Native Son

Bigger shares a single room with his family. Their immediate daily challenge is to attempt to maintain privacy while undressing in a front of two members of the opposite sex. This mode of living—fitting an entire family into a cramped space—is common among poor Black people living in the Black Belt during the era of housing discrimination. While on the run, Bigger spots another one-room apartment where three naked Black children watch their parents have sex. He remembers watching his own parents have sex in a similar apartment during his childhood. In Native Son, housing manifests as a tool of oppression is to deny African Americans humanity and human needs, and the privacy required to shape oneself into an individual.

Modesty is impossible in such cramped quarters, which makes it a luxury that poor Black families cannot afford. Conversely, Mary has plenty of freedom and private space; she has has never lived without it. As a young woman who has been diligently sheltered and protected, in fact, Mary longs to be immodest. She flaunts her indiscretion with Jan on a newsreel, and in the backseat of the car where she is in full view of Bigger. Mary rejects the protections over her body because she has the privilege to be indiscreet. If Mary is caught alone with Bigger, she certainly won’t have to deal with the ramifications. Therefore, she treats Bigger’s body as if it is open and available to her, touching him with no regard for whether he wants it. Carrying Mary to her bedroom and kissing her (after she kisses him) would be shocking breaches of her modesty they had been spotted, and would have seriously endangered Bigger, regardless of the fact that she was doing something similar with Jan in the car perhaps an hour ago. No matter what Mary does, she has the privacy for discretion, and her reputation remains untouched and virginal. It is the imagined tarnishing of this reputation that matters as much to the white community as her death.

Bessie’s life and death are notably different. While Bigger feels afraid of even touching Mary, he sees Bessie’s body as his to use as he pleases (Bessie whose body is already exploited constantly through labor). Bigger rapes her and destroys her face with a brick, dropping her disrobed body down the air shaft and accidentally leaving alive to die a slow death. Bessie’s degradation continues in at the inquest when her naked, vulnerable body is displayed for a room full of onlookers. Mary’s remains are displayed as well, but her modesty is preserved because there is no flesh left to protect. To the people in the courtroom, Bessie is a thing to be used for Mary’s sake, a stand-in for Mary who could never be exposed the same way as a white woman.