Racism is the most pervasive theme in Native Son because it was written at a time when racial inequality was pervasive in everyday life. There was a large wealth disparity between whites and blacks simply because whites had more opportunities in the country's middle and upper classes, especially in Chicago. The great disparity in wealth is best illustrated when Bigger first enters white society where: “He expected nothing like this; he hadn't thought that this world would be so different from his that it would intimidate him. On the smooth walls were several paintings, the nature of which he tried to guess, but without success. He would have liked to examine them, but he didn't dare. Then he listened; a faint sound of piano music came to him from somewhere. He was sitting in a white world; faint lights burned around him; strange objects challenged him and he felt very angry and uncomfortable. (Wright 46). White society's intense racism toward African Americans caused Bigger to act immorally and irrationally due to fear. The immoral and irrational behavior caused by racism is best illustrated by: “His crime seemed natural; he felt his whole life had been leading up to something like this. It was no longer a question of wondering what would happen to him and his black skin; he knew it now. The hidden meaning of life, a meaning that others did not see and that he had always tried to hide, had revealed itself.” (Wright 106).Bigger felt that his crime was justified because murder is an inevitable event that his whole life has been leading up to. His life was filled with unjust racism towards black people, which is why he felt vindicated that the murder of a white man...... middle of paper...... by an irrationally racist society. Works Cited Seidman, Barbara Kitt. “Native son.” Magill'S Survey Of American Literature, revised edition (2006): 1-2. Literary reference center. Internet. March 20, 2014. “Native Son: The Story of Richard Wright.” Native Son: The Story of Richard Wright (2003): 8-36. Literary reference center. Internet. March 5, 2014. Faulkner, Howard and Theresa L. Stowell. “Richard Wright.” Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-9. Literary reference center. Internet. March 5, 2014. Reed, Anthony. “Another Map of the South Side”: “Native Son” as a Postcolonial Novel. " African American Review 45.4 (2012): 603-615. Literary Reference Center. Web. March 5, 2014. Davis, Jane. "Notes of a Native Son." Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-4. Center Literary Reference. Web. March 5, 2014. Wright, Richard. New York: Harper & Bros., 1940. Print..