10 Antiheroes in Literature That We Love to Hate
“Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread.”
Bigger Thomas; Native Son, Richard Wright
Is Bigger Thomas an antihero? This is a question that I struggled with when I first read this powerful novel, and it’s a question I struggle with today. Being an antihero implies that the character at hand had a choice, that they intentionally rejected a classically heroic narrative in order to pursue a more unorthodox life. So, the question is, did Bigger have a choice? Or was he more a pawn of a corrupt, racist society that never would have allowed him to be a hero in the first place? While I think Wright is partially asserting that Bigger was always in prison, always doomed, always damned, I also think that one of the most powerful things about Native Son is that Bigger did make a choice. He chose to act out in a way that showed he was an individual, that he was human, even though almost everyone in his world tried to dehumanize him. Bigger can’t be a hero, so he’s something better: a man in possession of free will. And so despite his actions, and despite knowing that someone like him could never survive a time or place like that, you want him to win, and you feel crushed as you get to the end of the book, knowing his fate, wishing it wasn’t so.