Nicolas Clancy

Professor

English 12

3/26/19

Journal 2

Smooth car ride, chatter between teens, but most importantly smiling faces. A beautiful

scenario conjured by the mind of Richard Wright in his book Native Son. This scene played out

between two communists madly in love (Jan and Mary Dalton) and the main protagonist Bigger

Thomas. While there were smiling faces in this car ride Bigger’s certainly wasn’t one them,

however that is not to say Bigger wasn’t putting up a façade. Smiling faces are beautiful but as

The Temptations said it sometimes, they lie. In terms of the relationship between Bigger and

Mary, there were certainly lying smiling faces, although beneath these lies there are still some

truths. Mary treated Bigger nicely enough, although she treated him more as an object of interest

rather than human, spoke the truth for the most part. However, Mary undoubtedly lied about her

intentions or feelings towards Bigger, despite communicating she had the best intentions in

mind. Bigger communicated externally that he was neutral towards his given predicament, even

picking Jan and Mary over his girlfriend Bessie. However, Bigger’s smiling face, or more

accurately neutral face, was most certainly lying. Internally Bigger reproached at the sight of

Mary, hated her existence, and resented the way she acted towards him.

Bigger and Mary certainly had a fake relationship to a great extent, fake smiles and fake

feelings; Bigger played a larger role in this façade however, when compared to Mary. For

example, early into their car ride Bigger began playing his role as the black chauffeur often
replying with just a yes or no and always adding a respectful ma’am. Despite playing this

respectful well-mannered role almost immediately Bigger began questioning Mary’s sanity. He

began asking questions like “Was she really crazy?” and “How much did her folks know of how

she acted?”. From the get-go Bigger is wearing a veil used to protect his true biases whilst

growing a dislike for Mary. This sentiment rapidly grew and became more complex as the night

progressed. Even Mary, despite saying she sees Bigger as an equal, shows her biases. Upon

asking Bigger about a song he may know she references black people as your people, the choice

of using ‘your’ shows Mary still sees black and white people as two separate entities, despite

what she verbalized to Bigger. Upon meeting Jan, Bigger begins to feel as though he is being

mocked by Mary and even “flushes war with anger”. Not only does he become angry but he

internally damns her to hell, which is an extreme reaction to any human being. Bigger and Mary

feel more for each other than hate and anguish, as they are subtly flirtatious with one another.

Bigger admitted to having lusted after Mary, even going as far as having dreamt about having

her. Mary does not directly admit to lusting after Bigger, however she does make close physical

contact to Bigger during the car ride. This is significant as at the time a black man and white

woman being near each other is taboo let alone make physical contact. Despite having played the

role of a submissive black chauffeur and pro-black activist, Mary and Bigger were not as genuine

as they could have been. Despite these lies, there was still some truth in their relationship.

Despite much of their relationship being fabricated, some truth remained. Despite Mary

undoubtedly having internal biases against black people, she did have the best intentions in mind

for Bigger. She may have subconscious racism however, this does not impede her from still

wanting black people to have equal rights. Mary’s political belief of equality and view of black

people as human were genuine and exemplified in her speech to Bigger. Despite for the majority
of the time disguising his anger, Bigger was gruff with Mary which revealed a fraction of his

animosity towards her. He also reduced much of his speech to as few words as possible which

shows once more his lack of comfortability with Jan and Mary.

Mary and Bigger’s short relationship on the surface looked to be that of a chauffeur and

communist rich girl. However, this is nowhere near the truth as Bigger despised Mary, and Mary

viewed Bigger as a tool the communist party to use. Although that is not to say Bigger and Mary

completely disingenuous, they revealed some manner of truth as to how they feel about one

another. Referencing The Temptations, these ‘smiling faces’ do not have much truth to tell.