On the surface, the reader was meant to feel apathetic towards Bigger. His personality is not one that people naturally feel empathetic towards; even in today's world, Bigger would be considered a "bum" and "the reason civil rights aren't taken seriously." It doesn't fit the mold of what white society wants black people to be; some people, like the Daltons, want blacks to be grateful to them for the "donations" they have made, and others like Britten and Buckley want blacks to know their place in this world, which is beneath whites . This may seem counterintuitive to Wright's goal as a civil rights activist and active supporter of communism, and perhaps to some extent it is, but the purpose of writing Bigger as a person whose only method of dealing with conflict is violence is to demonstrate that this is the case. it's not fair to choose which black lives to care about. If Wright had created a character who, in the eyes of most (white) readers, would be less of a “threat to society,” he would have watered down his argument. The point of Native Son is that all people of color, whether submissive or assertive, spiteful or