Native Son Lesson Plan

In what ways does Bigger dehumanize Bessie? What similarities are there between the sexism and racism that we observe in the text?

In the first half of Book Two, there is a moment that students will want to recall in which Bigger remarks that there are two Bessies: the one whom he sleeps with, and one who thinks and barters the other Bessie to get what she wants. In this description, and in the way Bigger treats Bessie in the leadup to her murder, we see parallels of the way racism is expressed in the novel. Bigger notes the inevitability of his own suffering and how it is shaped by racism, while at the same time trapping Bessie in a state of suffering that is derived from...