Predestination is an odd topic for Wright in his 1940 novel The Native Son. Predestination is a concept typically associated with religion, it’s God (or whoever is in charge) plan that can not be changed. In this novel it does not take it’s usually form however, instead the plan is forced seen to be forced upon black folks in America by society (mostly white people.) Wright’s predestination is determined by a culture that allows racism to thrive and has nothing to do with religion. It also is avoidable, unlike normal beliefs of predestination, those in charge (whites) have the power to prevent men like Bigger from committing the crimes and leading the life he did.
This predestination is practically the foundation of Bigger’s legal defense. Bigger’s defense attorney, Boris, is the most sympathetic of the white characters to Bigger and black people in general. He argues in court not that Bigger is innocent of murder, but rather that his actions and overall being is a result of circumstances he had been forced to deal with ever since he was born black. How can he be guilty if he and his deeds were the natural product of the situation he was born into? If the common thoughts regarding black men and especially their relationship to white women were different than perhaps Mary would still be alive. But due to society’s views of black people and Bigger’s knowledge and experience with these views she ended up dying. Her death was a result of a natural reaction Bigger was conditioned to have from years of discrimination.
Wright’s version of predestination isn’t exactly predestination, but is in fact a comment on free will and how we control it. He kind of implies that nothing is fully in or out of our own hands, but instead believes that free will is yet a nothing privilege white people have over racial minorities. A white man would have been listened to and had much better options than Bigger in that situation and that is the real tragedy.
I think that Wright’s ideas on predestination may come from his communist beliefs. Marx argued that individuals are the product of their class and that their beliefs and behaviors were dependent on the society they were brought up in. Under this view, Bigger is a product and victim of an oppressive society that made him the killer he was in the book.
I believe that predestination is a major theme in this book not because of religion but because of the racism and oppression that keeps Bigger and other African Americans in a cycle of poverty. Blacks in American culture in the 1930’s were being economically and socially oppressed by racism and the media’s portrayal of African Americans. Wright was trying to show that African Americans are predetermined to live in fear and therefore act violently towards whites. They also could only find jobs working and serving for the wealthy whites or had to provide for their families by criminal activity.