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 In the first 10 chapters of Invisible Man we’re introduced to two prominent African American characters besides the narrator and his grandfather, Bledsoe and Brockway. Both characters’ main motivation as portrayed in the book is power. Bledsoe wants to keep his power as the school’s president by creating a front for the white benefactors to see so they will keep on donating money. Brockway wants to keep his power as the man who runs the show at Liberty Paint by creating the Optic White paint. Both characters hold their power by staying under the radar comparatively to white people of power, and by putting the needs of white above the needs of other black people.  Both characters freely share their thoughts with the narrator in fits of rage. Bledsoe is so angry with the narrator that he might have just ruined the entire façade he has worked so hard to create, that he explains how his main goal in life is to get power by putting other black people down to get the support of whi...

N Native Son speaks to a lot of issues: a rigged judicial system, police misconduct, individualism, biased media, and even housing inequality. However, the book fails to depict black women as anything more than stepping stones for Bigger and the rest of the plot. The only two prominent black women in Native Son are Bessie, and Mrs. Thomas. Mrs. Thomas’s only purpose in the novel is to nag Bigger about chores and work, and progress the plot to get Bigger working at the Dalton’s house. Bessie exists only to be raped and murdered by the “enlightened” Bigger. This gruesome act of murder is barely even mentioned after is happens, only as evidence in the case of Mary’s murder.  One might argue that Richard Wright was aware of the one-dimensionality of his black women characters, and making a point about how they are treated and ignored in society. However, not much in the book points to this. Not even Bigger thinks much of raping and murdering Bessie when he is reflecting on his situati...