Native Son Lesson Plan

How do Bigger's visitors interact with each other? What do we learn about each of them through these interactions?

Reverend Hammond discourages Jan and Max from bringing Communism into Bigger's defense, thinking this will only hurt him because of the general ill will towards Communists; this betrays his own prejudices towards Communism. Of course, Communism is anti-theological, so he has his motivations there as well, since he wants to save Bigger's soul. Max and Buckley seem to hate each other as political and ideological rivals. Max cares about social justice and wants to help Bigger, whereas Buckley is bigoted and just wants to make sure that Bigger dies for his crimes....