When I first started reading Native Son, I didn't really like Bigger. He was rude to his family and his friends. I didn't really relate with him at all. When he murdered Mary, I definitely didn't agree with what he did, but I can understand why he did it. Plus, it was an accident. During those moments I felt pretty sympathetic toward him because he did something bad on purpose, and now he was going to be sent to death for it.
When I first started reading Invisible Man, I did like the narrator. He was funny, at least in the prologue. He had a lot of weird, random thoughts and ideas, like stringing up 1,369 light bulbs just to steal electricity and spite the electric company. Throughout the beginning chapters, I could tell that the narrator is very different than Bigger Thomas. He is more of a rule-follower, who does whatever someone asks him to do, which isn't necessarily a good thing. Since we have yet to finish Invisible Man, I don't know if my opinions on the narrator will change or not.
Bigger Thomas and the narrator are similar but also very different people. Both of them are drivers for a rich white man, but Bigger ends up murdering the man's daughter and the narrator does everything he can to keep the rich white man safe and happy. Toward the middle of Native Son, Bigger is being chased down by police and hiding in old apartment buildings. The narrator's "secret room" somewhat reminds me of this environment, but I don't know how he came to live in this hidden room.
Overall, I like both the narrator and Bigger Thomas as main characters for these two novels. Both books are very good which makes it more fun to do the reading assignments. So far, I like Invisible Man more because it is more of a longer story on a longer timeline, while Native Son was almost too fast-paced for me.
I also like Invisible Man slightly more than Native Son because of its quirky, comical nature. There are times in the novel, like the scenes at the brothel, when things are so crazy and unrealistic that it even adds a comical layer to the novel. I think this extra layer makes the novel more interesting to read. That said, I think the first-person narration in Native Son gives the novel an edge that Invisible Man doesn't have because it allows us to truly understand what Bigger is thinking about in every moment.
ReplyDeleteI really like Invisible Man so far. I like the narrator more than Bigger, more specifically the prologue narrator. I also really like how some parts of Invisibe Man are surreal, which I find more interesting to read. I also liked reading Native Son, though some parts were uncomfortable to read, like when Bigger tried to get rid of Mary's body.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely see the similarities between Bigger and the narrator, but as you mentioned, the way they deal with their situations is quite different. Bigger murders Mary, but the narrator doesn't seem to do anything that is outright wrong. Despite this difference, however, I can't say that the narrator is necessarily a better character than Bigger. The narrator is in a different psychological state than Bigger, because he, in the beginning of the book, doesn't have any sense of the way people view him and therefore doesn't have many hard feelings. On the other hand, Bigger, from the very beginning of the book, is very aware and consequently bitter about his situation.
ReplyDeleteI think a key difference between the two characters is that the narrator in the prologue has sort of reached a new level of consciousness, and is looking back on his life. The narrator starts the story very passive and subservient and develops into the narrator we see in the prologue. Bigger however starts the story very conscious of the environment he exists in. I think both characters do their best to please the white people they're driving around. Bigger picks up Mary's boyfriend as she asks, and the narrator takes Norton everywhere he wants to go. I think they both aren't trying to hurt the people they're driving, but Bigger's situation spins out of control.
ReplyDeleteThere are lots of similarities between both Bigger and the narrator. But one of the most glaring differences between the two is that the narrator is growing into himself and he is learning throughout the novel about how white society metaphorically imprisons blacks. Bigger on the other hand, knows about the ways that the whites treat the blacks.
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