Analysis of Theme Through The Portrayal of The Protagonist in Richard Wright's 'Native son' and Ralph Ellison's 'Invisible Man'.
ABSTRACT
Dalam tugas akhir ini saya akan menganalisis tema melalui penggambaran
tokoh utama dari novel Native Son karya Richard Wright dan Invisible Man karya
Ralph Ellison. Kedua novel di atas menggambarkan bagaimana sistem segregasi
mempengaruhi kehidupan warga kulit hitam di Amerika Serikat.
Segregasi adalah salah satu bentuk dari rasisme yang merupakan pemisahan
suatu kelompok masyarakat etnis tertentu dengan kelompok masyarakat lainnya.
Tujuan dari sistem segregasi adalah untuk mencapai kesetaraan walaupun kehidupan
masyarakatnya terpisah-pisah. Tetapi dalam praktiknya, segregasi memberikan
dampak yang buruk bagi warga kulit hitam.
Dalam novel Native Son sang tokoh utama, Bigger Thomas, digambarkan
sebagai seorang yang getir, pesimistik, munafik, penuh rasa takut, dan penuh
prasangka buruk. Dari karakteristik di atas, tema yang bisa didapat adalah bahwa
sistem segregasi dapat menimbulkan pengaruh yang buruk pada diri seseorang.
Sedangkan tokoh utama dari novel Invisible Man pada awalnya digambarkan sebagai
orang yang ambisius, optimistik dan cerdas, tetapi pada akhirnya ia berubah menjadi
orang yang pasif, pesimistik dan licik. Dari karakteristik di atas, tema yang bisa
didapat adalah bahwa segregasi dapat mengubah sifat seseorang dari positif menjadi
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negatif. Dengan membahas tema dari kedua novel tersebut dapat ditarik kesimpulan
bahwa praktek rasisme dalam bentuk sistem segregasi pada akhirnya akan
menimbulkan dampak yang buruk bagi seseorang dan masyarakat di sekitarnya.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE……………….……………………………………………………………i
TABLES OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………..ii
ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………....iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study……………………………………………………...1
Statement of the Problems…………………………………………………….4
Purpose of the Study…………………………………………………………..4
Method of Research…………………………………………………………...4
Organization of the Thesis…………………………………………………….5
CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS OF THEME THROUGH
THE PORTRAYAL OF THE PROTAGONIST
IN RICHARD WRIGHT’S NATIVE SON……………………………………..6
CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS OF THEME THROUGH
THE PORTRAYAL OF THE PROTAGONIST
IN RALPH ELLISON’S INVISIBLE MAN…………………………………..23
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION………………………………………………41
BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………..46
APPENDICES
Synopsis of Native Son……………………………………………………………..49
Synopsis of Invisible Man………………………………………………………….50
Biography of Richard Wright………………………………………………..51
Biography of Ralph Ellison………………………………………………….52
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APPENDICES
Synopsis of Richard Wright’s Native Son
The novel is about a poor uneducated boy, Bigger Thomas, who lives in a
one-room house with his mother, his sister Vera and his brother Buddy in a slum in
Chicago. His mother often tells him to get a job so that the family can have a better
living, but Bigger joins the neighborhood gang instead and often robs people and
stores in order to get money. After having a feud with his gang, Bigger who is afraid
of the whites reluctantly agrees to work for the Daltons as their chauffer.
Bigger’s job is to drive Mr. Dalton’s daughter, Mary Dalton, to her school.
However, Mary orders him to take her to meet her boyfriend, Jan Erlone, who is a
member of a communist party and Bigger is not allowed to tell this to anyone. On the
way home, Mary is too drunk to walk on her own, so Bigger has to carry her to her
bedroom. Bigger is afraid that if anyone finds out about all this, he will lose his job.
Suddenly, Mary’s blind mother comes into the room to check on her. Afraid of being
discovered, Bigger covers Mary’s face with a pillow to silence her. Unfortunately,
Mary dies because of what Bigger does.
In order to hide his crime, Bigger decides to mutilate and burn Mary’s body in
a furnace at the Daltons’ house. He then sends a fake ransom note about Mary’s
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kidnapping and signs it with Jan’s signature so that the police will assumes that Jan is
responsible for Mary’s disappearance. Bigger tells everything to his girlfriend,
Bessie. Nonetheless, Bigger is paranoid about the possibility that she will betray him,
so he murders Bessie in order to keep his secret. Bigger tries to escape from the mob
that is chasing him but he is soon captured. In the court, he is accused of rape and
murder and in the end he is executed on the electric chair.
Synopsis of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man
Invisible Man tells about the life of a nameless protagonist who is a male
African-American in his twenties. The protagonist comes from the low-class society
in the South. He manages to get college education in a segregated school. He is an
intelligent student and an excellent orator; thus he receives a scholarship from the
school. However, when he is assigned to be the guide for one of the trustees of his
school, Mr. Norton, he accidentally shows the real situation of how the black people
live. Consequently, the principal, Mr. Bledsoe, thinks that his action will endanger
the reputation of the college and he revokes the protagonist’s scholarship.
With letters of introduction from Mr. Bledsoe, the protagonist decides to go to
New York in order to get a job so that he can pay tuition and go back to college.
However, it turns out that Mr. Bledsoe has deceived him. Forced to live in the North
without having any chance to return, the protagonist lives in Harlem with a woman
named Mary Rambo as he is jobless. By chance he witnesses a black couple being
unfairly evicted by the authority. Moved by the scene, he impulsively gives a speech
that encourages the black people around him to unite and help the couple.
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His action impresses Brother Jack, the Leader of the Brotherhood and he asks
the protagonist to join him so that he can use his oratorical ability for a greater cause.
Thus he joins the Brotherhood and becomes a prominent figure in the organization.
However, soon he is aware that he is nothing but a tool for the Brotherhood to reach
their ambition. He realizes that in the white society he is unrecognized because the
society refuses to see him as an individual but merely as stereotypical AfricanAmerican. At the end of the story, he is involved in a riot and amidst the chaotic
situation he accidentally finds an unused cellar. There he gives up all his ambitions
and decides to hibernate before he is ready to return to the society.
.
Biography of Richard Wright
Richard Nathaniel Wright was born near Natchez, Mississippi, on September
4, 1908. His father, Nathaniel, was an illiterate sharecropper. His mother, Ella
Wilson, was a well-educated school teacher. Wright graduated from the Smith
Robertson Junior High School in Jackson in June 1925. After leaving school, Wright
went to Lanier High School but dropped out after a few weeks and then he worked.
In spring 1924, a local black newspaper the Southern Register printed The
Voodoo of Hell’s Half Acre, which is his first short story. Three years later, he moved
to Chicago. In 1937 he moved to New York and became the editor of Daily Worker.
In 1938 his four short stories were published together as Uncle Tom’s Children. His
first novel Native Son was published in 1940 and it is regarded as Wright's greatest
novel and most influential book. Since then, he has been called the father of black
American literature. He married a white dancer, Dhimah Rose Meadman in 1939 but
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then they separated. In 1941 he married Ellen Poplar, a white member of Communist
Party, and they had two daughters, Julia (1942) and Rachel (1949).
Wright suffered from amoebic dysentery and died suddenly of an apparent
heart attack at the Clinique Eugène Gibez in Paris. Richard Wright died on
November 28, 1960 at the age of fifty-two.
Source: Hoffman 291, Sparknotes
Biography of Ralph Ellison
Ralph Waldo Ellison was born in Oklahoma City on March 1, 1914. His
father, Lewis Alfred, was a tradesman and construction worker. He died when Ellison
was three, and his mother supported herself and her son by working as a domestic.
Ellison was trained as a musician at Tuskegee Institute from 1933 until 1936.
By 1939 he began his writing career. Before the publication of his first novel
Invisible Man, In 1947, he worked as a waiter and as a jazz musician, and he had also
worked in the United States Merchant Marine. He became an editor in Negro
Quarterly in 1942. In July 1946, he married Fanny McConnell. They lived in an
apartment on Riverside Drive in the Washington heights section of Manhattan.
In his life, he has received many awards for his book Invisible Man including
the Rosenwald Grant Award in 1945 and the National Book Award in 1953. Ellison
was a visiting professor of writing at Yale University since 1964. He was an
instructor in Russian and American literature at Bard College from 1958 to 1961,
Alexander White Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago in 1961, and visiting
professor of writing at Rutgers University from 1962 to 1964.
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On April 16, 1994 he died at the age of eighty due to pancreatic cancer. He
was buried at Trinity Church in Washington Height, New York. His second novel
Juneteenth was published in 1999 posthumously.
Source: Innes and Roberts, 5-6, Sparknotes
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Racism is “the belief that humans are subdivided into distinct hereditary
groups that are innately different in their social behavior and mental capacities and
that therefore be ranked as superior and inferior” (Marger 24). In a country, the
practice of racism will eventually lead to the act of segregation among its people.
Segregation by definition is “the act or policy of separating people of different races,
religions, or sexes and treating them in a different way” (“Segregation” def.1).
The United States, which claims to be a country of democracy that generally
believes in the equality of opportunity where “each individual should have an equal
chance for success” (Datesman 31), is no exception to the practice of racism in their
society. Since the United States is a country with “great ethnic diversity” (3), the
inequality between the majority ethnic group, the Anglo-Saxon, which is often ranked
as the superior in the society and the minority ethnic groups such as African-
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American, Hispanic and Asian which are often considered to be the inferior is
inevitable.
With “slightly more than 12 percent of the population, African-Americans are
the largest ethnic minority in the United States.” (Marger 221) Yet looking back at
the history, the African American was to endure a long period of racism in the form
of slavery for more than two centuries. When the Civil War ended, the AfricanAmericans were supposed to be free and to be given equal opportunity as other
citizens in the United States since the slavery institution had been abolished.
However, with the segregation system, the white managed to maintain the position of
the black as inferior members of the society. Segregation system in the United States
is a system based on the Jim Crow law which is “the name of the racial caste system
which operated primarily, but not exclusively in southern and border states, between
1877 and the mid-1960s” (Pilgrim). With the notion “separate but equal”, the laws
constitute the separation of the whites and the African-American in many aspects in
society such as political, economical, social, and educational aspects. With this
separation, the African-Americans are often put in disadvantageous position. This
inevitably widens the social gap between the two races.
Richard Wright, being “the first African-American author whose work
appears on the national bestseller lists” (Rozakis 305), openly shows his concern
about the issue of racism related to the black people through his best-selling work
Native Son, which was published in 1940. The novel is different in comparison with
other protest novels written by other black authors at that time. “Until Native Son,
black writers had always described blacks as victims of white violence” (High 215)
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but Wright depicts the novel as “a brutal portrait of a poor black man spurred on to
murder by the oppression and hatred of the white world” (Rozakis 305). Through the
portrayal of Bigger Thomas, the protagonist of the novel which became a controversy
at that time, Wright was aware that “the social situation of blacks causes them to
become violent, too” (High 215). Bigger Thomas becomes a murderer “not out of
choice, but as a result of the environmental influences beyond his control” (Senna 6).
Ralph Ellison is another African-American author who was also concerned
about the situation that the African-American had to face at that time. Thus he clearly
shows it in his one and only novel, Invisible Man, which was published in 1952. The
novel “expounds the theme of black invisibility in an American society that willfully
ignores black” (Rozakis 355).The book has won many awards and is often regarded
as “an established classic of modern American literature” (Hoffman 295). Ellison
shows his concern about “why most protagonists of Afro-American fiction (not to
mention the black characters in fiction written by whites) were without intelligent
depth. Too often they were figures caught up in the most intense forms of social
struggle, subject to the most extreme forms of human predicament but yet seldom
able to articulate the issues which tortured them” (Ellison xix). In his novel Ellison
creates the protagonist as a nameless narrator who “represents many intelligent young
African-Americans of this generation” (356) He “dreams success through humility
and hard work” (356) but in the end, he eventually must realize that the society itself
prevents him from reaching it.
In order to reveal the criticism on racial issue that both authors are trying to
convey, I will analyze the theme from the two novels. Theme in fiction is the
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“controlling idea or its central insight” (Perrine 102) and both novels share similar
ideas which emphasize the authors’ concern and criticism about the life of the
African-American as minority that experience racism in form of segregation from the
white society. I will reveal the theme through the portrayal of the protagonist since
protagonist, which by definition is “the central character in the conflict, whether he be
a sympathetic or unsympathetic person” (Perrine 44), holds central role in the novel.
Both novels have the same setting of place and time, the United States in the 1940’s,
a period when the segregation system is still in practice in the United States. Two
themes which are related to racism can be obtained because the protagonists of both
novels go through similar experience regarding segregation although they have
different background and different way of coping with their experience. Moreover,
both themes reveal the undeniable fact that the practice of racism in the form of
segregation has negative effects on each protagonist as an individual in many aspects
of his life.
Statement of the Problems
1. What is the theme in Richard Wright’s Native Son?
2. What is the theme in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man?
3. How do the portrayals of the protagonists help in revealing the themes?
Purpose of the Study
1. The purpose of the study is to reveal the theme in Richard Wright’s Native
Son.
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2. The purpose of the study is to reveal the theme in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible
Man.
3. The purpose of the study is to show how the portrayals of the protagonists
help in revealing the themes.
Method of Research
I use the library research that includes reading and understanding the primary
texts which are the novels and other references, in order to make an objective and a
non-superficial analysis in the process of the study. Next, I analyze the theme through
the portrayal of the protagonist in each of the novels. Lastly, I draw some conclusions
from my analysis.
Organization of the Thesis
The organization of the thesis is divided into four chapters, which are
preceded by Preface and Abstract. Chapter One is Introduction, which contains
Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the Study, Method of
Research, and Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two contains the analysis of the
theme through the portrayal of the protagonist in Richard Wright’s Native Son.
Chapter Three contains the analysis of the theme through the portrayal of the
protagonist in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. Chapter Four contains the conclusion of
the analysis. The thesis ends with the Bibliography and Appendix, which consist of
the summary of the two novels and the biography of the authors.
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CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION
After analyzing the theme through the portrayal of the protagonist in Richard
Wright’s Native Son and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, in this chapter I am going to
draw a conclusion regarding the negative effect of segregation based on the life of the
protagonist from each novel.
Richard Wright’s Native Son depicts the life of a male African-American,
Bigger Thomas, who is struggling to live in segregated society. Bigger lives all his
life while bearing fear of the whites. Bigger assumes that the whites are superior
beings that control his whole life. At the same time, he also feels hatred toward the
whites because he thinks that the whites have everything while as a black he has
nothing. The novel shows that the segregation system brings out the worst of Bigger
Thomas because he eventually becomes a pessimistic, bitter, prejudiced, pretentious
and apprehensive person. The novel also shows that segregation system not only
negatively affects Bigger as an individual but also brings negative impact to the
people around him, both the black and the white.
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Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man tells a story of the life of a young nameless
African-American who also struggles to find his place in segregated society. The
nameless protagonist starts out as an ambitious, optimistic and intelligent person. He
wants to be successful in life and he believes that even in segregated society he can
achieve this through hard work and humility. However, due to the segregation system
he has to face the reality that there is a certain limit to which a black can do in such
society. He realizes that in segregated society no matter what a black man does he
will always be invisible. Thus at the end, he becomes a cunning, pessimistic and
passive person, which shows that the segregation system can change a person’s
characteristics from positive to negative.
There are several significant similarities between the protagonists of the two
novels which I have analyzed. Both Bigger Thomas and the nameless protagonist are
young male African-American in their twenties. They both live in the United States,
during the period when segregation is still in practice. Both of them come from the
low-class society and both of them live in poverty. They experience difficulties in
finding their place in segregated society. Both of them have to experience the act of
racism in the form of segregation because they are African-American. Both Bigger
and the nameless protagonist have pessimistic point of view about life in segregated
society. In the end, both of them become social outcasts. Bigger accidentally murders
a white woman and is executed on the electric chair while the nameless protagonist
abandons his dream and withdraws himself from the society by living underground.
On the other hand, there are also some significant differences between the two
protagonists. Bigger Thomas is born in the South but he grows up in the northern part
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of the United States, Chicago, while the nameless protagonist is born and raised in the
southern part of the United States. Thus each protagonist has a different perspective
about the North. The nameless protagonist thinks of the North as the land of hope and
opportunity for he assumes that there will be no segregation there as in his hometown
in the South. On the contrary, Bigger Thomas, who grows up in the North, knows that
the situation in the North is not much different from the South where segregation is
still in practice. Moreover, Bigger Thomas’s education is only as far as the eighth
grade because he does not have the financial support and he has to work for his
family instead. Meanwhile, the nameless protagonist manages to obtain a scholarship
so that he can get college education in a segregated college even though in order to
get that scholarship he has to go through an inhuman way. He has to participate in the
battle royal, a gladiator-like competition, where he has to fight his fellow AfricanAmericans like animals for the amusement of the whites higher up in his town.
Lastly, both protagonists show different responses as they face the similar experience
of racism in form of segregation in the society. Bigger Thomas gives a really negative
response toward segregation. He thinks that things are not supposed to be this way for
the whites and the blacks. He despises the unfair situation where the blacks cannot get
equal opportunities as the whites. He thinks that the whites are responsible for all the
suffering and problems in his life and this triggers fear, hatred and anger within him.
On the contrary, unlike Bigger who shows strong hatred and anger toward the society
that treats him unfairly, the nameless protagonist in Invisible Man shows a different
attitude regarding segregation. In the beginning, the protagonist has an optimistic
attitude in life even though he lives in segregated society. He thinks that even in
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segregation era, there is still a chance for him to be successful in life through
education and hard work. He assumes that by obeying the whites while taking
whatever advantages he can get from them, he will be able to gain a successful life
and lead the African-American out of segregation to achieve equality.
The themes of both novels which are obtained through the portrayal of the
protagonist show the negative impacts of the segregation system against an
individual’s life and how the two protagonists from the novel cope with the situation.
In Native Son it can be seen how the segregation system brings out the negative
characteristics of Bigger Thomas while in Invisible Man it is show how segregated
society affects the protagonist to a point where his positive characteristics change into
negative in order to cope with the segregation system. Both novels show the authors’
concern regarding the situation between the blacks and the whites at that time.
In my opinion, both novels have successfully managed to deliver the authors
criticism regarding the practice of segregation in the United States. These two novels
show different responses of African-American in segregated society. Richard Wright
creates Bigger Thomas as the representation of the low-class African-American who
finds it difficult to cope with segregation. From the portrayal of Bigger it can be seen
how segregation makes him desperate which eventually gives negative influence not
only to himself but also to the society. On the other hand, Ralph Ellison portrays his
nameless protagonist as an African-American who obtains the opportunity to get
education and has optimistic attitude in life. The protagonist has the potential to be
successful, but the segregation system renders him impossible to have a successful
life because he is an African-American. Thus both portrayals show that in segregated
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society, the African-American will always be put in disadvantageous position no
matter who they are or what they do.
Basically, all human being are created equal no matter what race or skin color
one is born with. Thus for whatever reason there is, the practice of racism in any form
cannot be justified. Since the institution of slavery has been abolished, the AfricanAmericans are supposed to have equal position like other citizens of the United
States. However with the segregation system, which is an attempt to separate the life
of the black from the white, equality in the United States society still cannot be
realized. Thus, it is impossible to expect equality in society if there is still separation
and limitation for any of its members. Both novels show that segregation system
gives more damage than benefit to the African-Americans. In the end, the only way
one can live together in harmony with his fellow human beings is by acknowledging
and respecting one another as an equal being without being restrained or limited
merely by race.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Texts:
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Random House, Inc, 1989. Print.
Wright, Richard. Native Son. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1966. Print.
References:
“Ambitious” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. London: Oxford
University Press, 2005. Print.
“Apprehensive” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. London: Oxford
University Press, 2005. Print.
“Bitter.” Def. 2. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. London: Oxford
University Press, 2005. Print.
“Cunning.” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. London: Oxford
University Press, 2005. Print.
Datesman, Maryanne Kearny. American Ways: An Introduction to American Culture.
Pearson Education, Inc., 2005. Print.
High, Peter B. An Outline of American Literature. New York: Longman, Inc., 1986.
Print.
Hoffman, Daniel. Harvard Guide to Contemporary American Writing. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1979. Print.
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Iness, Jeanne and James L. Roberts. Cliffnotes on Invisible Man. Nebraska: Cliff
Notes, Inc., 1969. Print.
“Intelligent” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. London: Oxford
University Press, 2005. Print.
Marger, Martin N. Race and Ethnic Relation: America and Global Perspectives
Second Edition. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1991. Print.
“Opitimistic.” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. London: Oxford
University Press, 2005. Print.
“Passive.” Def. 1. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. London:
Oxford University Press, 2005. Print.
Perrine, Laurence. Story and Structure. New York: HBJ, Inc., 1974. Print.
“Pessimistic” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. London: Oxford
University Press, 2005. Print.
Pilgrim, David. “What Was Jim Crow?” Ferris. Ferris State University.
September 2000. Web. 2 Aug. 2012
“Prejudiced.” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. London: Oxford
University Press, 2005. Print.
“Pretentious.” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. London: Oxford
University Press, 2005. Print.
Roberts, Edgar V. Writing Themes About Literature. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc.,
1977. Print.
Rozakis, Laurie E. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to American Literature. Broadway,
New York: Alphabooks, 1999. Print.
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“Segregation” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. London: Oxford
University Press, 2005. Print.
Senna, Carl. Cliff Notes on Wright’s Black Boy. Nebraska: C.K. Hillegass., 1971.
Print.
SparkNotes. “SparkNote on Invisible Man.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC.
2002. Web. 17 Mar. 2011.
SparkNotes . “SparkNote on Native Son.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes
LLC. 2002. Web. 17 Mar 2011.
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Dalam tugas akhir ini saya akan menganalisis tema melalui penggambaran
tokoh utama dari novel Native Son karya Richard Wright dan Invisible Man karya
Ralph Ellison. Kedua novel di atas menggambarkan bagaimana sistem segregasi
mempengaruhi kehidupan warga kulit hitam di Amerika Serikat.
Segregasi adalah salah satu bentuk dari rasisme yang merupakan pemisahan
suatu kelompok masyarakat etnis tertentu dengan kelompok masyarakat lainnya.
Tujuan dari sistem segregasi adalah untuk mencapai kesetaraan walaupun kehidupan
masyarakatnya terpisah-pisah. Tetapi dalam praktiknya, segregasi memberikan
dampak yang buruk bagi warga kulit hitam.
Dalam novel Native Son sang tokoh utama, Bigger Thomas, digambarkan
sebagai seorang yang getir, pesimistik, munafik, penuh rasa takut, dan penuh
prasangka buruk. Dari karakteristik di atas, tema yang bisa didapat adalah bahwa
sistem segregasi dapat menimbulkan pengaruh yang buruk pada diri seseorang.
Sedangkan tokoh utama dari novel Invisible Man pada awalnya digambarkan sebagai
orang yang ambisius, optimistik dan cerdas, tetapi pada akhirnya ia berubah menjadi
orang yang pasif, pesimistik dan licik. Dari karakteristik di atas, tema yang bisa
didapat adalah bahwa segregasi dapat mengubah sifat seseorang dari positif menjadi
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negatif. Dengan membahas tema dari kedua novel tersebut dapat ditarik kesimpulan
bahwa praktek rasisme dalam bentuk sistem segregasi pada akhirnya akan
menimbulkan dampak yang buruk bagi seseorang dan masyarakat di sekitarnya.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE……………….……………………………………………………………i
TABLES OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………..ii
ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………....iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study……………………………………………………...1
Statement of the Problems…………………………………………………….4
Purpose of the Study…………………………………………………………..4
Method of Research…………………………………………………………...4
Organization of the Thesis…………………………………………………….5
CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS OF THEME THROUGH
THE PORTRAYAL OF THE PROTAGONIST
IN RICHARD WRIGHT’S NATIVE SON……………………………………..6
CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS OF THEME THROUGH
THE PORTRAYAL OF THE PROTAGONIST
IN RALPH ELLISON’S INVISIBLE MAN…………………………………..23
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION………………………………………………41
BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………..46
APPENDICES
Synopsis of Native Son……………………………………………………………..49
Synopsis of Invisible Man………………………………………………………….50
Biography of Richard Wright………………………………………………..51
Biography of Ralph Ellison………………………………………………….52
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APPENDICES
Synopsis of Richard Wright’s Native Son
The novel is about a poor uneducated boy, Bigger Thomas, who lives in a
one-room house with his mother, his sister Vera and his brother Buddy in a slum in
Chicago. His mother often tells him to get a job so that the family can have a better
living, but Bigger joins the neighborhood gang instead and often robs people and
stores in order to get money. After having a feud with his gang, Bigger who is afraid
of the whites reluctantly agrees to work for the Daltons as their chauffer.
Bigger’s job is to drive Mr. Dalton’s daughter, Mary Dalton, to her school.
However, Mary orders him to take her to meet her boyfriend, Jan Erlone, who is a
member of a communist party and Bigger is not allowed to tell this to anyone. On the
way home, Mary is too drunk to walk on her own, so Bigger has to carry her to her
bedroom. Bigger is afraid that if anyone finds out about all this, he will lose his job.
Suddenly, Mary’s blind mother comes into the room to check on her. Afraid of being
discovered, Bigger covers Mary’s face with a pillow to silence her. Unfortunately,
Mary dies because of what Bigger does.
In order to hide his crime, Bigger decides to mutilate and burn Mary’s body in
a furnace at the Daltons’ house. He then sends a fake ransom note about Mary’s
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kidnapping and signs it with Jan’s signature so that the police will assumes that Jan is
responsible for Mary’s disappearance. Bigger tells everything to his girlfriend,
Bessie. Nonetheless, Bigger is paranoid about the possibility that she will betray him,
so he murders Bessie in order to keep his secret. Bigger tries to escape from the mob
that is chasing him but he is soon captured. In the court, he is accused of rape and
murder and in the end he is executed on the electric chair.
Synopsis of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man
Invisible Man tells about the life of a nameless protagonist who is a male
African-American in his twenties. The protagonist comes from the low-class society
in the South. He manages to get college education in a segregated school. He is an
intelligent student and an excellent orator; thus he receives a scholarship from the
school. However, when he is assigned to be the guide for one of the trustees of his
school, Mr. Norton, he accidentally shows the real situation of how the black people
live. Consequently, the principal, Mr. Bledsoe, thinks that his action will endanger
the reputation of the college and he revokes the protagonist’s scholarship.
With letters of introduction from Mr. Bledsoe, the protagonist decides to go to
New York in order to get a job so that he can pay tuition and go back to college.
However, it turns out that Mr. Bledsoe has deceived him. Forced to live in the North
without having any chance to return, the protagonist lives in Harlem with a woman
named Mary Rambo as he is jobless. By chance he witnesses a black couple being
unfairly evicted by the authority. Moved by the scene, he impulsively gives a speech
that encourages the black people around him to unite and help the couple.
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His action impresses Brother Jack, the Leader of the Brotherhood and he asks
the protagonist to join him so that he can use his oratorical ability for a greater cause.
Thus he joins the Brotherhood and becomes a prominent figure in the organization.
However, soon he is aware that he is nothing but a tool for the Brotherhood to reach
their ambition. He realizes that in the white society he is unrecognized because the
society refuses to see him as an individual but merely as stereotypical AfricanAmerican. At the end of the story, he is involved in a riot and amidst the chaotic
situation he accidentally finds an unused cellar. There he gives up all his ambitions
and decides to hibernate before he is ready to return to the society.
.
Biography of Richard Wright
Richard Nathaniel Wright was born near Natchez, Mississippi, on September
4, 1908. His father, Nathaniel, was an illiterate sharecropper. His mother, Ella
Wilson, was a well-educated school teacher. Wright graduated from the Smith
Robertson Junior High School in Jackson in June 1925. After leaving school, Wright
went to Lanier High School but dropped out after a few weeks and then he worked.
In spring 1924, a local black newspaper the Southern Register printed The
Voodoo of Hell’s Half Acre, which is his first short story. Three years later, he moved
to Chicago. In 1937 he moved to New York and became the editor of Daily Worker.
In 1938 his four short stories were published together as Uncle Tom’s Children. His
first novel Native Son was published in 1940 and it is regarded as Wright's greatest
novel and most influential book. Since then, he has been called the father of black
American literature. He married a white dancer, Dhimah Rose Meadman in 1939 but
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then they separated. In 1941 he married Ellen Poplar, a white member of Communist
Party, and they had two daughters, Julia (1942) and Rachel (1949).
Wright suffered from amoebic dysentery and died suddenly of an apparent
heart attack at the Clinique Eugène Gibez in Paris. Richard Wright died on
November 28, 1960 at the age of fifty-two.
Source: Hoffman 291, Sparknotes
Biography of Ralph Ellison
Ralph Waldo Ellison was born in Oklahoma City on March 1, 1914. His
father, Lewis Alfred, was a tradesman and construction worker. He died when Ellison
was three, and his mother supported herself and her son by working as a domestic.
Ellison was trained as a musician at Tuskegee Institute from 1933 until 1936.
By 1939 he began his writing career. Before the publication of his first novel
Invisible Man, In 1947, he worked as a waiter and as a jazz musician, and he had also
worked in the United States Merchant Marine. He became an editor in Negro
Quarterly in 1942. In July 1946, he married Fanny McConnell. They lived in an
apartment on Riverside Drive in the Washington heights section of Manhattan.
In his life, he has received many awards for his book Invisible Man including
the Rosenwald Grant Award in 1945 and the National Book Award in 1953. Ellison
was a visiting professor of writing at Yale University since 1964. He was an
instructor in Russian and American literature at Bard College from 1958 to 1961,
Alexander White Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago in 1961, and visiting
professor of writing at Rutgers University from 1962 to 1964.
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On April 16, 1994 he died at the age of eighty due to pancreatic cancer. He
was buried at Trinity Church in Washington Height, New York. His second novel
Juneteenth was published in 1999 posthumously.
Source: Innes and Roberts, 5-6, Sparknotes
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Racism is “the belief that humans are subdivided into distinct hereditary
groups that are innately different in their social behavior and mental capacities and
that therefore be ranked as superior and inferior” (Marger 24). In a country, the
practice of racism will eventually lead to the act of segregation among its people.
Segregation by definition is “the act or policy of separating people of different races,
religions, or sexes and treating them in a different way” (“Segregation” def.1).
The United States, which claims to be a country of democracy that generally
believes in the equality of opportunity where “each individual should have an equal
chance for success” (Datesman 31), is no exception to the practice of racism in their
society. Since the United States is a country with “great ethnic diversity” (3), the
inequality between the majority ethnic group, the Anglo-Saxon, which is often ranked
as the superior in the society and the minority ethnic groups such as African-
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American, Hispanic and Asian which are often considered to be the inferior is
inevitable.
With “slightly more than 12 percent of the population, African-Americans are
the largest ethnic minority in the United States.” (Marger 221) Yet looking back at
the history, the African American was to endure a long period of racism in the form
of slavery for more than two centuries. When the Civil War ended, the AfricanAmericans were supposed to be free and to be given equal opportunity as other
citizens in the United States since the slavery institution had been abolished.
However, with the segregation system, the white managed to maintain the position of
the black as inferior members of the society. Segregation system in the United States
is a system based on the Jim Crow law which is “the name of the racial caste system
which operated primarily, but not exclusively in southern and border states, between
1877 and the mid-1960s” (Pilgrim). With the notion “separate but equal”, the laws
constitute the separation of the whites and the African-American in many aspects in
society such as political, economical, social, and educational aspects. With this
separation, the African-Americans are often put in disadvantageous position. This
inevitably widens the social gap between the two races.
Richard Wright, being “the first African-American author whose work
appears on the national bestseller lists” (Rozakis 305), openly shows his concern
about the issue of racism related to the black people through his best-selling work
Native Son, which was published in 1940. The novel is different in comparison with
other protest novels written by other black authors at that time. “Until Native Son,
black writers had always described blacks as victims of white violence” (High 215)
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but Wright depicts the novel as “a brutal portrait of a poor black man spurred on to
murder by the oppression and hatred of the white world” (Rozakis 305). Through the
portrayal of Bigger Thomas, the protagonist of the novel which became a controversy
at that time, Wright was aware that “the social situation of blacks causes them to
become violent, too” (High 215). Bigger Thomas becomes a murderer “not out of
choice, but as a result of the environmental influences beyond his control” (Senna 6).
Ralph Ellison is another African-American author who was also concerned
about the situation that the African-American had to face at that time. Thus he clearly
shows it in his one and only novel, Invisible Man, which was published in 1952. The
novel “expounds the theme of black invisibility in an American society that willfully
ignores black” (Rozakis 355).The book has won many awards and is often regarded
as “an established classic of modern American literature” (Hoffman 295). Ellison
shows his concern about “why most protagonists of Afro-American fiction (not to
mention the black characters in fiction written by whites) were without intelligent
depth. Too often they were figures caught up in the most intense forms of social
struggle, subject to the most extreme forms of human predicament but yet seldom
able to articulate the issues which tortured them” (Ellison xix). In his novel Ellison
creates the protagonist as a nameless narrator who “represents many intelligent young
African-Americans of this generation” (356) He “dreams success through humility
and hard work” (356) but in the end, he eventually must realize that the society itself
prevents him from reaching it.
In order to reveal the criticism on racial issue that both authors are trying to
convey, I will analyze the theme from the two novels. Theme in fiction is the
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“controlling idea or its central insight” (Perrine 102) and both novels share similar
ideas which emphasize the authors’ concern and criticism about the life of the
African-American as minority that experience racism in form of segregation from the
white society. I will reveal the theme through the portrayal of the protagonist since
protagonist, which by definition is “the central character in the conflict, whether he be
a sympathetic or unsympathetic person” (Perrine 44), holds central role in the novel.
Both novels have the same setting of place and time, the United States in the 1940’s,
a period when the segregation system is still in practice in the United States. Two
themes which are related to racism can be obtained because the protagonists of both
novels go through similar experience regarding segregation although they have
different background and different way of coping with their experience. Moreover,
both themes reveal the undeniable fact that the practice of racism in the form of
segregation has negative effects on each protagonist as an individual in many aspects
of his life.
Statement of the Problems
1. What is the theme in Richard Wright’s Native Son?
2. What is the theme in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man?
3. How do the portrayals of the protagonists help in revealing the themes?
Purpose of the Study
1. The purpose of the study is to reveal the theme in Richard Wright’s Native
Son.
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2. The purpose of the study is to reveal the theme in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible
Man.
3. The purpose of the study is to show how the portrayals of the protagonists
help in revealing the themes.
Method of Research
I use the library research that includes reading and understanding the primary
texts which are the novels and other references, in order to make an objective and a
non-superficial analysis in the process of the study. Next, I analyze the theme through
the portrayal of the protagonist in each of the novels. Lastly, I draw some conclusions
from my analysis.
Organization of the Thesis
The organization of the thesis is divided into four chapters, which are
preceded by Preface and Abstract. Chapter One is Introduction, which contains
Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the Study, Method of
Research, and Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two contains the analysis of the
theme through the portrayal of the protagonist in Richard Wright’s Native Son.
Chapter Three contains the analysis of the theme through the portrayal of the
protagonist in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. Chapter Four contains the conclusion of
the analysis. The thesis ends with the Bibliography and Appendix, which consist of
the summary of the two novels and the biography of the authors.
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CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION
After analyzing the theme through the portrayal of the protagonist in Richard
Wright’s Native Son and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, in this chapter I am going to
draw a conclusion regarding the negative effect of segregation based on the life of the
protagonist from each novel.
Richard Wright’s Native Son depicts the life of a male African-American,
Bigger Thomas, who is struggling to live in segregated society. Bigger lives all his
life while bearing fear of the whites. Bigger assumes that the whites are superior
beings that control his whole life. At the same time, he also feels hatred toward the
whites because he thinks that the whites have everything while as a black he has
nothing. The novel shows that the segregation system brings out the worst of Bigger
Thomas because he eventually becomes a pessimistic, bitter, prejudiced, pretentious
and apprehensive person. The novel also shows that segregation system not only
negatively affects Bigger as an individual but also brings negative impact to the
people around him, both the black and the white.
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Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man tells a story of the life of a young nameless
African-American who also struggles to find his place in segregated society. The
nameless protagonist starts out as an ambitious, optimistic and intelligent person. He
wants to be successful in life and he believes that even in segregated society he can
achieve this through hard work and humility. However, due to the segregation system
he has to face the reality that there is a certain limit to which a black can do in such
society. He realizes that in segregated society no matter what a black man does he
will always be invisible. Thus at the end, he becomes a cunning, pessimistic and
passive person, which shows that the segregation system can change a person’s
characteristics from positive to negative.
There are several significant similarities between the protagonists of the two
novels which I have analyzed. Both Bigger Thomas and the nameless protagonist are
young male African-American in their twenties. They both live in the United States,
during the period when segregation is still in practice. Both of them come from the
low-class society and both of them live in poverty. They experience difficulties in
finding their place in segregated society. Both of them have to experience the act of
racism in the form of segregation because they are African-American. Both Bigger
and the nameless protagonist have pessimistic point of view about life in segregated
society. In the end, both of them become social outcasts. Bigger accidentally murders
a white woman and is executed on the electric chair while the nameless protagonist
abandons his dream and withdraws himself from the society by living underground.
On the other hand, there are also some significant differences between the two
protagonists. Bigger Thomas is born in the South but he grows up in the northern part
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of the United States, Chicago, while the nameless protagonist is born and raised in the
southern part of the United States. Thus each protagonist has a different perspective
about the North. The nameless protagonist thinks of the North as the land of hope and
opportunity for he assumes that there will be no segregation there as in his hometown
in the South. On the contrary, Bigger Thomas, who grows up in the North, knows that
the situation in the North is not much different from the South where segregation is
still in practice. Moreover, Bigger Thomas’s education is only as far as the eighth
grade because he does not have the financial support and he has to work for his
family instead. Meanwhile, the nameless protagonist manages to obtain a scholarship
so that he can get college education in a segregated college even though in order to
get that scholarship he has to go through an inhuman way. He has to participate in the
battle royal, a gladiator-like competition, where he has to fight his fellow AfricanAmericans like animals for the amusement of the whites higher up in his town.
Lastly, both protagonists show different responses as they face the similar experience
of racism in form of segregation in the society. Bigger Thomas gives a really negative
response toward segregation. He thinks that things are not supposed to be this way for
the whites and the blacks. He despises the unfair situation where the blacks cannot get
equal opportunities as the whites. He thinks that the whites are responsible for all the
suffering and problems in his life and this triggers fear, hatred and anger within him.
On the contrary, unlike Bigger who shows strong hatred and anger toward the society
that treats him unfairly, the nameless protagonist in Invisible Man shows a different
attitude regarding segregation. In the beginning, the protagonist has an optimistic
attitude in life even though he lives in segregated society. He thinks that even in
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segregation era, there is still a chance for him to be successful in life through
education and hard work. He assumes that by obeying the whites while taking
whatever advantages he can get from them, he will be able to gain a successful life
and lead the African-American out of segregation to achieve equality.
The themes of both novels which are obtained through the portrayal of the
protagonist show the negative impacts of the segregation system against an
individual’s life and how the two protagonists from the novel cope with the situation.
In Native Son it can be seen how the segregation system brings out the negative
characteristics of Bigger Thomas while in Invisible Man it is show how segregated
society affects the protagonist to a point where his positive characteristics change into
negative in order to cope with the segregation system. Both novels show the authors’
concern regarding the situation between the blacks and the whites at that time.
In my opinion, both novels have successfully managed to deliver the authors
criticism regarding the practice of segregation in the United States. These two novels
show different responses of African-American in segregated society. Richard Wright
creates Bigger Thomas as the representation of the low-class African-American who
finds it difficult to cope with segregation. From the portrayal of Bigger it can be seen
how segregation makes him desperate which eventually gives negative influence not
only to himself but also to the society. On the other hand, Ralph Ellison portrays his
nameless protagonist as an African-American who obtains the opportunity to get
education and has optimistic attitude in life. The protagonist has the potential to be
successful, but the segregation system renders him impossible to have a successful
life because he is an African-American. Thus both portrayals show that in segregated
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society, the African-American will always be put in disadvantageous position no
matter who they are or what they do.
Basically, all human being are created equal no matter what race or skin color
one is born with. Thus for whatever reason there is, the practice of racism in any form
cannot be justified. Since the institution of slavery has been abolished, the AfricanAmericans are supposed to have equal position like other citizens of the United
States. However with the segregation system, which is an attempt to separate the life
of the black from the white, equality in the United States society still cannot be
realized. Thus, it is impossible to expect equality in society if there is still separation
and limitation for any of its members. Both novels show that segregation system
gives more damage than benefit to the African-Americans. In the end, the only way
one can live together in harmony with his fellow human beings is by acknowledging
and respecting one another as an equal being without being restrained or limited
merely by race.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Texts:
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Random House, Inc, 1989. Print.
Wright, Richard. Native Son. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1966. Print.
References:
“Ambitious” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. London: Oxford
University Press, 2005. Print.
“Apprehensive” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. London: Oxford
University Press, 2005. Print.
“Bitter.” Def. 2. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. London: Oxford
University Press, 2005. Print.
“Cunning.” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. London: Oxford
University Press, 2005. Print.
Datesman, Maryanne Kearny. American Ways: An Introduction to American Culture.
Pearson Education, Inc., 2005. Print.
High, Peter B. An Outline of American Literature. New York: Longman, Inc., 1986.
Print.
Hoffman, Daniel. Harvard Guide to Contemporary American Writing. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1979. Print.
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Iness, Jeanne and James L. Roberts. Cliffnotes on Invisible Man. Nebraska: Cliff
Notes, Inc., 1969. Print.
“Intelligent” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. London: Oxford
University Press, 2005. Print.
Marger, Martin N. Race and Ethnic Relation: America and Global Perspectives
Second Edition. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1991. Print.
“Opitimistic.” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. London: Oxford
University Press, 2005. Print.
“Passive.” Def. 1. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. London:
Oxford University Press, 2005. Print.
Perrine, Laurence. Story and Structure. New York: HBJ, Inc., 1974. Print.
“Pessimistic” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. London: Oxford
University Press, 2005. Print.
Pilgrim, David. “What Was Jim Crow?” Ferris. Ferris State University.
September 2000. Web. 2 Aug. 2012
“Prejudiced.” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. London: Oxford
University Press, 2005. Print.
“Pretentious.” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. London: Oxford
University Press, 2005. Print.
Roberts, Edgar V. Writing Themes About Literature. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc.,
1977. Print.
Rozakis, Laurie E. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to American Literature. Broadway,
New York: Alphabooks, 1999. Print.
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“Segregation” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. London: Oxford
University Press, 2005. Print.
Senna, Carl. Cliff Notes on Wright’s Black Boy. Nebraska: C.K. Hillegass., 1971.
Print.
SparkNotes. “SparkNote on Invisible Man.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC.
2002. Web. 17 Mar. 2011.
SparkNotes . “SparkNote on Native Son.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes
LLC. 2002. Web. 17 Mar 2011.
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