"A igger's place": lynching and specularity in Richard Wright's "Fire and Cloud" and 'Native Son.' - b

African American Review, Spring, 1999 by Miko Juhani Tuhkanen

In the scene from "Fire and Cloud," Reverend Taylor is kidnaped and driven by a group of white men to an uninhabited place outside the town. As he is dragged out of the car, one of the white men addresses him abusively:

"Aw right, nigger!"

[Taylor] stopped. Slowly he raised his eyes; he saw a tall white man holding a plaited leather whip in his hand, hitting it gently against his trousers' leg. (387)

Being told to take off his vest Taylor has no option but to comply: "He stripped to his waist and stood trembling. A night wind cooled his sweaty body; he was conscious of his back as he had never been before, conscious of every square inch of black skin there" (388). In the scene from Native Son, Bigger, having been left alone in the unfamiliar territory of the Daltons' lobby, is surprised by an interpellative call similar to the one issued by the white mob:

"All right. Come this way."

[Bigger] started at the sound of a man's voice. . . . Grabbing the arms of the chair, he pulled himself upright and found a tall, lean, white-haired man holding a piece of paper in his hand. The man [Mr. Dalton] was gazing at him with an amused smile that made him conscious of every square inch of skin on his black body. (488)

The mirroring of the two scenes, explicit even in the nearly identical phrasing, is too poignant to be coincidental, especially considering that they were written at approximately the same time. Reverend Taylor encounters a mob of white men who, in the darkened woods, threaten him with a whip; Bigger, on the other hand, comes face to face with a wealthy white man - who, moreover, is cited as being sympathetic to the "Negro cause" - in broad daylight in the latter's respectable home. In his hand, the white man is holding not a weapon but a piece of paper.

The gaze attributed to Mr. Dalton "racializes" Bigger's body in such a way that Bigger becomes aware not only of his skin but of his entire corporeality, of "every square inch of skin on his black body" (emphasis added). I want to suggest that it is through this racializing gaze that Bigger is confined to his "place." Being "racially" marked is described as being defined from without, as being fixed to a particular, extremely confined situation. When fixed by white eyes, Bigger's position is inscribed within social space in a way that makes it easy for anyone and everyone to know him and "his place." As he faces the Daltons' daughter Mary, he sees "her smiling broadly at him, almost laughing. He felt that she knew every feeling and thought he had at that moment and he turned his head away in confusion" (506). Similarly, as he is driving Mary to school, she says to him:

"I'm going to meet a friend of mine who's also a friend of yours." . . .

"Friend of mine!" he could not help exclaiming.

"Oh, you don't know him yet," she said, laughing. (505)

Others are convinced that they have ready access to Bigger and assume an immediate and intimate knowledge of him: Even better than Bigger himself, they know where he belongs - Mary, for instance, seems to know Bigger's friends even before he has met them.