The Thomas' must live in their rat-infested apartment partly because no one will rent to blacks in any other section of town. Races are literally separated. At the same time, blacks are charged higher rents than whites, which is ridiculous. When Bigger goes to the movies with Jack one of the films shows blacks as jungle savages. This depicts them as wild beasts which need to be cared for and kept under control. After Bigger's arrest he discovers that the media and public are using racial stereotypes to portray him as a sex criminal and brutal mass murderer. All the articles in the paper are entirely prejudice and simply feed racism. And even the Daltons and Jan, despite their good intentions and charity, act toward Bigger in a racist manner by failing to recognize him as an individual. The fact that they seek to be overly-kind to him and give him their charity, just separates him all the more. They are just isolating him and segregating him. Their purpose is to try to help, but racism is nothing that three people can do to fix a problem which began far before their time. Another theme that is introduced in this novel is the response to discrimination, or in Bigger's case, rage. .
Bigger Thomas is angry. You first see him in conflict with his mother and sister, then he turns in fury on one of his best friends, Gus. "Bigger held the open blade an inch from Gus's lips -Lick it, I said! You think I'm Playing?- Gus looked around the room without moving his head, just rolling his eyes in a mute appeal for help. But no one moved. Bigger's left fist was slowly lifting to strike. Gus's lips moved toward the knife; he stuck out his tongue and touched the blade. Gus's lips quivered and tears streamed down his cheeks."" (Native Son- Book1-Fear) This incident was extremely disturbing and horrifying. From that point on I lost most if not all respect for Bigger. To be forced to go an extreme like that on one of his best friends, however, made me realize he must be exceedingly struggling internally.