Native Son is a protest novel. In my opinion, any work of art that goes as deep inside such a complex social issue as Native Son does, must be protesting some aspect of that issue. I would think it impossible to spend such a vast amount of time and thought on a topic to create such a work as Native Son, and have no editorialisation seep into the work. This is not to say that I believe Wright intended for this to be a protest novel. He edited his work so heavily as to minimize the amount of direct social commentary. Though the language is subtle, any careful reader can spot what Wright is writing against, and that is thought.
So far as I can see, Wright is protesting how three groups of people think. There is the obvious group: the white racists who work the keep African-Americans below them. Then there is the second group who it can be argued also keep African-Americans down: the rich and charitable. Finally there is the most unlikely group of the bunch, a group who is actively working to equalize life for all: the Communist Party USA. Each group thinks differently yet their actions based off those thoughts all result in similar consequences for the people they act upon
In Native Son, there are few characters who could be described as belonging to the first group mentioned. Mr. Britten, the PI Mr. Dalton uses, could fit into this category. Bigger is always wary of him, believing that Britten is always trying to trap him, even when he appears to be focusing on the Communists as the suspects. He never is an outright racist towards Bigger, yet he is so tightly controlled by Mr. Dalton that there are only glimpses into who is really is. The only nominal character that is openly racist is D.A. Buckley. While Bigger is being held in jail before his inquisition, Buckley is unable to fathom that Bigger committed all the crimes on his own, that he was capable of thinking and planning in advance, without a white accomplice. During the trial, the language Buckley uses to describe Bigger and his use of Bessie's body for evidence show his total lack of respect for African-Americans as human beings.
Mr. and Mrs. Dalton compose the membership of the second group. They are very rich but they do give a considerable amount of money to different charities to help the poor. Their donations of things like ping pong tables, while nice on the surface, only serve as temporary distractions from the harsh world beyond those tables. The Dalton's don't do anything to try to fix that reality, and in fact Mr Dalton's companies help perpetuate the problems the very people he donates to, must face on a daily basis. Wright is pointing out that those who feel proud of donating money to buy what are basically distractions are in fact not helping as much as they may want to believe. The people like the Daltons whom he is criticizing are probably many of the readers, as they probably make up a large portion of Book of the Month Club members, so Wright is taking a big risk in potentially offending them.
The Communists serve as the members of the last group. They are probably the only people in Native Son who believe in Bigger's humanity. Jan even remains loyal to Bigger after he has killed his girlfriend, framed him for the murder, and pointed a gun in his face, an admirable if somewhat strange feeling for him to have. Max defends Bigger, talks to Bigger more than anyone had up to that point in his life, and connects with him. Mary associates with Bigger like they are on equal levels, she eats, talks, and drinks with Bigger. They are all trying to undo a wrong that has happened in some form or another for hundreds of years, but by going about it in the manner in which they do, they merely compound the problem. The only people hated by the white, rich, and powerful just as much as African-Americans at that time were the Communists. By defending Bigger, Max is unintentionally helping enrage the court and the public against him, adding his name to the list of condemners, along with Buckley and the thousands of people in and out of the courtroom. Had Jan and Mary not been so forward, Bigger would probably not have been in the situation where he had to kill Mary. Though I think Wright supports what the Communists are trying to do, he uses these three characters to show they need to change the way they go about things, so that they don't contribute in reality to what happened in the fictional Native Son.
