Marta Stankiewicz: Wokeness just for show

Native Son, directed by a conceptual artist Rashid Johnson, is a modern revamp of the classic 1940 novel by Richard Wright. The movie premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival. The director made a few adjustments to update the story of Bigger, though the overall theme of racism is the ever-present point at issue in America. Ashton Sanders gives a compelling performance as Bigger Thomas in his next lead after the breakthrough role in the Oscar-winning Moonlight. Margaret Qualley and Nick Robinson as Mary, Bigger’s victim, and Jan, her activist boyfriend are just as persuasive.

Wright’s novel was critically acclaimed but also harshly criticized, especially by James Baldwin. In his essay Everybody’s Protest Novel, he claimed that Bigger Thomas is a stereotypical black character. The movie tries to address this accusation. What Bigger says is that he is not interested in playing the stereotypical black role. Referring to stereotypes and playing with them is a way to refute Baldwin’s objections.

Not only do the black and white characters perpetuate stereotypes about each other; it is also black people who perceive themselves through such clichés. Once Bigger starts working for a white, Mr. Dalton, he becomes not-black-enough for his friends. He wants to live on his own terms. However, after the murder, he realizes his guilt has been hanging over him since the day he was born and that there is no way to escape his fate.

The deliberate pace and moody aesthetics of the movie create a peculiar atmosphere. An intertextual layer appears when the main character reads Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. He quotes W.E.B. Du Bois on double consciousness – looking at yourself through the eyes of others, or, more precisely, through the eyes of white people. This addition of important African-American texts makes Bigger a more selfaware character.

One of the most telling scenes is the one where Bigger, Mary, and Jan eat together. The scene shows that although Mary and Jan say that they want to be friends with Bigger, they don’t actually treat him like an equal. It’s not at all a pleasure for Bigger to eat in a bar in his neighborhood with white people treating him not like a full-fledged human being, but some kind of exotic object. Mary and Jan’s “wokeness” is just for show, as they seem to enjoy their white privileges.

A lot of symbols, which could easily be lost while transferring the plot into a different medium, were actually preserved. As in the novel, the movie starts with a catching of a rat: a scene that showcases Bigger’s fate. This scene shows that Bigger’s life was determined to be what it has become because of the oppression inflicted by the white society. Perhaps that’s why, unlike in the book, it is the first part of the movie that is called Fate, and not the last one.

The contrast between being blind to and seeing racial tensions was boldly presented. A new element was added to that pivotal contrast. Namely, in the movie Bigger wears glasses. He says he wears them to see more clearly. However, he takes them off after the murder. Does it mean that he previously had hoped to change his life, but now he knows what his fate is going to be?

The ending of the movie is different from the one in the novel. At the same time, the dramatic value is well-preserved. This change has made the movie even more up-to-date. In the last scene, Bigger tries to hide from the police in an old, dilapidated building. When the police call him up, they think Bigger wants to reach for his gun. One of the police officers shoots him. It reminds many current situations in the US when the police officers shoot African Americans just because they assumed a black man was armed. This change in the ending shows racial tensions in today’s America in an even more powerful way than the original. When the novel was written, the main character had a trial and was rightfully convicted; nowadays black people can’t even have that.

The director did an interesting maneuver: he changed the naming of the parts and ended the movie with the one ambiguously titled “Flight”. The very last shot shows Bigger looking through a hole in the roof and seeing a blue sky. That brings to mind his dream of being a pilot – to fly and to finally be free.

Marta Stankiewicz