In Native Son, by Richard Wright, the innocence of the main character, Bigger Thomas, is revealed through Wright's protrayal of the conflicting worlds Bigger has grown up in.
The conflicting worlds of Bigger Thomas's life are the black and the white worlds and the real world and Bigger's world. Dealing with the black and white worlds first will help to clarify the big picture. The black world which Bigger lives in has been oppressed by the white world for centuries. Bigger, and most other blacks view the white world like a huge star next to their black planet. It sits there radiating peace, prosperity, and happiness. They see it every minute of their lives, but they can't get to it. When they try to move away or rebel or even attack it, they find it unmovable and unrelenting in its control. If they try to leave their planet and travel to it, they are eventually burned up by it and forgotten. The white star may seem like paradise but deep down it harbors no mercy for the black planet.This huge "force of nature" is what causes Bigger to create his own world, free of the whites. He uses his world like a bubble to hide himself from the whiteness. As time goes on the bubble becomes darker to "blot out" the white, but it begins to blot out family, church, and friends until Bigger is the only person in his world. When he travels to the white star the darkness of the bubble begins to clear as Mr. Dalton shows his kindness and Bigger gets away from his family. Tradgically, the darkness returns as Jan and Mary try to get inside his bubble with kindness, but make him hate them instead. Later, alcohol clears the bubble again, but Bigger's fear of Mrs. Dalton causes him to kill Mary. Under the extreme fear of the wrath of the white star, Bigger again enters his own world in which he glorifies himself for infiltrating the white star and stealing one of its treasures and escaping right from under its nose. Only at the end of the book, when Bigger is faced with death does he finally clear his bubble and realize the make-up of the white star and black planet are actually individuals with feelings what can change despite the impression they give. With this in his mind he lets Max in his bubble. Max helps him to break the bubble and open up to the world, but when Max leaves, he's all alone.
In conclusion, we feel sympathy for Bigger because the whites forced him to form his own world in which he felt no pain and forced him to kill, and left him helpless and alone when he finally realized his capacity to feel.
