some escape to a cell or electric chair

Welcome back to comp-lit ... computeraring literacyture. The lit pieces of lit compared today:

 

 

Why did I decide to write about these? Well, I started off by thinking, Hmm, these pieces of writing somehow have a similar vibe. Then, what exactly is this vibe? 

Both Native Son and "Three-Legged Chairs" have attached to them this persistent, nagging feeling like a rock in your gut. What's the right word for it? Desperation? Emptiness? Anguish? Torment? Hopelessness? It's safe to say that all of those words and many more factor into that feeling. But let's unpack it using those words to provide us some structure.

Desperation: The fear within Bigger driving all of his actions manifests itself in his crimes during periods of desperation. Bigger lashes out at Gus out of desperation, having found no other way to escape the predicament of having to rob a white-owned store. Bigger's murder of Mary was an act of desperation to keep Mrs. Dalton from discovering his presence, and Bigger's murder of Bessie resulted from the panic of knowing that "he could not take her and he could not leave her" (235). As in Native Son, the desperation in "Three-Legged Chairs" is manifold. The crime and ruin of the neighborhood Steptoe describes evokes an image of economic hardship as well as constant danger, as "the wind forever sound[s] like gunshots / and sirens." The key signal of desperation is the repetitive description of the ways that children may "escape" from the hood, which includes methods of escape that don't seem like escape at all - like "with bullets in the back," or "into bottles and white powders." Just the focus on escape alone would suggest a desperate drive in the inhabitants of this neighborhood to leave the community, but the horrible "escape" routes reveal a current of desperation that makes even death and drug addiction seem like viable alternatives. But alternative to what?

Emptiness. Paradoxically, emptiness is the heart of "Three-Legged Chairs." There's bitter irony in the fact that the goal in the 'hood is to escape, when a community should be all about people coming together. The emptiness feeds into the suffering of the community and the suffering feeds into the emptiness, because of how hard it is for members of the community to make meaning out of their lives. A major meaning of "escape" in "Three-Legged Chairs" contrasts the literal, physical escape of those "at the wheel of the word" or those who "run, jump, dance / into beauty and fame." Many who can't escape by those means instead perform an act of mental escape, to distract or prevent their minds from grasping the emptiness. The poem draws a sobering* image of a place where alcoholism and drug abuse runs rampant ("have all the trees stagger / like human drunks" and "some escape / into bottles and white powders"). It seems similar to Bigger's constant battle to keep himself from thinking about and understanding his and his family's situation: "He knew that the moment he allowed himself to feel to its fullness how they lived, the shame and misery of their lives, he would be swept out of himself with fear and despair. . . . He knew that the moment he allowed what his life meant to enter fully into his consciousness, he would either kill himself or someone else” (10).

Anguish: Bigger's inner suffering parallels the neighborhood of three-legged chairs as well. Richard Wright wrote of Bigger as an amalgamation of many individuals he met over the course of his lifetime, and we should imagine the neighborhood in the poem to contain many Biggers. The same way Bigger's inner suffering results in the suffering of those around him, the suffering (especially crime) in the 'hood can be said to come from the internal suffering of its residents.

Torment: Hmm... This is basically a synonym of the last one. Let's just move on to the next one.

Helplessness: Bigger feels and is helpless in many ways: he struggles to find ways to support himself as a black man trying to feed a family of four; he's too often at the mercy of his feelings and instincts; he struggles to articulate his plight to Max (and really anyone); and in a very real way, Bigger is helpless once the "justice" system gets ahold of him. But all of these senses of Bigger's helplessness are simply facets of his general, total helplessness as a cog in the cruel machine called "a Naturalist novel." Bigger's helplessness does have a counterpart in neighborhoods like those described in "Three-Legged Chairs." Poverty and lack of job opportunity breeds helplessness, which fuels the pervasive feeling of emptiness I talked about earlier. If you can't do anything to make your life have meaning, it makes the lack of meaning feel all the worse.

Did anyone notice the acrostic?

I wanted to end this blog post with what ended both the novel and the poem: death. It is heavily implied that Bigger gets executed immediately after the conclusion of Native Son, and I find it striking that in a way, Bigger went to his grave "embittered, enraged, unknown / and screaming." Zoning in on "unknown" in particular, I concede that Bigger did become known as the murderer and rapist of Mary Dalton, but in a more profound way, he died unknown in that no one ever fully understood him, his situation, and exactly what led him to commit his crimes. In "Three-Legged Chairs," "unknown" could contrast the "beauty and fame" that represent the fleeting glimmers of success, but it also refers to the lack of understanding of those who grew up in, then lived through and perhaps perpetuated the suffering of the 'hood. And thus, both Native Son and "Three-Legged Chairs" end by underscoring that feeling, which I guess I have yet to succinctly describe.

I wish I had also unpacked the contrast in time period between the pieces and what that means regarding how much progress we've made as a society and how impactful Wright's protest novel was in effecting change. But this is WAY too long already :)

*The irony was intentional, thank you very much.