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A Tale of Two Men

While the general outline of HBO's Native Son and Richard Wright's original novel is the same, there are extremely noticeable differences between their plots and structure. The most striking of which in my opinion is their separate main characters. Bigger Thomas from the novel is a cold and not very sympathetic character, whereas the one from the movie with his punk style is much more likable and seems to have decidedly less violent tendencies.

The relationships between Jan, Mary, and Bigger seem much more positive in the modern rendition. While Bigger states on multiple occasions that he felt hatred towards both of them, the movie Bigger seems to form something of an actual connection with them. Even securing them narcotics in return for music gifted to him by Mary. It is much easier to see Mary's death as accidental in the film because of this.

In addition, his relationship with Bessie has marked differences. In the film they seem to actually care about one another and their relationship is crucial to the plot. In the film, Bigger doesn't even kill Bessie. Richard Wright's character seems to hold no personal connection with Bessie. He doesn't love her, and as Max points out in his final speech, there was nothing between them beyond basic physical attraction. These differences put decidedly different spins on each piece of media, however I don't think one is necessarily better than the other. That is up for interpretation.

Comments

  1. CollinDecember 13, 2019 at 3:13 PM

    You make some good points about the two media and how they differently tell the story of Native Son and the interactions between characters. I'd actually disagree and say that in terms of telling the story of "Native Son", the novel does a better job of narrating the inevitability of the effect of society on a person and that although the film does make Bigger more relatable, they don't accurately represent his character. On top of that, the ending feels a bit forced and unnatural with how Bigger just gives up. However, this is just my personal opinion and I can see how one could prefer the film adaptation over the novel due to the more "human" aspects of each character.

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  2. Anthony CDecember 20, 2019 at 4:53 PM

    I like how Bigger is portrayed as an undeveloped and cold character in the novel because of how it shows the effect his environment has had on his character growth. In addition to this, it felt strange how the characters of the new movie were more well rounded but in the end it didn't really end up mattering. I say this due to the abrupt ending to the movie where lots of the relationships between characters weren't closed off or explored. Many of the points Wright was trying to make in Native Son were synthesized in the last part of the novel in the courtroom scenes, and since the movie is lacking these scenes, I think that some of the meaning is lost. Overall, I didn't find the themes of the movie adaptation to be as prevalent compared to the book.

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