive and inevitable as breathing or one’s eyes… an act of creation” (Wright 400). These fits of rage result in him murdering both Mary and Bessie. Following naturalist philosophy, Bigger’s outlashes can be blamed on his animalistic moral compass. According to naturalism, all humans are, at their core, no better than animals; people solely care about their own survival and create conflict with anything inflicting about their rights to life. Bigger’s instincts get the best of him in a very extreme manner. Personally, I believe that Wright’s novel is so filled with naturalism because it is the philosophy of hopelessness. Even just the slightest use of naturalism indicates some level of giving up on the author’s part. In Richard Wright’s case, he is expressing his anguish over the racial situation in the United States in the 1930s. He is attempting to communicate his lack of belief in the system and his uncertainty in the fact that change lies ahead.