Bigger Thomas is complex. Part Heathcliff, part Raskolnikov, he stalks the city—a mass of brooding resentment and violent impulsivity, in a fugue state. Brutalized and brutal, belittled and bewildered, submissive and threatening, he tears through his life, more vicious and dismissive to most of those who are close to him and show him love than those who humiliate him. Richard Wright has conjured through Bigger the personification of James Baldwin’s observation that “the most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose. You do not need ten such men—one will do.” Bigger is one such man.
Source : The Bleak Resonance of ‘Native Son’
