The central theme of Native Son is the central theme of most black American writing, the duality of black existence in the United States. In particular the novel explores the stifling limitations imposed on blacks. Bigger expresses his sense of exclusion as he and his buddies stand idly on a street comer watching a plane fly overhead:

"They got things and we ain't. They do things and we can't. It's just like living in jail." As in Uncle Tom's Children, the central movement of Native Son is toward the development of self-awareness. Bigger's development is perverted by environmental pressures that make him feel that violence is his only way to self-realization.

Native Son is a psychological as well as a sociological novel, and Bigger's development is outlined by the three sections of the novel: "Fear," "Flight," and "Fate." "Fear" documents Bigger's condition, living a life of...