in a racist society. In his critique of the novel, James Smethurst contends that Wright has created a gothic-like atmosphere in which Bigger is perceived as a monster: ôThe thousand of police officers with flashlights and searchlights who pursue Bigger through an urban gothic landscape of abandoned tenements on the South Sideàclosely resemble the villagers with torches who chase Frankenstein through an expressionist landscapeö (31).
In such an environment, it is difficult for Bigger to find any sense of community. The environment in which Bigger must mature is one filled with rats, lacking water, where food is scared and money even scarcer. Dominant others in society continually reinforce the image that African Americans like Bigger are worthless, without dignity, and wholly lacking in intelligence or creativity. BiggerÆs mother finds solace in religion which Bigger cannot adhere to. This is so much willful self-blinding to Bigger who cannot understand why African Americans do not strike out against their oppression. As Wright writes, ôàall one had to do was to be bold, do something nobody ever thought of. The whole thing came to him in the form of a powerful and simple feeling; there was in everyone a great hunger to believe that made them blind, and if he could see while others were blind, then he could get what he wanted and never be caught at itö (120).
Bigger is forced by necessity to take a job working for whites whose daughter he kills inadvertently. He has suffered, been abused, and been lied to his entire life. He knows any dreams he may have as an African American can never be realized in a white, racist society. At one point, showing the isolation from his genuine emotions Bigger feels, he cries. He does so because ôonce again he had trusted his feelings and once again they betrayed himö (359). There is no place for the feelings of an African American in the white racist society in which Bigger exis...